Follakzoid
I
Release Date: Aug 2, 2019
Genre(s): Electronic, Techno, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Minimal Techno
Record label: Sacred Bones
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Album Review: I by Follakzoid
Great, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Returning for their fourth studio release and third on the Sacred Bones label, the band dive further into a musical pool which grows increasingly and overwhelmingly murky. This will come as no great surprise to fans however. Since their debut over a decade ago, Föllakzoid have approached their growing oeuvre with an attitude of deconstruction; moving against the inclination to build up their sound, bur rather reduce it to its particulate pieces.
Based on rating 3.5/5
A psychedelic blend of krautrock and minimal electronic music… Follakzoid have embarked on a quest to deconstruct their sound in order to capture an intensely psychedelic atmosphere with fewer sonic elements lately. The Chilean act stripped the acid rock guitars from the first couple of records, keeping only delayed, droning leads on 2015's III, while the drums have been reduced to deep kick and faint snare beats. On the other hand, the band pushed the electronic parts up front, albeit in the same minimal fashion.
Based on rating 7/10
Chilean Krautrock enthusiasts Föllakzoid collaborated with Atom™ (impossibly prolific electronic musician Uwe Schmidt, a German-born resident of Santiago) on 2015's III, adding more of a techno influence to the band's hypnotic guitar-based psychedelia, additionally claiming inspiration from traditional Andean music. The group's fourth album is titled I, and it appropriately strips down their sound even further than before. Instead of taking time to develop songs and then recording them in the studio in single takes, on this occasion the members of Föllakzoid individually recorded dozens of isolated stems of their instruments and handed them off to Schmidt, who reconstructed them however he wished.
Opinion: Fairly Good
It seems like a surprising sonic maneuver for the band, which many listeners encountered on their self-titled EP, released by Sacred Bones on 2011. That record featured an appealing blend of krauty grooves and early-1970s-Floyd worship. But in the intervening years, Föllakzoid's music has been marked by a slowly increasing interest in electronics.
'I'
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