The Darkly Fuzzy Fantasy of Under the Pit
Joseph Weber's Fuzzy Feelings has delivered a detour in what can be expected. After being part of the Brooklyn garage/indie group Gross Relations, relocating to London, working a full-time job, and raising a family, it can be hard to get lost in fantasy. However, Under the Pit, released on January 13, feels like a purposeful unchained venture into a genre-bending dream.
Fuzzy Feelings creates a textured collection of developed ideas that seemingly originated in Gross Relations tracks like “Fuzzy Timelines,” but are now given a stage. The garage's borders collapse, giving way to a gush of distorted, dreamlike, and, in some respects, darkly catchy songs.
The DIY and self-proclaimed primitive aspects of the project are informed by the artist's rusty-garage past. The album becomes most interesting when those corroded details turn their attention to the melodic shoegaze elements. It’s certainly grounded in the 90s esc alternative scene of Brooklyn. Yet, its mind is free to wander into the undefined and borderless, carried on a bed of distorted guitar and softly skewed singing.
Lyrically, it is just as surreal, with fragments of decipherable details, as the rest are left for interpretation. Popish in nature and catchy to the core, the 12-track album offers a surprising depth of interpretation. It feels pensive about the concepts of change, moving on, and standing still. “Chock Hold’s” lyrics are that realization of wanting a sudden break from the comfortable: “Everyone seems to be frozen in time/ Everything is just a blanket of ice/ I can’t keep going this way/ Pick me up, toss me out on the street/ Far, far away.”
“Powerline”, “Down & Sideways,” “Unrelated,” “Basic Truth,” “Hey,” “Soul Seeker,” and “50 Takes” dance with the uncomfortable, passionate, and endless unknown of transmuting one's own existence because of that break. In between those dreams and anxieties are the instrumental tunnels of “Sludge Mains” and “Death Blight,” while “Pink Sun” offers a light at the end of the tunnel, the reward of perspective.
All images courtesy of Fuzzy Feelings
By the end, the album feels like whoever is out there, moving between dreams, is still searching. They are delighted to have left the complacency of the natural world, but still drift, wondering what else is out there. Hopefully, at some point, they find their way into a second Fuzzy Feelings release.
