by Billy Brat (@buckgooter)
Blessed are we for we have been given Ease Mobile by Flyying Colors to listen to on this and every other day if we so choose. This is unity music. Time to set aside class and or scene distinctions for a mellow ride on some kind of cosmic soul train. “How can he be serious?” you might be saying right now. Well why else would a few cold souls wait through a bleak January noise gig in a basement than to catch a glimpse of Flyying Colors in action at 1am on Monday? I’ve seen it myself, friends: the power of this band, of these songs, of realistic tranquility. Those sun strewn hills you enjoy knowing there is fetid insect machinery working at the bases of the grass blades - that’s reality. Graham Brouder, F.C. mastermind, has always tapped the vein of this brand of realism and for the first time ever he presents Flyying Colors in “higher fi” with Ease Mobile receiving a more modern (aka not cassette) tracking and mixing treatment via Brian Klima at Waveland Productions.
Full disclosure: I helped edit the video for “Not Guilty”. Believe me, folks, it was the greatest video editing experience I’ve ever had. Nothing but laughs in the room and that sweet spectral sound of the video starting and stopping in different places, nary a bum moment to be heard. The dub vocals shimmering and harmonizing, occasional bongo pup pup pupping, guitar loping through the riffs as if composed in a post orgasmic haze (big wink there). Every song on Ease Mobile has that core to its compositional elements with occasional left turns and that’s something to be thankful for.
Put on “I’m Gonna Be There” for anyone (your mom, delusional MAGA uncle, track coach) and they’re going to feel something special. This is what I’m saying when I refer to “unity music”. A kind of universal soul feeling, a concept with roots in love and with flowers of crushingly gorgeous harmonies. Trigger warning: you may get misty.
Crowd favorite “Alone Today” puts us where we all need to be with looping guitar and the harmonizing refrain of the title. A swirling, nervous synth pushes the song out until the end when you’re left alone and, yeah, I felt that. I get it, maybe, and it’s gonna be alright. Just another heady moment of realistic tranquility for you.
“Rainbo” is a funky trip-hopish interlude that hearkens back to earlier grab-bag style FC releases (that are quite good, dig em up) and does a pleasant nose dive into the primordial blues of “Heart”. Iggy Pop said of Junior Kimbrough something like: “You know why he had so many kids? Because that riff just made women go ‘awww’”. “Heart” lulls you with a come hither riff of similar conceit. Once again, Graham’s lead vocal floats us along telling us to “get a little bit closer now” and “it’ll be alright” and you half believe him until he claps his hands and launches into a DEAD MAN OST style fuzz guitar slam and then you all the way believe him! Here we are: groovin’ in the night and it might take a while until it’s over.
Then the sun rises with the lighter blues of “Dig Your Own Grave”. Here is another nod to the band-free solo meanderings of the aforementioned Kimbrough with its tender moves. We’re brought back to 2017 & the Old Dominion with its pleasant, second guitar earnestly plucking and keeping the momentum forward until the end where I wouldn’t mind doing what the title says to do.
Ease Mobile makes me want to lay down in peace. What else is there? My only gripe about this record is that it is mercilessly short. How dare Mr. Brouder give us only 20 some minutes to be with these songs and why aren’t there more to keep our days and lives away for any longer? I guess that’s why you buy it and crush the repeat button. Get to it.