Francis Inferno Orchestra – Veranda Culture

First and foremost, I’m a big Francis Inferno Orchestra fan. I first encountered him when I looking for ‘things that sound live Leon Vynehall’. This might sound like damning with faint praise but if you listen to any of  his tracks you’ll realise he’s criminally underrated.

His track Ellingfort Road, being a huge standout. 

Ambient

So Imagine my surprise when I found that he was releasing a new album. I was expecting disco licks and deep house bangers. So imagine my surprise when I hear that it’s actually an ‘ambient album’

When I think about ‘ambient’ I imagine those youtube videos where popular songs are slowed down by 800%, ultimately revealing all manner of incredible tones and textures, the comments proclaiming the music as a ‘masterpiece at any tempo’, though I’ve found unable to truly engage with this, mainly because I came to most electronic music through DJing, subconsciously wondering if I could fit every track I heard into a mix. This lead to me lump tracks, especially vinyl purchases into two categories – ‘music as art’ or ‘music for the club’.

But in the spirit of pushing myself to explore new music, I thought I’d come back and give this a listen. At 45 minutes and 10 tracks, I find it to be an impressive piece of work.
I’ve seen this before, where an artist will adopt another alias to either release some off the wall tracks or test out a new sound. I think I had an expectation that it was going to be more industrial, more noise orientated experience and don’t get me wrong, there is definately some of that in there. What I found is that I could listen to it happily all the way through.

Recorded over a period of three years between Melbourne and London, FIO began making Veranda Culture after discovering the debut album of Greek-born, Sausalito-based composer Iasos – the New Age masterpiece ‘Inter-Dimensional Music’ LP — in Melbourne’s Liquorice Pie record store.

There are lush pads, organic textures and many tracks with an unexpected groove to them. The soundscapes shift in shape and tone, moving from the

I think that ambient is like arthouse cinema, if you know what you’re getting yourself in for it’s fantastic, you just have to expect a certain amount of self-indulgence. If you take the time to understand the process and the journey it’s a rewarding experience, especially in the age of quick-hit flash in the pan club bangers.

At the end of the day, I guess a good producer is a good producer, I’m really glad I took a punt on this. Great piece of work.

I guess I ‘listen to ambient’ now.