Fake Tan
Currently:
Recording something but not sure if its tantrum, Fake Tan or something else.
Latest Album: Pieces, released December 2009
Recorded on phone, 4 track, mp3 player, and computers in bedrooms, boxrooms, kitchens, living rooms and attics in Stockbridge in Edinburgh, Prestonpans, East Linton in East Lothian and Stow in the Borders, Scotland between 1996 and 2009, but mainly between 2001 and 2007.
Pieces is an 11 track instrumental album - whats best? track 2, Pork Chop Slim is perhaps the easiest as it has vocals, and you can stop it at about 5 minutes quite easily. But Nikki likes track 1 - Patty and Tom prefers track 6 - Crybaby.
As many bands may know, getting a CD printed is pretty cheap but the cover can be very expensive. So we have got round this by making individual album covers from recycling rubbish found around edinburgh and our own bin, taped up with gaffer tape with stickers on and individually numbered. You can select which cover you want and we will continue making them until we get bored.
First Album: Snippets: released November 2000
Again recorded at home, mainly in Stockbridge Edinburgh between 1996 and 2000, it is a 21 track instrumental album, mainly of guitars, bass, drums samples and noises.
Who are Fake Tan?
Fake Tan are Tom and Nikki Fraser of tantrum - who released maisie's friend in 1999 (the list: 'a gem ?. so intriguing that your fag burns out unsmoked and your coffee ices over untouched') and Advice to Users: work less earn less, spend less and do more, in 2005 (Skinnymag: ghostly, ominous, beautiful and kind of other-worldly, is this music: 5/5, Jockrock: the album sounds damn good'). But while waiting to record advice to users tantrum recorded lots of interlude music to go between tracks of the 2nd tantrum album, but got bored and released them as the 21 track Snippets album, under the name Fake Tan in 2001. They never sent it to anyone as they didn't think anyone would review 21 short bits of music. But tracks from it have since been downloaded many thousands of times.
No Fake Tan have never played live. Well, we have on occassion played a song to a friend, one at a time though.
Expecially at christmas when Little Donkey gets downloaded a lot. Sadly its not THAT Little Donkey.
Reviews
Fake Tan - Pieces - iTunes:
'uhh. what is this crap?!?' by yodude5000.
Fake Tan - Pieces - Is This Music?: 4/5
A rummage through the loft shows that as suspected, this East Lothian outfit did indeed feature on an is this music? CD some 5 years ago. That piece of detective work along with the album notes (I’d say ‘sleeve’ but since the release comes wrapped in a haggis pizza box with a ‘nonconforming goods’ stamp that might be pushing it a bit) tells us a bit about this album, though quite why it’s taken so long to put together is another matter.
Part of the delay may be the way the band work - “recorded on phone, 4 track… in boxrooms, attics… in Prestonpans, East Linton, Stow…” it’s quite a sonic jigsaw. To learn more about the mermerising opening track ‘Patty’ we find that “Niko” in Greece sent tracks recorded by his band’s drummer.
And so it goes. A largely instrumental album, we’re fooled by the dulcet, Naomi-esque whispered vocal from Nikki which proceeds in a dream-like state until in time-honoured post-rock fashion guitars and drums courtesy of Gasgiant’s Mic kick in.
And hopefully the band won’t mind the mention of post-rock here, but in fact there’s more to them than that. Short interludes like ‘Skinderella’ are simply lovely guitar instrumentals in any genre, while ‘Rat Poison’ is all cellos, a looming juggernaut of a tune that threatens to explode but never quite makes it, perhaps fooling us into whispering the ‘P’ word again.
Again the sleevenotes sum things up fairly well - “intro additional but too late” typical of the random nature of, well, everything about Pieces.
Fake Tan - Pieces - The List 3/5
The effort pumped into this release is phenomenal. It was recorded over an 11-year period on phones, mp3 players and computers, and Tom and Nikki Fraser’s love for the material is obvious. Pieces also comes uniquely packaged in the remnants of recycling rubbish and gaffer tape. The music contained within is by turns delicate and grand; lonely-yet-optimistic guitar lines are suddenly joined by swelling ebow sweeps and keyboard sound effects. This won’t be for everyone, though – the lack of vocals for the large part make it a challenging listen in places, and the album feels slightly unbalanced – six of the 12 tracks are over within two minutes, while three of them wander past seven.
none - never sent Snippets to anyone.
Remixes
If you would like to have a go - please do as
Snippets is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
- Little Donkey - remix by AngeloD
- Estella - remix by AngeloD
- Pigs in Space - remix by AngeloD