Fable & the World Flat
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Fable & the World Flat

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
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"Top 15 Milwaukee Albums of 2013"

There’s something thrilling and intimidating about assembling our annual (and final) Top 15 Milwaukee albums list. It’s great to revisit old favorites and give them their proper due, but it’s frightening to think of all the worthy entries that might not make the final cut. So while these 15 albums may be the best of the best, they represent only the tip of the Milwaukee music iceberg.

Fable & The World Flat, The Great Attractor/Dark Flow
Fable & The World Flat could not have asked for a better debut album than Ladies & Gentlemen, but it would need some time to attempt to rival the sleek, refined production and beyond-their-years hooks piled into that 2009 record. The band sought to make amends for the discography delay this year by putting out two full-length albums—April’s The Great Attractor and September’s Dark Flow—totaling 23 tracks in all. To be clear, neither of these would garner absolute praise alone. Yet when superfluous minute-long instrumentals, ill-fitting joke tracks, and lethargic and vocal-effect-laden fillers are omitted, Fable & The World Flat is left with an album’s worth of outstanding indie-pop that shines with “The Guilty Are Innocent,” “Soliloquy In Symphony,” and “Typical Talk. - AV Club - Milwaukee


"Fable & the World Flat - chillwave? psychadelic synth-pop?"

There are always those strange genres that don't make much sense like chillwave and psychedelic synth pop, but when you talk about Fable & the World Flat those genres make perfect sense. It's a strange mix of everything you love about music. You can find the fun pop elements, heavy hip-hop inspired beats, Motown flow, and the loose rock and roll feeling to it. It's a similar style to Chromeo and MGMT. Strange and mysterious, but incredibly catching and captivating. - Exposed Media Online


"Album Review: The Great Attractor"

Steven Look and Matthew Gorski of Fable & The World Flat seem to have predicted the long, drawn-out winter (even for Wisconsin) that sucked Milwaukee into the doldrums earlier this year. It’s as if they made The Great Attractor to try and wring some goodwill out of Mother Nature with an upbeat, summer party record. “If you feel bad about the summer / Thinking everything’s going to hell / Don’t you fret, have no regrets / There’s another one over the hill,” Look sings on opening track “Hunchback Of Awesome-Fest,” giving the signal to unfold a chair and recline as far as you’re able, preferably with drink in hand. The feel-good romp of an album never takes itself too seriously, which is about half a compliment.
Fable & The World Flat’s 2009 debut, Ladies & Gentlemen, was reminiscent of the moody funk of Twin Shadow; Attractor gives off a more eclectic prankster-pop vibe like Javelin, or, well, Fresh Cut Collective (of which Gorski is also a member). The result is a little uneven, but the best tracks are irresistible. “Typical Talk” and “Sea-Tac Revisited” are catchy almost to a MGMT’s-first-album degree, each with a unique, snazzy synth squeal and ridiculously bouncy guitar riff, but with blasé vocals that rival Destroyer. If one of these isn’t Milwaukee’s yearning-for-summertime jam of the moment, it’s a crime. Almost as infectious, “Fires & Sluts (Faux Pas Party Banger)” wouldn’t feel out of place on an Ariel Pink record, and it sets off a string of grin-inducing tracks that sound effortless in a somewhat unflattering sense (although “Fable & The Dicks” is still pretty funny, even after at least a dozen listens).
The album isn’t without its serious elements. “Soliloquy In Symphony” is a slightly dark, pensive little ditty, and several of the tracks (notably “Typical Talk” and “Extraterrestrial Non-Photo Blues”) are lyrically thoughtful and poignant yet musically breezy and blissed-out. The album certainly ends on an ellipsis rather than an exclamation point, with three soothing songs and no party bangers (which the band may be saving for its second album of 2013, The Dark Flow, due to arrive soon). “A Wonderful Life” is a great faux-ska/synth-pop hybrid with rich vocal harmonies and hooks galore (although Cole Quamme’s halting Stewart Copeland impression isn’t crisp). The super slinky bass line and lilting harmonies (courtesy of Joni Clare) that weave together in “Extraterrestrial” are enough to transport you back to your most recent tropical getaway; Look’s delivery is the verbal equivalent of a Corona ad (in the most complimentary possible sense).
For the most part, the rookie rhythmic mishaps and production inconsistencies of Fable & The World Flat’s debut are gone, but so are most of the rich, liquid bass lines—they’re generally less prominent in the mix now, with the notable exception of the wickedly unhinged “Get Underground”—and the unifying danceable wistfulness. The increased frivolity is, admittedly, fun and sometimes kind of hilarious, but the skits and toss-offs make for an overall unfocused whole. - AV Club - Milwaukee


