Bleep

Happiness is the penultimate album from UK post-rock band Fridge, a glorious sendoff before their six year hiatus. By that time the bandmates were growing into their own careers: Kieran Hebden became the revered Four Tet, Adem Ilhan would soon embark on his solo artistry, and Sam Jeffers would break into advertising and strategy. With success lying in wait, it was prime time to create an ode to joy, and with its kaleidoscopic array of sounds, Happiness speaks to all things light and carefree.

Gargantuan reedy overtones signal the sunrise on ‘Melodica & Trombone’. As post as post-rock can get, rattling percussion and shipyard-like noises descend into submarine territory and stutter into the bass buzzes and cascading beat layers of ‘Drum Machine & Glockenspiel’. Bass guitar strolls by and a smattering of snares brush past, fleeting plucks flutter and glockenspiel bars twinkle, patiently evolving into the lighthearted chaos of ecstatic flutes and slicing drums. It’s just as the album title would suggest: unfettered joy.

A churning sea of strums and crashes grow in optimistic intensity on ‘Five Four Child Voice’, hopeful with bright glockenspiel strikes rolling back into themselves. Studio jam workings come alive on ‘Drum Bass Sonics & Edits’ as a bassline creeps into wayward harpsichord notes, skittering into interlaced guitar ‘Harmonics’ with heavy rays of strums moving along. Corrugated drum machines jitter and snap throughout ‘Long Singing’, with twitchy bitcrushed ornaments, tones pulsing rhythmically like plucking of daisy petals, and soft vocals underlining the splendour of golden guitars.

Over twenty years after its release, some of Fridge’s most accomplished and uplifting work sees daylight again with a reissue of Happiness.