Furway Decay - "The Greeks Have Been Defeated EP" (self-released 2003, CDR-EP)
Uploaded to Aural Innovations: August 2003
This release was slightly confusing when it arrived on my desk here at A.I. for a few reasons. First off, the release showed up with no bio information. Second, the music contained on the disc was (it seems) courtesy of a multi-speed burner directly from a hard disk. Thirdly, the damn thing showed up in a plain paper CD sleeve with nothing more than a track listing and an email address! At first glance, I was more than skeptical. Needless to say, I popped the EP in with little to no expectation of greatness for the 5-song Verbatim CD-R journey I had a ticket for.
The minimal amount of information I was able to obtain (via somewhat of a Rambo style recon mission) is that Furway Decay consists of two people - Shark, who handles the duties of drummer, sampler, and random objects (I suspect that means he beats on cans, bottles, pots/pans and records it), and, Weinan, who takes guitar, bass, and synth duties in stride. But this is no poor man’s Ministry, quite the contrary. Furway Decay walks a fine line between music, noise, and experimentation. You could consider it IDM meshed with injected noise and disjointed ambience.
While the sound of, The Greeks have been defeated EP is certainly confused, I didn’t find myself annoyed by them. In fact, I was slightly amazed by the foresight of the arrangement on track 2, (Untitled). There is a certain shine to this EP and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I mean, there are no vocals, there is no real cohesive song structure, there is a whole lot of nothing actually, yet, it is one of the most profound noise injected and experimental electronic releases I’ve heard in a while. It has a vibe that would make 1979, Squarepusher or The Future Sound of London grin.
The Furway Decay lads are two that you should watch. Give this one a listen. It ‘s great to see that the underground still continues to impress and stun at times.
Closing thought: This band would be great for a live show. Throw in an additional E.M. and a DJ set to break things up and you’ve got my $10.00 cover. Just a thought…
For more information you can visit the Furway Decay Mp3.com web site at: http://www.mp3.com/furway_decay.
Email at: decay30@lycos.com.
Reviewed by The New Digital Sound