The past doesn’t get blastier than this. Fathom is a folk singer songwriter from New Zealand whose latest project almost entirely utilizes homemade / DIY instruments. Inspired by The Beatles and Joni Mitchell — and discovered on a literal blog — I’ve rarely felt connected to so much of music’s history in a single track.
Of course, that’s a loaded phrase. As one commentor notes, the video ‘resurrected an era of YouTube music from over a decade ago’, a compliment in context, but it might also explain the massive cringe factor in the video, which is aggressively DIY, too. (Picture a patent overuse of the front facing camera, if you don’t want to see for yourself, which I wouldn’t entirely recommend.) Don’t get me wrong, it’s sincere and sweet. It just also gives me light trauma flashbacks to the hippie camp / self help cult my family dragged me to every summer until sophomore year, which might be a me problem, but, nevertheless, persists.
Hear it without the visuals, however, and The World To Breathe is a strong Summer of Love era folk rock throwback with a Fetch The Bolt Cutters worthy percussion section. Also, it’s an evolving suite that manages to keep it interesting for almost 7 and a half minutes. Her influences might even be impressed. Not an easy feat.
