Hard to Fathom indeed. Even their 2007 release Fathomless felt like a gift after a 9 year gap, but 18 years later this feels much more notable, and for reasons. In 2017 there was a GoFundMe for lead guitarist Frankie Blandino. He had a case of Dupuytren’s Contracture, which causes your fingers to "claw inward", which is not ideal for a guitarist. According to the last gofundme update and evidenced by the fact that we have a new album, the treatments went well. In fact judging from their facebook feed, The Fathoms remained pretty active despite that setback, and in at least 2023 (feels like earlier), MuSick Records started whispering about new material. A year ago they shadow-dropped a 7" with two tracks from this LP at SG101, and then this year they did it again with the real doggone thing. It's real a new Fathoms record.
Here's something you might need to fathom: it's not that much of a surf record. That legendary drippy Fathoms sound is in short supply here. But don't let that scare you, it's absolutely instrumental, and it's good, but if your idea of Fathoms is Overboard and Fathomless, you should give Fathom This another listen, as this is closer to that.
We had already heard the title track on last year's 7", but if you happened to skip that and you're putting this LP on the platter rapt with excitement, it's a hell of an opener. Guitar twanging with big tremolo wobble, it actually feels very European to me, though you do have heavy drippin' rhythm guitar and overblown sax bringing you back to the states. It's a song full of wonder and imagination, and a hook that had me whistling it into the next song.
And the next two, maybe three songs pull of the highway a bit. "The Right One" and "Funny Farm" are bone-dry country-fried twangers. If you've heard Buck Owens' instrumentals you might get the picture of what "The Right One" sounds like, and "Funny Farm" has a Travis Wammack sorta quirk to it.
"Giddy-Up" is an interesting hybrid, with a hint of that Americana sound, a hint of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" bravado, and some surfy drip on rhythm guitar. It all comes together nicely, with some great, memorable hooks and smart embellishments. It's an example of the creativity that puts this band in the higher echelon.
"Sea of Glass" is a slower one, playing it fairly straightforward with a very Shadowsy sound. Sweet tune.
"Esacpe from Wormtown" starts pretty surfy but it's the fuzzy track of the bunch. It's not particularly trashy and mean as many fuzz guitar songs aim to be, and the bits of un-fuzzed guitar backing it up sound particiularly poignant in contrast to it. Slightly secret-agent feel, but mostly just unsafe.
"End of the Trail", as you might expect from the title, is a sombre Western tune. It's a slow, moody one, and there's a nice climax to it, but it's also quite meditative.
And then it closes with "Planet of Rain", which was the preview track when this popped up on bandcamp a few weeks ago. Absolutely stunning song. Very similar to the title track with European aspects and wide-eyed wonder, though also a few moments that feel pure Ventures. The melody is beautiful, but there's layers to it that push it to another level.
Hard to Fathom is an interesting record that goes in several different directions. I expect that some of these songs aren't going to do it for everybody, I expect some people will adore every single one of them. It's a little small at eight tracks, and so each one really counts. Personally, I think the bookends of the record are worth the price of admission alone -- two of the best songs I expect to hear all year, and "Giddy-Up" is close behind. Even when this record doesn't quite align with my tastes, it's always tasteful. Fanastic musicianship is on display from the first note to the last.
It's available on vinyl and CD from Musick via bandcamp etc. I grabbed a vinyl copy at SG101 and I think it sounds glorious, and looks nice too!
