Fair Ohs are the combination of many artists and many genres, most notably
the math rock / surf pop genre labelling’s. The London trio have the song
structure essence of Foals, and the math rock features of genre populists
Battles. They're not far off creating their own craze with this combination of
math rock and surf pop, but they're also not far off sounding too alike the
bands that came before. It doesn’t stop Fair Ohs from becoming one of the most
celebrated cult unsigned bands in the capital city. There's quality in the
depth of Fair Ohs song-writing capabilities, not to mention the vocal work of
Eddy Frankel. Fair Ohs have been pushed by two studio
albums, backed by their online presence which has gifted Fair Ohs one of the
most informative unofficial fan pages I’ve ever seen.
"Ya Mustafa" is taken from their sophomore album, Jungle Cats, released at the top of 2012. It's all too simple to just pick a track, when the quality of Jungle Cats is as good as and possibly better than many British releases this year alone. "Ya Mustafa" stood out, not for its mid-album cuppa and biscuits, but for its progressive repeating nature. Frankel sings the opening verse twice, offering up this slice of repetition towards the use of the vocal as an instrument. It idolises the genre of math rock, almost deliberately. And as seen with Foals on their debut album Antidotes, Fair Ohs progress onwards and upwards. Reverberation is used alongside a bass riff to act as the suspected pre-mental build-up. It doesn’t disappoint, as the three members come together with backing vocals and a high fret secondary guitar riff. Fair Ohs may be a cult artist, but their music goes a long way, and any respected indie rock type label would be mad not to invest time and money in to them.
~Eddie Gibson
