Sublight, 2004
The biography of Fraser Runciman tells us of a young and zealous rock guitarist playing with numerous bands in Edinburgh. Fraser’s peripatetic rock odyssey culminates with a short-lived and bittersweet excursion with punk legends The Exploited. It also tells of how he ended up in Winnipeg, Canada, sharing digs with non other than Aaron Funk. I don’t have space to speak about this here, but something lengthy should nonetheless be written about it somewhere.
Strange Planes Spray Cancers on Winnipeg is Fanny’s fourth album and is released by the new Winnipeg label Sublight Records. In it you can find a varied array of quixotic* sounds: quiet, fully concocted orchestrations, beautiful Morriconian guitar passages, and eerie hallucinogenic soundscapes bordering on the faux-field-recording.
For the more conventional breakcore fan, tracks like “Tubby the Tumor,” “Male Itch” (pay attention to the Latin Pop sample for a taste of Fanny’s trademark jested derangement), or “Fluminatti” deepen his personal take on the whole beat-laden cum-punk attitude genre with refreshing results.
Strange Planes proves Fanny’s a true genre-mangler and more experimental than your average Experimental Music Magazine cover act. Maybe it’s breakcore’s lack of a wider exposure that’s costing Fanny’s musical adventures the thrill seekers they deserve.
*I hereby proclaim Fanny as the Don Quixote of Breakcore.