Single/Video Review: Ouija Board

French For Rabbits started life as the duo of Brooke Singer and John Fitzgerald some ten years ago, but by the time of their last album, 2017’s The Weight of Melted Snow they had become a quartet with the addition of Ben Lemi and Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa, while Penelope Esplin (Grawlixes) has joined since then. The quintet has just released the second single from their forthcoming album, and based on Ouija Board I am definitely looking forward to hearing that when it is available. If one goes to their Facebook page you will see the comment “Creating relatable songs for introverts since 2012 – Soft-goth / dream-pop”. I have long given up trying to understand all the sub-sub genres of rock, yet this really does describe the music which feels as if it has come to us from another realm.

This is music of a time gone past, somehow both modern and seemingly from the last Sixties, all wrapped up in wonderful vocals. Brooke has an incredible voice, and it is the harmonies which are at the forefront. The song starts with a crash on a cymbal, then the drums lead us into music which has so much space within it that it should just fall to pieces. It is easy to let it all fall over the listener like a gossamer cloud but play close attention and you can hear deliciously warm basslines, a guitar adding additional notes on the melody line, another with some harsher chords, a deliciously dated keyboard sound, and always those wonderful vocals. One small nuance which made me smile was when the drum and guitar come in a full beat too soon – it only happens a couple of times during the song, but the impact is really dramatic.

This is music from a distant time and place, and it is only fitting that the video is in a similar vein. It features four characters on a beach, all with unusual masks, and feels like a combination of an art rock short movie and something out of a Monty Python sketch, yet way more other worldly and less comical. It is visually quite disturbing in many ways, and so at odds with the delicious sounds in your ears. They have recently been touring further down the country but are promising to come up to the Auckland area later in the year and that really will be one not to miss.