Fantasy Black Channel

For some, this will be their first experience of LOTP: the twisted electro thrash band from Castle Donington. For others, they will be well acquainted with the boys and will probably be well aware of the band’s surprisingly substantial demo album released for free on their website in 2007. In short Fantasy Black Channel is a superior, rerecorded, less fuzzy, enhanced re-release of the bedroom produced demo…only with lasers!

The album opens with an apocalyptic, end-of-the-world fanfare, ‘Hot Tent Blues’, that wouldn’t sound out of place in the original Terminator. A growling bass, thud of drums and playful riff later, LOTP get the album in full flow with ‘Broken’, setting the album up for a dark, fierce, electronic journey to the dancefloor.

Full of excitingly addictive, dance-inducing tracks, the album’s highlights include ‘The Bears Are Coming’, which sounds as if it was recorded down Dad’s shed while he was banging some timber together and tapping his “funkiest Dad in the world” mug with a teaspoon, and ‘Heartbeat’ with its catchy chorus and bizarre lyrics: “pineapple pieces in brine, fucking around with your mind”.

Best track award, however, goes to ‘Focker’; a convulsive attack of buzzing bass, screaming synths, laser stabs and singer, Eastgate’s pleading with us to be his friend. Just when you think the seizure is over the detached outro which could (and probably should) be a song all of its own hits hard with solid drums and a traumatic electro riff.

The boys even tease us with their inventive creativity and recycling skills by hacking the albums cut-out material into a 40 second mix at the end of ‘Broken’ and a 17 second mix following ‘Whitesnake’.

Just before the eerie hidden track that steals its atmosphere straight from a 50’s sci-fi, the album officially ends with an aptly named ‘Bathroom Gurgle’. Featuring a bassline that sounds as if its spewing out of the plug hole and an ecstatic break in which it appears the deleted lyrics of Rocky Horror’s ‘Timewarp’ are being put to good use, LOTP instruct us to “put your hands on your waistline, move your body to the bassline, get your hands on some cheap wine and move it ‘til you feel fine”. I did; great album.