Old Fears by School of Language

Old Fears is the second solo record from School of Language, the nom de plume of Field Music stalwart David Brewis.

Old Fears is essentially a pop record, yet Brewis has effortlessly melded melancholic funk, iridescent electro, shimmering post-punk, and futurist prog with his distinct, clipped falsetto. There are shades of Robert Wyatt and the production of Brian Eno throughout, with furth oblique influences in the form of early Justin Timberlake and N*E*R*D albums, “a bunch of disco records”, Canadian experimentalist Sandro Perri, Dr John, Fela Kuti and Shalamar.

Each song has been honed and polished into something pure, like a vast block of marble chiselled down into a perfectly tiny delicate egg of Fabergé-esque perfection. Recorded throughout 2013 in Field Music’s studio on the banks of the River Wear in Sunderland, synth flourishes sit alongside the staccato jarring guitars of ‘A Smile Cracks’ and the metronomic rhythms of ‘Dress Up’. Like a Ballard novel or a George Shaw painting, lead track ‘Between The Suburbs’ offers perhaps the most lyrical and poetic moment, where “Dogs chase patterns, play to attention / Bulbs glare on greasy roads...”.