fan modine
slow road to tiny empire

phovsho, 1997

ds rating:  

Fan Modine is the project of American musician Gordon Zacharias. Apparently, Slow Road to Tiny Empire is a concept album of sorts, and yet even upon numerous listens, it certainly isn’t a laborious or overbearing concept. Apparently, this was initially meant to be the soundtrack to a film script that Zacharias was working on, that never came to fruition. Our subject, a certain Fandemian Kirk Modine, is an American pop star living in China; clearly, alienation and loneliness are strong themes based on the concept. Of course, these are themes that most people can relate to in some sense.

With a heavily low-fi, DIY aesthetic, this is certainly an album which takes a few listen to get into. The great thing about this is that each subsequent listen will uncover something new and fascinating - a surreal album that can perhaps best be described as a weird, introverted, prodigal child of Brian Eno and Lou Barlow. What cannot be denied is the wonderful cohesiveness of the album - each track is clearly lovingly and painstakingly placed together, like a jigsaw puzzle - and the pieces fit together perfectly.

Each track on the album deserves its own mention:

Cardamon Chai begins the album abruptly, and is probably the most straight-forward “pop” song on the album, with its earnest chorus line of “I just want to call you up and tell you that I love you“. The track’s closing line - “Don’t want it to be just one of them rock and roll shenanigans” - nicely epitomises the album, as the song gradually and beautifully fades into silence.

Emerging eventually from the silence, we hear gently building synths, before an acoustic riff begins Tinseltown. In terms of the albums concept, this track seems most literal. The song features a great line - “Below, there’s a heaven above / Up here, there’s only sun” - seemingly referring to how we all yearn, to some degree, to have all that comes with superstardom; yet once you reach that point, you can only wonder is it all worth it?

Continuing the fantastically lilting album sequencing, Mesopotamian Pop Soda is another synth-driven piece of pop perfection, building from virtually nothing into a mini-epic. As with the rest of the album, the range and uniqueness of sounds on offer is amazing.

Tiny Empire lives up to its name - a brief, and yet engaging, piece, which perhaps touches best on the motif of alienation. Following it is the even briefer Do It For the Love - it should be “wrong” to turn what sounds like a promising, catchy tune into a 30 second snippet, leaving you wanting more - but in terms of the album as a whole, it seems to make complete sense.

Rodeo Driving has a darker edge to it - beginning with a wall of noise, before a raft of honest and contrite lyrics (”I’m cold and heartless“, “I’m too upset now to even think of alcohol“) are layered over swirling synths and tinny percussion. A huge bass line swallows up the chorus, before a tongue in cheek “crack the whip” lightens the tension a little.

A even huger, and yet oh-so-simple, bass line is the framework for Rhubarb Pie, along with snare-heavy drums and dreamy synth sounds.

Oh To Be a Perfect Servant is the first of two instrumental tracks - along with following track Oi Ya Lyubyu. It shouldn’t make sense to have the two instrumental tracks side by side in the middle of the album, but again, it just does.The former is brief, quirky, and based around a chiming guitar, whereas the latter is more epic, with what almost sounds like bagpipes leading the march. It is another great example of simply unique sounds and noises making a fantastic and surreal song.

Marigold serves as the ideal penultimate track; patient, brooding, emotional, climactic - it would be perfect for the finale of a film. In fact, the incredible climax of violins, guitars and drums is simply orgasmic. If I got around to dishing up a Top 10 favourite songs ever list, the list would generally be ever-changing, but this song would be a constant, for sure.

After the impact of the preceding track, Trash in Romance finishes off the album beautifully; Zacharias’ hushed, creaky vocals beginning the track over under-stated guitar. The track trails off into over half an hour of a “street noise” loop; normally this would really annoy me (think of the Flaming Lips’ Hit to Death in the Future Head as the most extreme example!), but in this instance, it (once again!) suits the album as a whole ideally. Cleverly, this same loop closes the earlier instrumental Oh to Be a Perfect Servant, acting as a “fake finish” of sorts upon early listens. Genius!

I can’t really say any more, than to say that this album has been the soundtrack to the highs and lows of my life for eight years. It is a shame that we may never see the film that the album is meant to be a soundtrack to; however, perhaps it is best that way. When I’m listening to this album, the film in my head just can’t be topped.