Fischerspooner - Entertainment

Genre dance Publisher FS Studios External Links Official Fischerspooner Website

You can tell that Fischerspooner packed a lot of meaning into the title of their latest effort, Entertainment, as it could mean: Objects providing amusement to the user (to wit—the music); a ironic spin on the lyrical content within (purpose); an homage to Gang of Four’s 1979 post-punk masterwork Entertainment (homework); or perhaps, none of the above, and Fischerspooner simply wanted the listener to dance. This is doubtful, though, since the album attempts to be much more serious than it has any right to be.

A quick flip to the backside of the album tips the band’s hand: “Money Can’t Dance,” “Supply & Demand,” “Infidels of the World Unite,” laid in a neat little row for the socialist’s convenience. These songs talk about the triumph of humanity over the filtered culture, over the robotic processes of work and modern society. The weapons of choice is, ironically, that of the enemy’s—sythesizers and drum machines, samplers and ProTools, all gathering under the rally cry of “We’re not just doughnut kids!”

Wait, doughnut kids? Yes, doughnut kids, which sets the sort of cartoonish plane where Entertainment exists. Three of ten tracks on the album start off with goofy samples, two of which deal with space travel (when the album seemingly has nothing to do with space) and the other features a silly story about a person who doesn’t know what France is. What’s frustrating is that the album seems to be reaching for a grand statement, something thought provoking, but the closest they get to it is “You’re no innocent / Using God to justify your own fight.” Then, buzzword propaganda—paranoia! Fear! “Currency can’t dance,” assures vocalist Casey Spooner, insinuating that no matter how much you earn… it still won’t help you… dance?

So, check minus on statements, but Fischerspooner have more than enough dance resources to make up for their lyrical folly. They rise above many other progressive electronic acts by not having to rely on four-on-the-floor bass thumps to move the crowd. Door Train Home is a shout-out to their electroclash past, almost approaching big beat territory before wrangling it back to its dance form. “To the Moon” is like “Les and Ray” by Le Tigre if it were brought a decade into the future, given all the modern trimmings. “We Are Electric” contains a glitchy pulse throughout it’s runtime, punctuated by massive waves of guitar distortion that seems to swallow the other sounds, washing over the listener and forcibly removing control of the song. You can get lost in it, which is a rather unique experience for an electric guitar on a dance album, and one that simply must be experienced.

The first time I ever listened to Fischerspooner was on the soundtrack for a snowboarding videogame called SSX 3 for the Playstation 2. The song was a remix of “Emerge” off of #1, and it was awesome because it was propulsive and catchy and everything that a dance song should be, but it didn’t try to be anything more than that. If the band hopes to get to that stature with this pseudo-political nonsense, they should probably get a better, fresher argument than “In a Modern World / It’s hard to use words.”