One Track Mind

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For my money, a band like Fool’s Gold is what makes the world of independent music so vital and rewarding. Essentially a collective, the group is led by two Los Angeles musicians, Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov. Pesacov was brought up exposed to world music, eventually earning his college degree in classical music theory and composition before apprenticing with American avant-garde composers abroad. Top shares Pesacov’s passion for regional African music and writes the lyrics–half in English, half in Hebrew–for Fool’s Gold. Together with a band of capable cohorts who have spent time in bands ranging from We Are Scientists and Foreign Born to The Fall, the two create a wondrous musical tapestry whose roots are in the music of Mali, the Congo, and Ethiopia, but whose branches scrape the skies of the Talking Heads’ polyrhythmic, multicultural post-punk and more conventional Western pop music.

“Surprise Hotel” is the lead track from their eponymous debut LP, slated for release September 29th on IAMSOUND, and begins with a sprightly, extended instrumental introduction with layers of prominently pinging guitar riffs. When the vocals finally take to the stage, they do so with an understated ease, cooly harmonized in a language so foreign to most Westerners, it may as well be a tribal dialect from the African diaspora instead of the Middle Eastern. Although the lyrics may be indecipherable to many, there is an underlying sense of melancholy which shines through any language barrier.

Just after the four minute mark, Fool’s Gold leads you to believe the track has come to an enchanting close, only to undergo an intensified resurgence at an increased tempo. Saxophones and other instruments hop in and out of the circle, building off one another to create an atmosphere of sheer ebullience. The final couple minutes are typified by this heightened exhilaration, with the band tapping into a primal, frolicsome gaiety.

Fool’s Gold is what all the hipsters who’ve been suckered into listening to The Very Best should actually be listening to, a sublimely orchestrated yet poppy collective whose music is as intellectual as it is accessible.