FIENDISH

Should I say that this is the first truly Phideaux album? Probably. The patchwork of songs under the "Friction" umbrella was just a poor collection of tracks which didn't make justice to this guy. Because, under the Phideaux band name, there is mostly one man. The multi-instrumentalist and song writer Xavier Phideaux.

This work has some spacey flavour ("100 Coda") combined with some more folkish atmosphere "Hellphone". I wouldn't say that this record is a great one, just decent with a few good pieces like "Little Monster" for instance.

Gentle and folk music is what you can expect from this "Fiendish" recording. Pleasant and friendly music overall, without outstanding moments. Even if there is a myriad of guests playing on this album, they seem just to be there to play their part.

I wish I could be more enthusiast about this album, but there are hardly great songs featured here and the global mood is somewhat too much of the same and sounds usually flat. "Soundblast" being a kind of highlight.

Two stars.