Flickers From The Fen Top Ten

Huge favourites at Reckless, we are delighted to have Flickers From The Fen contribute a Top Ten!

Hailing from Somerset’s nethermost moor, Flickers from the Fen’s homely Dungeon Synth sets treasured memories of late night RPG sessions to music. Mercian Sam is the serf behind the synthesis.

Flickers from the Fen Top Ten

A hotpot of sounds heard in the fen of late. Composed of the finest Dungeon Synth, Folk, Doom and Chamber tunes, in alphabetical order:

• Barry Walker Jr. - Shoulda Zenith [Ambient Americana] (https://holymountainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shoulda-zenith)
  
  A good friend of mine described this LP as a deconstruction of a single Country song. Each quintessential element, from pedal steel shimmer to b-bender guitar, is blown out onto a canvas the size of the America it’s indebted to. I heartily agree. A daydream of a record.

• Deep Gnome - Wanderlore [Comfy Synth] (https://deepgnome.bandcamp.com/album/wanderlore)
  
  No-one manages to make synth music sound quite as intimate, snug and welcoming as Deep Gnome. Old Toby’s tunes were some of the first I heard, before I even knew the name Dungeon Synth, and they’ve remained firm favourites ever since. ‘Wanderlore’ sees the palette take in neo-medieval ambience and shimmering synths to gorgeous effect.
  
  
• Ed Freeth - Atop Electric Orme [Folk Rock] (https://edfreeth.bandcamp.com/album/atop-electric-orme)
  
  I always fall heavily for albums that directly reference place, and what a record this is. Ed Freeth’s debut acts as a stone tape and love letter to the majestic Great Orme of Llandudno. Colourful lyricism telling tales of Welsh myth dovetail with pastoral arrangements, creating a beautiful record of bucolic Folk.
  
  
• Frank Fairfield - Self-titled [Old-time] (https://frankfairfield.bandcamp.com/album/frank-fairfield)
  
  The dreadful closing scene of Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’ always comes to mind whenever I hear Frank. It’s on the manic fiddle turns of ‘Hesitating Blues’ and the barrelling clawhammer of the ‘Nine Pound Hammer’. An endless dance.
  
  
• Frith - Prince with a Thousand Enemies [Dungeon Synth, Ambient] (https://wychelm.bandcamp.com/album/prince-with-a-thousand-enemies)
  
  A poignant journey if ever there was one. The UK’s Orcus, under their Frith moniker, sets out from burrow to hill to capture the fraught emotions of ‘Watership Down’ in audio form, and any fan of the novel or film will surely tell you this is achieved with flying-colours.
  
  
• Ithildin - The Shadow of the Past [Dungeon Synth] (https://ithildin.bandcamp.com/album/the-shadow-of-the-past)
  
  The latest LP from Québec City’s Ithildin may also be my favourite of theirs. Partaking in all the hallmarks and moods that make up the best of Dungeon Synth, ‘The Shadow of the Past’ effortlessly wanders from epic climbs to cozy nooks, soundtracked in turn by soaring synthesis and homely harmony.
  
  
• Leaking Crypt - Self-titled [Comfy Synth, Chiptune] (https://leakingcrypt.bandcamp.com/album/leaking-crypt)
  
  The fact that Leaking Crypt’s tunes are almost entirely constructed out of a single chip sound yet contain endless depths of emotion and warmth proves how effective the compositions are. One of my most-played artists of the past few years, and for very good reason.
  
  
• OM - BBC Radio 1 [Doom Metal] (https://open.spotify.com/album/1ut4OBvaIuuAFVBaqAoplg?si=WyMZj8ksTGy7bypH3gE3ag)
  
  How this got broadcast on Radio 1 we’ll never know, but OM’s devotional form of psychedelia is captured better here than any of their (also incredible) studio albums. A huge influence on the Doom side of Flickers from the Fen, which - like a bog beast hiding in a thicket of reeds - always lurks behind the homely synth we’re associated with.
  
  
• Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Self-titled [Chamber Music] (https://open.spotify.com/album/2HDowU93etbL5ClDIRAyh8?si=TuNcqc-iTey7D2k2nRjiTw)
  
  The longest running influence on Flickers from the Fen’s music on this list. It was Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s playful and stark chamber tunes that got me yearning to throw lyrics out the window in the first place.
  
  
• Train Robber - Sunset Rider [Comfy Synth] (https://trainrobber.bandcamp.com/album/sunset-rider)
  
  There’s no dearth of great Comfy Synth, but this side-project from the genre’s originator - Grandma’s Cottage - stands proudly outside the sound with a bag full of warbly masters, chintzy visuals and Western ambience. ‘Sunset Rider’ paints a vivid picture of a spluttering VHS, one taped over many times, with the final recording being a long-lost cowboy cartoon. A real nostalgia trip.