"Listen to Fable & The World Flat remix San Fermin"

Earlier this week, Milwaukee’s Fable & The World Flat released a remix of the song “Sonsick” by San Fermin. The Brooklyn-based San Fermin, who played a sold-out show in Milwaukee last month, has been gaining a lot of momentum and national attention as of late, and features Milwaukee native Rae Cassidy as a vocalist. Fable & The World Flat’s take on the track infuses a head-nodding blend of warbling strings and buzzing bass drones that lay beneath Cassidy’s hooky vocal acrobatics. Overall, it makes for some infectiously dark electro pop. - AV Club - Milwaukee


"Fable & the World Flat's new single"

You know that 88Nine loves Milwaukee music. We play at least one song by a Milwaukee band every hour. Recently we have been playing the fantastic single Soliloquy in Symphony by Fable and the World Flat. We really dig this band and this track. If you haven't hear it on our airwaves, we encourage you to listen to it on their bandcamp, along with a couple choice remixes of the song. Support local music. - 88.9 Radio Milwaukee


"Milwaukee Artist of the Week"

While this was admittedly a big week for Milwaukee music, especially on the hip hop side of the spectrum, Fable and the World Flat were a band that we had been waiting to feature for quite some time. We first caught wind of this band when their 2009 album, Ladies and Gentlemen, was sent to us. The album was definitely high quality work, but was admittedly a little bit too far back for us to feature. Luckily for ourselves and everyone else, though, Fable and the World Flat released their follow up to that album, The Great Attractor, on Monday. The duo definitely matched the quality of Ladies and Gentlemen, if not improving on their already established sound.

Another key component of what makes The Great Attractor a solid record is the revolving door of local talent featured on the album, including members of The Fatty Acids and John the Savage. The additional musicians put an extra bit of flavor on the duo’s synth-heavy indie pop. The Great Attractor has electro grooves for any mood, including a mix some laid back, meditative tracks, as well as some fun, upbeat electronica. It’s hard to describe this sound, because there is a lot encompassing it. There’s synth lines, and solid, moving drum tracks, but a fair amount of lo-fi effects to tweak the sound into a spiraling electro-pop hybrid. It should be noted that the group isn’t just two dudes with some laptops and DJ gear, either. A majority of the album is live instruments, molded into something refreshing. Don’t believe us? Check out the album below... - Breaking & Entering


"Milwaukee Artist of the Week"

While this was admittedly a big week for Milwaukee music, especially on the hip hop side of the spectrum, Fable and the World Flat were a band that we had been waiting to feature for quite some time. We first caught wind of this band when their 2009 album, Ladies and Gentlemen, was sent to us. The album was definitely high quality work, but was admittedly a little bit too far back for us to feature. Luckily for ourselves and everyone else, though, Fable and the World Flat released their follow up to that album, The Great Attractor, on Monday. The duo definitely matched the quality of Ladies and Gentlemen, if not improving on their already established sound.

