Pocketful of Pain – FlyCatFly (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I’ve often thought that three-piece bands are the perfect format and Berlin’s FlyCatFly are a fine example of that idea. When dealing with the gentler songs such as opening salvo, Staring Holes, the band retain a wonderful minimalism that accentuates the feel and the textures of the song, when delivering rockers such as Ready To they just look you straight in the eye and lay down a solid groove. Brevity is the name of the game and it is a game that FlyCatFly play well.

Many bands would find themselves hampered by working with so few musical tools but then that is where the real test lies. It would be easy to throw in all the trickery that the modern studio has to offer, extra instrumentation and clever distractions to hide the fact that they just don’t have the songs, but thankfully they have no need of that as they past the test with flying colours, the songs are great.

There is a certain plaintive feel to Cord Buhring’s voice which gives a reflective and melancholic tone to the music, especially on My Good Day where it takes centre stage allowing the music to just gently wash around it. But they are certainly not a one-trick pony and the real contrasts come in songs such as Road To Rome when bassist Sina Lempke provides more punchy vocals over a tribal beats and razor wire guitar strikes to create a dark and dangerous gothic tinged slice of brilliance. And when both voices come together in the spiralling crescendo of A Word in White the result is simply breath-taking.

FlyCatFly are a band who can get a lot of musical mileage out of a simple format, create great dynamic changes from half-whispered lows to searing, forceful highs and the bottom line is that they do so because they know how to write great songs. It’s such a simple idea, one that many bands would do well to remember.