Where to go next in music? It’s all been done, hasn’t it? Well, we’ve been using the notes and (usually) the same rhythms for a few centuries, so perhaps not. If you want to get serious about ‘newness’ there’s the wonky world of microtonal composing. In simplest terms, it means the keys on your piano etc are no longer tuned to the usual twelve steps, but purposely tuned to more or less. This instantly sounds incredibly weird to our ears, but some brave souls have been trying to wrestle it into compelling and beautiful tunes – and Fastfast may well have hit the perfect spot between alien and familiar… as explained on their Bandcamp: “Fastfast is a brain melting experimental alt pop project from British Canadian TV and video game composer James Mulvale. With sun drenched harmonies, vertigo inducing microtonal chord changes and heartfelt lyrics, Fastfast will leave your feeling like you ate all the mushrooms with just a pair of headphones”.

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The new album Xen-On is a mesmerising success and the video for the title track is a deep fever dream of Blade Runner that’s an uncanny match for the woozy Vangelis synth styling (mo)

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