Faux Hex - The Body And All It's Positions 
(Deaf Endling Collective)
Release Date: Out Now
I'm not always a big fan of side projects but when the main project is the excellent Erotic Secrets of Pompeii, you kinda have to listen. Faux Hex is the new musical vehicle of Tom and Tom from Bristol's ESOP and 'The Body And All It's Positions' is their first long player. 'Palimpsest' gets us underway with woozy, absinthe infused sounds overlaid with spoken work before taking us through what I can only describe as David Lynch tuning a possessed radio between takes on the set of Twin Peaks. Second track 'Pillar of Salt' is more frantic with an Aphex Twin vibe as Chattabox comes along for the ride to lay his flow down while 'Ubermarionette' flies more closely alongside the ESOP canon with stunted bass throbs punctuating a digital hailstorm during Shakespeare in the Park.
The titles of these songs will give you pause for thought alone, like 'Hierophant' (a priest in ancient Greece) which sounds like the fever dream of a paranoid out of work actor living next to a busy train station. There is a jungle influence to 'Act Flout Flower Mt.' but that's mixed in with a rusty buzzsaw guitar line and monastic chanting because, well, this is Faux Hex and I don't think they deal in 'because'. On 'Equinox Dialogue' the pair take their electro endeavours for a skip down the high street with a balanced mix of playfulness and menace that makes it a bone-chilling soundscape. Meanwhile, 'Spitten Item Degrimes' takes us down Broadway at three in the morning with deep, soulful and mournful singing atop the sounds of night and screeching tyres.
If you're still hanging on to this truly unique and experimental album then well done for having an open enough mind to cope with something that isn't Taylor Swift. 'See Bar Ray' is a clunking, industrial slice of Mighty Boosh meets Kraftwerk nightmarish computer game music (think Commodore 64 era) that gives way to 'Ning Makka', all full of itchy and impatient energy. The closing track, 'Oubliette', is my favourite on the album (for now) as the mangled harpsichord melody and crooning vocals create a sound that is borderline theatrical in its delivery. Faux Hex won't be for everybody but then art shouldn't be for everybody, that's not the point. Oxygen is for everybody and oxygen makes shit music, Faux Hex are not for everyone but they make fresh, original and challenging music. Make your choice.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/FauxHex