The Fun Years - Life-Sized Psychoses

The Fun Years
Life-Sized Psychoses
(04.2007, Barge)
Verdict = A Personal Favourite

Good experimental sound artists are successful by being able to capture a mood with the sound they create. The music is often described as cinematic because the ambiance of the tracks evokes a certain emotion that seems to be kin to a hypothetical scene straight off of some lost movie reel. Great sound artists however move beyond creating just simple scenes; the best musicians turn their albums into imaginary films set in entirely new worlds that must be digested from the very first second to the very last. Recently, under some scrutiny and hours of ridiculous introspection I strived to create a list of my personal favourite albums of all time. For the most part it was far too difficult to arrange this top twenty-five into ranking, but there were some definitive favourites that if I would have forced myself to create rankings would most certainly have landed themselves into my top five. I think my number one and two spots would have to be awarded to The Kallikak Family’s May 23rd 2007 and Microphones Mount Eerie albums. Both albums create a world entirely their own and create a composition that when listened to as a whole becomes much more than the sum of its parts. The Fun Years’ Life-Sized Psychoses is one of these kind of albums and given a little bit of time beyond infinite plays I have already awarded it, I’m am sure it can go head-to-head and likely bump off the slightly embarrassing but necessary inclusion of Deftones’ White Pony album slipping in at number twenty five. So how about some description of the album (though when albums are this good words feel inane)? The Fun Years is an American duo of turntablist Isaac Sparks and guitarist Ben Recht. The sound of their debut, Life-Sized Psychoses, is something of a magical, crackly, all consuming particle ocean of sound. While that description could probably be applied to numerous, worthy recipients (apt comparisons to The Fun Life could probably be leveled at all the favourites: Philip Jeck, Jasper Tx, Fennesz, Eluvium, Tim Hecker, etcetera, etcetera), somehow Life-Sized Psychoses manages that rare feat of hitting every note and mood perfectly. I’m not sure why I didn’t hear more about this album last year. I mean I noticed it in a couple minute places but in my view this album has been terribly under looked. I think, in retrospect, this could have definitely topped my 2007 top 50. I guess in the personal audience that is my schizophrenic brain ,it will now have to battle it out for a spot on my top 25 of all time. I hope that is a suitable compliment for an incredible piece of music.

-Mr. Thistle

The Fun Years