Another key component of what makes The Great Attractor a solid record is the revolving door of local talent featured on the album, including members of The Fatty Acids and John the Savage. The additional musicians put an extra bit of flavor on the duo’s synth-heavy indie pop. The Great Attractor has electro grooves for any mood, including a mix some laid back, meditative tracks, as well as some fun, upbeat electronica. It’s hard to describe this sound, because there is a lot encompassing it. There’s synth lines, and solid, moving drum tracks, but a fair amount of lo-fi effects to tweak the sound into a spiraling electro-pop hybrid. It should be noted that the group isn’t just two dudes with some laptops and DJ gear, either. A majority of the album is live instruments, molded into something refreshing. Don’t believe us? Check out the album below... - Breaking & Entering


"Podcast Interview: Fable & the World Flat"

This week we welcome Steven Look and Matthew Gorski of Milwaukee based outfit Fable and the World Flat. The pair have been making music together since the were teens, cutting their teeth in their local punk/ska scene which eventually led them to form The Meteah Strike. When The Meteah Strike disbanded, Steven and Matt turned their attention to crafting intricately crafted pop music that was influenced by love of R&B Soul music, trip hop, and experimental indie rock. They also perform in live hip hop act Fresh Cut Collective. - Sock Monkey Sound


"Top Picks for Sept. '13: Fable & the World Flat's new music video"

6. Fable And The World Flat release video for “Soliloquy In Symphony.”

A gang of skaters and cyclists cruise Milwaukee’s industrial districts and join a group of neon-clad girls for a mystical bonfire in this beautifully shot video produced by Fresh Cut Collective. The track is from Fable’s The Great Attractor, released in April, and the restless band has already readied a follow-up: Dark Flow was released at Hotel Foster. - MilwaukeeMag.com


"Top Picks for Sept. '13: Fable & the World Flat's new music video"

6. Fable And The World Flat release video for “Soliloquy In Symphony.”

A gang of skaters and cyclists cruise Milwaukee’s industrial districts and join a group of neon-clad girls for a mystical bonfire in this beautifully shot video produced by Fresh Cut Collective. The track is from Fable’s The Great Attractor, released in April, and the restless band has already readied a follow-up: Dark Flow was released at Hotel Foster. - MilwaukeeMag.com


"Fable & the World Flat: The Great Attractor Album Review"

Fable & The World Flat’s 2009 album, Ladies and Gentlemen, is rife with sleek production, undeniable pop hooks and danceable overtones. The band, which features former members of early-2000s emo outfit Meteah Strike and current pieces of Fresh Cut Collective, has kept quiet since that tremendous release, having drummer Michael Stewart depart from the band (resulting from a move to Boston) along the way.

Turns out, Fable was spending its time away from the stage in the recording studio, laboring diligently on enough material to fill two albums that will be released between now and June. The first of these releases, The Great Attractor, seems to adhere to the framework of the band’s lauded last offering, while showing glimmers of a band that doesn’t take itself as seriously as its intricate song construction to this point might suggest.

The definitive kick drum thuds of opener “Hunchback of Awesome-Fest” serves as a two-minute introduction, as singer Steven Look’s effect-smeared vocals are paired with a warbling harmony of a female singer (who also appears in two other songs). Giving way to Attractor’s best and most radio-ready song, “Typical Talk,” the album comes to attention quickly. In “Typical Talk” and a number of other tracks (“Sea-Tac Revisited” and “Fires & Sluts” among them) sharp synth notes cut through otherwise peppy indie rock songs, conjuring a tranquilized Minus The Bear at times.

Fable has fun with some of its “songs” – actually interludes that clash with the rest of the polished, accessible work – including slow-mo satire “Fable & the Chicks” and outgoing voicemail joke track “Fable & the Dicks” that don’t really add much to bolster the other 11 tracks. Yet, jokes aside, the band and its album are at their best given room to expound its electronic loops to fill whatever nooks and crannies not occupied by Look’s distinct listless and monotone croon and altogether great lyrics. This is put on display in “Soliloquy in Symphony” and the downright beautiful violin-including album-ending duet “Between the Technologies.”

