Tag: Fear of Tigers

Fear of Tigers – Kaohsiung Christmas

“Pretty much everything you’d need”

Tim: You might remember Fear of Tigers from last year’s pretty good Revenge of the Tripods or earlier this year’s brilliant Sound of Arrows remix, both free giveaways; since then he’s lined up a number of tracks to release properly and as an album out in March, and this is the first of them.

Tim: “MORE CHRISTMAS! WE MUST HAVE MORE!” is pretty much what I thought when I saw the e-mail, but alas it turns out that the song has basically nothing to do with Christmas, or, in fact, Kaohsiung, a place in Taiwan. I asked him why the title, then, and apparently he spent the first half of his life there, and the song is a tribute to the city, where Christmas is celebrated as a festival of love. So isn’t that nice.

Tom: You’ve done proper journalism, Tim! I think you might get a badge or something.

Tim: Oh, thank you very much. I’ll write off to Blue Peter tomorrow. In the meantime, I really love this track (and I’d like it even more if it didn’t feature its misleading title).

Tom: Agreed: when the beat came in, I was pretty much entirely sold on the track — and then, just to make it even better, the chorus came along.

Tim: It’s really got pretty much everything you’d need in a decent ‘dreamwave’ (not my word, but it does sound good) track; the Taiwanese poem at the start probably isn’t for everyone, but it does serve to add a bit of the heartfeltness that might otherwise be lost if this were stuck in with a load of other synthpop, not that that deserves to happen. Because this is great: the chorus line, the ahh-ing at the end, the instrumental line, everything, really. Great.

Fear of Tigers – Revenge of the Tripods

Not your standard 2012 pop tune.

Tim: This is the first I’ve heard of Fear of Tigers, so let’s learn about this electro act together. According to Facebook, it consists of a London-based guy called Benjamin, who has cats called things like Alice von Catkins and Jeffrito de la Macha; Wikipedia tells me that as well as his own tunes he does quite good remixes (example, example); and Twitter tells me he has a new tune out.

Tom: I was not expecting any of that. As soon as that synth melody line hit… wow. I am impressed. I really like this. I think.

Tim: Good, because it’s not your standard 2012 pop tune, what with it sounding like a 1980s instrumental, complete with accompanying ancient-looking video. Of course, the title doesn’t make any sense until said video is watched, and if we’re honest the video doesn’t make any sense whatever you do, but neither of those things means we can’t enjoy listening to it.

Tom: That video is actually clips from the BBC 1980s TV series “Tripods”. I think. Has he CGId himself into some scenes? I’ve no idea – I’ve never seen the original beyond, well, a few clips like that.

Tim: I myself have never even heard of the original, although it would explain the title. Although, not really why they’ve chosen it as a basis for a music video. ANYWAY, it’s hard to judge this objectively, because I’ve got no idea what it’s meant to be. Mainstream? No, because it’s unlikely to get mainstream radio play any time soon. Club music? Possibly, but I can’t see it fitting well into most DJs’ sets.

Tom: Other than at 80s bars. It’s a cracking track, though.

Tim: Oh, absolutely. So is it meant to be enjoyed at home? Probably, because that main hook (that accompanies dramatic moments such as the appearance of the glowing pyramid thing which is presumably what the whole war’s about, or the breakout of fighting after the poor lad’s been crushed by an evil tripod) is absolutely lovely. That, therefore, is what I shall do, and wait until his new album comes out soonish and I can hear more.