Puppy

by

Fluke

Edit

Though most probably only know Fluke from their big beat/movie sountrack tracks "Atom Bomb" and "Absurd" from 1997's "Risotto", the band have been around throughout the 90s, making a constantly changing collecion of electronic masterpieces. It's amazing how many styles they tore through, and true to form, "Puppy" is a change of pace, a step towards trance and electrorock.

The album starts with a blast, as the industrial-sounding "Snapshot" agressively declares that this is not going to be a gutless record. Jon Fugler's vocals have always been a little dark and scary, but here he's over the top.

From there, the LP shifts into a continuous mix groove for the next four tracks. "My Spine", "another Kind of Blues " (revision of "Zion" from the Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack), "Hang Tough" and "Switch/Twitch" all merge by way of evolving basslines, great hooks, and driving 4-4 beats. Incredibly danceable stuff here.

The rest of the disc is pretty standard Fluke fare...interesting arrangements, some almost ambient, others layered and more uptempo, and always changing. The vocal tracks "Baby Pain" and "Blue Sky" are accentuated by female vocalists and choir backing. Some of the lyrics are a little bland, but hey, this is dance music, not folk music!

This album may not be a progression for the genre as a whole, but it shows that Fluke have survived the rise and fall of big beat, as well as a reduction from 3 to 2 members, unscathed.

Compared to their history, this album seems to me like it's a little forced and passionless, and I'm a bit disappointed.

This album has all the necessary Fluke elements -- gravelly vocals and hyperbolic lyrics, crawling electronic pulses and pounding, complex beats. So why isn't it another masterpiece like Risotto? For one thing, Risotto is mixed and remixed over again from Oto, so a couple iterations has to help. Since they've ridden the Risotto wave and had those tracks in every car commercial and movie trailer for the last 8 years, they've set the bar there, which is maybe too high. A lot of the work in this one sounds like more of a throwback to Six Wheels On My Wagon, but less inspired, and more exhausted.

Sorry, Fluke! I still love ya and I'll buy the next one in a heartbeat as well. I hear it told that Fluke had a major data catastrophe shortly after Risotto while they were putting together another album, which had to be a huge disappointment. I think they just lost their momentum with this one.