DIY MAG: FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK SHARES 'GOLD'
NME: NEW BANGERS
ALT PRESS: FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK PUSHES BACK
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RELEASED
08.19.2020
via 22TWENTY
The wendigo or wetiko is a mythological creature or evil spirit from the folklore of the First Nations Algonquian tribes based in the northern forests of Nova Scotia, the East Coast of Canada, and Great Lakes Region of Canada and in Wisconsin, United States. The wendigo is described as a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. Its influence is said to invoke acts of murder, insatiable greed and cannibalism.
Fat Trout Trailer Park (Sean Raab) confronts his own psyche on "Wendigo" as he continues to dissect the contemporary human experience with the third single from his debut self-titled EP (10.07.20). After rioting against the twin evils of consumerist excess and elite avarice on "Gold" and the debut single "Fatberg", Raab turns introspective. Via a Jekyll & Hyde narrative, the track reflects on bipolarity: the disbelief, regret, guilt and relief that follows an episode and the urge to conform to one or the other for good. Sonically, the track mimics the intense and spontaneous emotional shifts, beginning with a soothing lullaby-esque guitar line and hushed vocal before Pounding drums segue the track into an exorcism full of fuzzy solos that brutalize the listener to submission.
The track ends with an exhausted request for calm: 'Swallow me whole wendigo...'
FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK
FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK (Sean Raab) is a post-punk interpretation of how people in the future would think the past sounds like.
That's what you get when you combine the bare-boned, riff-heavy structure of early-2000s rock and roll and filter it through the kaleidoscopic lens of the 2010s psych revival, and the cut-and-paste approach and visceral impact of experimental electronica and hip-hop.
The forthcoming FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK EP takes influences as diverse as Tame Impala and Death Grips and twists them into an anarchic brawl, sparing few establishment institutions in its incisive critique of modern society.
Economic and environmental violence are both a looming presence on debut single "Fatberg", the initially restrained, then untamed "Gold" and the Television-indebted "Dirty Hands". "Backseat" spirals into the hedonism that follows a episode of depression, a phenomenon recalled on the EP's final track "Wendigo", which swerves through a Jekyll & Hyde narrative that explores bipolarity and the cocktail of disbelief, guilt, regret and relief that follows a bout of mania.
"Salt", the record's sonic outlier, dives even deeper into personal history before resolving to address the FAT TROUT TRAILER PARK EP's overarching theme: 21st century disillusionment.
Reflecting on his conservative religious upbringing in Belgium, Raab cuts a figure wracked with insecurity and fear, as an ASMR-esque vocal pits viciously competing internal voices against one another.
As a collection, these six tracks introduce a self-produced musical polymath and his contribution to the resurgence and re-politicization of guitar-driven music.
