Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We can never truly explain the human psyche, not in complete assured conviction, but we can find ways to protect the sense of individuality we need to flourish as a species, to adhering to some policies that nurture the belief of community; it is a fine balancing act that could swing towards the authoritarian dogma or the isolationist policy that comes with the beleaguered and the damaged.
Being caught in an endless fight, of being on edge thanks to trivial exploited by the powerful and egotistical, this is the extreme of the damned separation from the kinds of humanity; it takes only a moment of fear, a struggle, a conflict in which the odds of survival are severely diminished, and yet in that struggle we can the means of self-reflection…we might be concerned with safety, to be protected, but we know we could never inflict the type of hurt on another human being as has been imposed upon our soul or flesh.
Tulsa’s Fight The Fade frame the deep emotions that come from such feelings as inner despair, the fury of extreme slavish solitude, the dynamics of hope and grief intermingled with the arc of damnation, and as they do so, as Zene Smith, Tyler Simpson, and Alyssa Worth take the battle to the insipid and yellow spined gorging retailors of disappearing soulless, so the provocative anger begins to stir in the listener, their hearts and minds opened to possibility of being Alive Again.
Isolationist is an album deeply embedded in challenging and stimulating language, in tight, seamless, insisting rhythm, and the result as numbers and chants such as the excellent Eye Of The Hurricane, Gangrene, Alive Again, Next Sunrise, and Quarantine is explosively guaranteed to hit home and terrify those with mind-numbing thoughts of untrained squander.
Infectious, adroit, musically cool and unrelenting ambitious, Fight The Fade further their cause in such a manner that it is impossible to ignore.
Fight The Fade will release Isolationist on October 18th via FiXT.
Ian D. Hall