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Press
MOJO REVUE MAY 2003
The Fatal Shore
Free Fall
MOLOKO+
Four Stars
Long-awaited second album from Berlin and Prague-based Aussie/English trio
Back in 1999 The Fatal Shore released their fine debut album, which deserved much greater attention than it received. This new record has been a long time coming, but it's worth the wait. Bruno Adams, Phil Shoenfelt and Chris Hughes operate somewhere in the Lee Hazlewood / Nick Cave mould, but with an eastern European twist: low-slung, gravelly vocals, an atmospheric blend of acoustic and electric guitars backed by inventive percussion. 100° In The Shade pounds along with a Paint It Black-style swagger, The Fields Of Summer could soundtrack a road movie while the sparse Closing Time stacks the chairs on the tables and collects up the empties. For the cover artwork, they made up a bunch of metal signs with the title stamped on them, took them into the woods outside Berlin and blasted them full of holes. A direct hit.
Max Décharné
- MOJO
Discography
Fatal Shore (1999 Moloko + D)
Free Fall (2003 Moloko + PLUS 067 )
Real World (2007 Amboss Recordings)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
THE FATAL SHORE
www.myspace.com/fatalshore www.fatal-shore.de.
The Fatal Shore is a Berlin-based band formed in 1996 by Phil Shoenfelt and Bruno Adams, on a hectic tour of war-ravaged Bosnia- Herzegovina during which they came under fire from Serbian snipers. Soon after this dangerous beginning Chris Hughes joined the band on drums, and the line-up was completed with the arrival of bass player YoYo Röhm in 2001.
The first Fatal Shore self titled CD (1999 Moloko + D), was recorded in Lucanec, Slovakia, during the hight of the Moravian floods. On route to the studio the band were held hostage in their train cabin by pistol waving Ukranien guest workers, insisting on “one more song”. The resulting self-tittled album comprises a set of traditionally based cover and original songs, performed in the Fatal Shore’s corrosive style of very dark, psychodelic blues.
On the invitation of American record producer Dan May in April 2001, the band flew to Covington, Kentucky, to record the follow-up Fatal Shore CD, Free Fall, (2003 Moloko + PLUS 067 ). May had heard the group’s first CD by chance, and within a few weeks the Fatal Shore were flying out of Berlin. The bizarre events continued after they arrived at The Church, a converted nineteenth century catholic church, filled with strange vibrations and May’s collection of automatic weapons, war memorabilia and strange hangers-on. The recording was finally completed two hours before the group’s flight left for Berlin. The result is a collection of classic songs, ringing with the eerie environs of “The Church”.
The Fatal Shore are currently working on their new album, Real World. It will be released on the new Hamburg based label, Amboss Recordings, in March, 2007. It will be the first Fatal Shore album to be recorded in the relative calm of Berlin. The Fatal Shore will be touring; Germany , Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic and Hungery, through out March and April 2007.
The members of The Fatal Shore have played and collaborated with many noted musicians and bands, including Nina Hagen, The Fall, Ben Becker, Mick Harvey, and Christof Hahn. Their own music has a wide range of influences from the Delta Blues of Robert Johnson, to songwriters such as Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohn, Nick Cave, and Townes Van Zandt, to the soundscapes of Einstürzende Neubauten and Can.
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