Celebrating the release of their forthcoming album Go Mutant, Foggy Notions presents the sensational Search Results.
Building on the energetic swirl of 2023’s Information Blip and their well-received EPs, Search Results’ follow-up Go Mutant takes its title seriously, bringing idiosyncrasies to the fore, and at under just 35 minutes, it manages to sound both frantic and precise. Over the course of 13 songs, they have created an immersive, bold piece of work, a fitting musical statement for a band with such interesting influences.
In terms of songwriting, Fionn Brennan and Jack Condon are equally comfortable with not knowing where each other’s songs emerge from. This ambiguity is well-evidenced on Go Mutant – sometimes the vocals are muffled, as on the scuzzy Mountaintop, sometimes they are clear and almost guttural on something like Be Laurel with its driving guitars, and sometimes they sound like they have been recorded down a well, as on the wonky, skittering Steeplejacks.
Exploring the possibilities of the voice is important, as Brennan explains, “Around the time songs for LP2 started forming, I attended a course run by the Roy Harte Theatre whose work is centred around voice. This opened me up to writing more demanding vocal parts for the second record. Something to break down some shyness that I had fallen into maybe.”
A sense of mystery is also key, with Brennan’s intrigue piqued by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, “that was a game changer for sure. There’s one point in the movie where there’s a guy who’s been shot in the head, and he’s still standing up despite being very dead. A second later his arm twitches and knocks over a lamp that’s next to him. I would say this is the kind of mysteriousness I like, and Frank Booth staring up through the handrails in the stairwell when he’s chasing Jeffrey. Can’t beat it. Dennis Hopper is a big one for me too. Shoutout Rivers Edge – terrible movie that I love.”
Condon expands, “We used to try have a big sense of mystery around the band, using the Belle & Sebastian method of not appearing in press shots, and not releasing music anywhere other than Bandcamp. We eventually grew out of that but still like to retain a bit of mystery in the lyrics. I like that people can make up their own version of what they think we’re saying. I’ve read a couple of people’s interpretations of the lyrics of John In A Raincoat in particular and always find it really interesting to see what people think we’re saying.”
Optimism is another root of the record, harnessing a tradition from Pavement to Yo La Tengo on something like the jangly Nellypot, or the rag-taggle world of Wrinkle, with its nice swinging drums, the light guitars of Carricks, and the classic indie of Amaray, Condon agrees, “Yo La Tengo and Animal Collective are so inspiring musically. The creativity that both bands have is really necessary with the limited band members. I am always amazed at how much Yo La Tengo can do with just three people, and how much fun it looks like they’re having after all this time.”
But the musical DNA of the band reaches back further, to someone like Lou Reed, “lyrically and musically he is as much of a touchstone as Bob Dylan. Myself and Fionn really bonded over his work when we first met, and we will always be listening to something he’s done. With his expansive catalogue, it’s hard not to have something by him on the mind at all times. I think about him every day, especially when creating music. I also always tend to go back to the Beatles. My friend just sent me a PDF of a book that breaks down every recording method for every song. That’s about to answer a bunch of nerdy questions I’ve had for years, and unlock a bunch of ideas for new recordings. Every time I go back I find more to dig into, especially with the more popular songs that I would have always glossed over in the past. I also love to explore the discography of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. They’ve completely invented their own rules to making rock music. It’s like they have fully realised that they can put the chorus where they like, so to speak. Through all their albums there’s a sense of not only not caring about what people think, but not even realising that anyone’s listening.”
These kinds of references and approaches are balanced with a love for off-kilter humour, with Condon referencing Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, “there are things in there that are so nebulous yet somehow relatable and often hilarious. Even though the characters in the book all have their own unique way of thinking, talking and behaving, it all seems like someone you’ve encountered before but you’re not sure when or where. I think about her writing a lot”, while Brennan references Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party, “It’s kind of horrifying to watch, but there’s something so inherently sad about it that every time I think about it or talk with someone about it I just have to laugh hysterically. Alison Steadman is scarily good at playing that strange auntie or neighbour or friends mum who’s stuck in her ways. This is something I love about Leigh’s movies. His characters are always people you have in your life.”
This sense of humour also informs their stage presence, with Brennan noting, “people often mention the smiling we do on stage. It started out of a nervousness and has grown into just how we do it. It’s always the game of how can I make the other guy laugh? I think the end objective is to make someone mess up their part. I’ve recently gotten into a band called ‘Being Dead’ and they have been massively helpful in terms of writing and just life in general. They are probably the smiliest band of all! When I’m watching videos of them playing or listening to their records I feel true joy. It’s the same feeling I get whenever we play a good show. I think music is at its best when there’s a transfer of energy in this way.”
That energy will surely translate live, especially through the fizzing I Was a Teenage Girlfriend, the frenetic brilliance of Too Much Time and the building drama of I Come Out at Night. But they are also mining the restrained part of the sonic palette on the song-speak of On My Planet which complements the earthy drums of the tender Noon’d, and album closer Hidden Hand, which is a distilling of Search Results’ vision, rich in eclectic references and musical mutations, with a sophisticated impulse.
Condon continues, “I’ve never felt that any of our recordings or live performances are the definitive version, they always change and grow. But I don’t think it will ever work for us if we intentionally try to make a recording that captures the live sound, or inversely if we try to recreate the studio magic in a live scenario. I think some songs on the new album like I Come Out At Night and On My Planet have unintentionally come pretty close to the live sound. We’ve tried to recreate some songs live to sound like the studio version, such as Steeplejacks, Post and Visiting Years but it’s quite hard to do. We’ve worked around this by playing a completely different sounding version of Post when we’ve wanted to, but we’ve luckily never felt compulsions to play any song in particular so there’s no need to try too hard if something is just not working. It’s always just been a better idea to move on and play a different song.”
This sense of movement and freedom underpins Search Results richest musical document to date, taking us somewhere both nostalgic and fresh – with the band channelling rule-breakers and world-builders, whether Kurt Vonnegut or the series On Cinema at the Cinema with Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington – on Go Mutant Search Results have joined that rank of the singular and compelling.
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