Tag Archives: Fullax

Fullax’s Tone Painting: Impressions of Music and Life

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What happens when you cross the best of Brit pop rock, German electronic, and a talent for lyrical impressionism? Enter Fullax, a cutting edge new band from the tiny German town of Melsungen. If you like Kraftwerk, The Cure, U2, and Coldplay, stay tuned. Humble origins be damned, these guys are sure to make it big on the power of sounds that deliver an immediate emotional impact while cuing off some of the best moments in European and British electronic and pop rock history.

Given that the band’s name is Fullax, Hessian slang for “slacker” or “bum,” you might expect vibes of Beck or Nirvana polished up for the cleaner tastes of the 2010s. But Fullax passes over much of the 90s and American slacker rock in favor of 70s, 80s, and 00s Germany and the British Isles. In that sense, Fullax is a European band through and through. “Night” (below) is a case in point. The song develops as something like a run through German and Brit pop rock history. Electronic notes kick off the song in the manner of Kraftwerk hits like “Model” and “Computer Love.” Soon after, you can hear echoes of Simon Gallup’s unforgettable bass lines of the late 80s Cure (“Just like Heaven”). The brilliant break at 1:56 channels the signature ringing guitar of U2’s Edge. And all this is filled out with the saturated sound of a Coldplay-esque synthesizer and vocals that recall Chris Martin.

None of this is to suggest Fullax traffics in simple citation. They reference, borrow, and recombine in the most innovative ways, bringing surprising styles into conversation and creating sound impressions that remind us of music we all love while making it feel new again. This approach to sound complements the band’s lyrical impressionism, which evokes images rather than building arguments or telling stories. In songs like “Night,” words remind of us moments, feelings, which – as in real life – are incomplete and passing. Like dreams, they’re woven together from disparate strands of past and present. In “Night,” for both word and sound, there are no hard meanings to pin down, no easy lines to draw between thoughts and styles. Just like the space between dreaming and waking, night and day, that the song explores, we are left to play with words, sounds, and images much as we do in our dreams, in the moments just before we wake.

Night

Good morning, hey, what’s up?
Were you gone the whole night?
Did you try again to see
What the world does in the dark?

Or do you not sleep?
Or do you not sleep with me?
Or am I still sleeping?
Or do I want to get out of here?
Or am I still sleeping?

Everything’s still…
Everything’s clear, nothing out of shape
And you start to see everything
Like it’s not been seen for years.

Or do you not sleep?
Or do you not sleep, with me?
Or am I still sleeping?
Or do I want to get out of here?
Or am I still sleeping?

Put your hand up, hand up
And tell me, tell me
That you need me, need me.

I take a sip, resigned today,
I take a pic from the big clip
And your hand, which always stays closed,
Is not on its old way back.

Or are you still sleeping?
Or do you not sleep, with me?
Or am I still sleeping?
Or do I want to get out of here?
Or am I still sleeping?

Nothing’s clearer than the night
Nothing’s clearer than the night

Put your hand up, hand up
And tell me, tell me
That you need me, need me

You do nothing else to me

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