CD: Flight Facilities - Down to Earth | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Flight Facilities - Down to Earth
CD: Flight Facilities - Down to Earth
Australian dance duo's eagerly anticipated debut fluffs rather than thrills
This October lo-fi, fuzzy VHS-style footage of Kylie Minogue in a ripped tee-shirt swaying on a mattress in a messy loft apartment singing Flight Facilities’ breakthrough song, “Crave You”, popped up in internet-land. It was an unexpected move that successfully amped up expectations for the Australian duo’s debut album. Kylie’s acapella appears on the album, uncredited, as well as the original, a smooth, sleepy, longing, slothful love song and lazy dance throb which first appeared in 2010.
Down to Earth would work beautifully if I was bongo’d out of my bonce on a tropical beach, wherever “the new Ibiza” is right now, my head muzzed with MDMA empathy, my eyes half-closed in the heat, letting the waves of pleasing, beat-driven lassitude massage me. Unfortunately it’s rainy and cold outside, the summer's long gone, and there’s simply not enough here to drag me off on Flight Facilities' cuddly, sun-blissed trip, the journey laid at the album’s start via an aeroplane-style announcement. There are lovely moments, delicious, frothy chill-out such as “Merimbula”, the cheesily ethereal “Apollo” and “Claire de Lune”, featuring singer Christine Hoberg, which is redolent of Debut-era Bjork, all swooping vocals, spaciness and clean, sparse groove.
Unfortunately, there simply isn’t enough character on display to make this album more-ish. There are too many faceless 4/4 plods that aim for idyllic, eyes-closed euphoria but muster blandness, and the cod-Eighties soul-funk of “Hold Me Down”, featuring Stee Downes, is just knowing and horrid. The production is impeccable, every surface polished to a gleam, yet letting warmth glimmer throughout. Perhaps that’s what Flight Facilities have been up to in the four years since “Crave You”. If so, it was a mistake. In 2011, despite its flaws, this would have drawn plaudits; now it’s simply another background bubbler to be enjoyed momentarily by laptop-tappers in trendy London coffee shops.
Overleaf: Watch Kylie attack "Crave You" a capella in her messy bedroom
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