In the end, The Great Attractor doesn’t measure up to Ladies and Gentlemen, but what does? Instead of seeking to echo its near-perfect release, Fable & The World Flat broadened its sound, tried new things and attempted to mix in a couple laughs for good measure. It was well worth the four-year wait, especially knowing it will only be a matter of months, not years, until we’re treated to another new album.

Fable & The World Flat members Steven Look and Matthew Gorski are hosting a listening party for The Great Attractor at Blackbird Bar (3007 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.) at 10 p.m. Saturday, April 20. The free event will also include complimentary digital download cards of the album before it’s posted on Fable & The World Flat’s Bandcamp page next week. - MilwaukeeMag.com


"Fable & the World Flat's Second Phase"

With age and experience, bands learn all sorts of hard lessons, but one of the hardest to grasp is also seemingly one of the most basic: Don’t take yourselves too seriously. It’s understandable why bands resist this one. When musicians spend countless hours writing and recording an album, it’s only natural that they’d want their work to be taken seriously and hope the public will receive it with the same consideration that went into making it. The public doesn’t always work like that, though. Sometimes the public just wants to kick back with music that’s fun to listen to and that goes down easy. It was with that understanding that Milwaukee’s Fable and the World Flat recorded their second album, The Great Attractor, their slow-coming follow-up to 2009’s Ladies and Gentleman.

“With the last album we did, we were trying to be intensely focused and to nail everything,” explains Fable’s Steven Look. “We wanted everything to be perfect; we were going for the masterpiece. But with our new material, it was all about just having a ton of fun.”
Accordingly, then, The Great Attractor is a looser, funkier, weirder album than Ladies and Gentleman, free and impulsive where its predecessor’s beat-heavy pop was deliberate and meticulous. It’s a party record and at times a deeply goofy one, with the loopy sensibilities of the odder corners of Parliament and Funkadelic’s discography; it even throws in a couple of musical skits.

That scrappy makeover was possible, in part, because Fable and the World Flat is no longer a band, at least not in the pack-them-in-a-van, drop-them-on-a-stage sense. They’ve shed a couple of members since the last album, leaving intact the core duo of Look and longtime friend and collaborator Matthew Gorski. “I think it took us a while to realize that we weren’t necessarily going to be a rock band anymore,” Look says. “That’s where we came from. We’d always been a rock band. We always had a full crew. But this time we were free to come at recording from just a production angle.”

They found that trimming their roster made recording easier in many ways. The two were able to flesh out songs at their own pace, trading demos back and forth between their other projects. “It made for a much cleaner work flow, having just the two of us instead of four chefs in the kitchen,” Gorski says. “It also opened us up to electronics. There’s a whole lot of electronic stuff on the album we couldn’t have done if we were working with a full band.”

And, in a roundabout way, it made the album more of a collaborative effort, since the duo brought in outside players to flesh out many of their tracks. The album features present and former members of The Fatty Acids, Felix Culpa, Meteah Strike, John the Savage and the hip-hop group Fresh Cut Collective, to which the duo has especially deep ties. Gorski drums for the group and co-produced their last album with Look, and when Fable and the World Flat begins playing live shows later this summer—when they plan to release their second album of 2013, Dark Flow—Fresh Cut Collective will serve as their backing band.
“We’ve been itching to perform some of the Fable stuff live,” Look says. “We’re hoping to play out aggressively. I’m not sure if we’ll be touring, but we’re definitely going to spend a concentrated amount of time playing heavily around town.”

Stream or download The Great Attractor at fableandtheworldflat.bandcamp.com. - The Shepherd Express


Discography

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Bio

Beginning as a studio project of long-time collaborators Matthew Gorski and Steven Look, Fable & the World Flat is a beat-heavy, indie-pop band from Milwaukee. Studio demos lead to the formation of a live-band and release of their debut album, Ladies & Gentlemen, in 2009.

After taking a couple of years off to pursue other projects, the duo is emerging from the studio with two new albums in 2013, The Great Attractor and Dark Flow.

Band Members