Fujiya And Miyagi – 'Ventriloquizzing' review
Fujiya & Miyagi have been toiling away at a very English interpretation of taut, pared-down funk for over a decade now. Ventriloquizzing is their fourth and most sinister album, and would also be their best were it not marred by intrusively clichéd lyrics, in which people are up and down like yo-yos and others throw their hands in the air like they just don’t care.
When the lyrics take a back seat, however, Ventriloquizzing is wonderfully creeping, with a narrow-eyed slink that’s as aggressive as it is classy. The title track’s heads-on-sticks imagery and skulking synths invoke Stereolab at their coolest, and Cat Got Your Tongue has a strut of pleasing oddness that only Radiohead have bettered in recent times. Elsewhere though, the record’s overblown vocals and crushing self-awareness leave an abiding impression of frustrated brilliance.
7/10
