CD Review: The Fog People – City of Night

By Ara Ajizian

I was immediately intrigued by the latest CD I'm reviewing, City of Night by The Fog People. The fact sheet included with the disc had such tidbits as "Cinematic electro-noir dance rock" under the Sound heading, and "Fetish types, Goths, martini-lounge folk, graphic designers, film buffs, audiophiles, theatre geeks, groove-loving hipsters" as its intended audience. Between that and the frequent descriptions of the album as a musical film-noir, my ears were itching to listen.

There are three main characters in City of Night—Mr. Haze, Maryjane, and Ms. Mad Love, played respectively by Michael Hayes White, Rachel Weir, and Emily Mistell. The album explores this love triangle amongst Seattle's underground fetish/S&M clubs, and the music and lyrics definitely capture the sex-drenched vibe of such places (disclaimer: I've never been to an underground fetish and/or S&M club, but I did grow up in Vegas so I can venture an educated guess here).

I'd rather not venture too deep into analyzing the story told on City of Night, because lyrically it's very clever, and while the gist is there for all to see, the nuances are certainly open to interpretation. On the surface, it's about the sexual deviants that populate the City of Night grappling with the interplay of love and sex, but there are certainly deeper aspects of human sexuality and morality being explored. That's the beauty of an album like this—the more you listen, the more the story reveals its intricacies.

The album opens with "…for no good reason at all," where we find Mr. Haze pondering, "Used to have a girl, Went for a whirl, End of the world, it's magic." It's the perfect opener for this journey through the dingy Seattle underground and its occupants, and it sets the tone for the rest of the album.

From there the songs alternate between describing the lifestyle of the characters and the characters themselves. "Kommoddities of the Fetish" opens with the sound of a couple walking through the night, sirens passing in the background, as they approach the entrance to an underground club. "Is this the place?" she asks. "Yeah, this is the place over here," he answers. Then we learn what the scene is all about in three simple words, spoken in a sexy, breathy voice before the song kicks in—"Pleasure, power, freedom."

The title track explores this further, name-dropping Seattle locales and the illicit behavior that goes on there. The track is full of energy thanks to the contributions of 12 guest vocalists and horns from the Ticklejunk Horns. The opening lines of the song, "It happens out here every night, when the darkness comes alive, in piles, alone, in pairs, something dirty everywhere," serve as a launching pad for the controlled musical chaos that the song eventually ends up in.

We get insight into the three main characters through certain tracks. "Ms. Mad Love" highlights the controlling, anything-goes nature of Emily Mistell's persona, with lines like "It's easy to be poison, When all they want is sickness, It's okay to be criminal, Just don't leave a witness." Mr. Haze is at the mercy of his fetishistic desires in "Hecubii (Mr. Haze)," singing "Mind's possessed by all the attractions, Strapped down to chemical reactions." Maryjane is torn between the excitement of her sexual explorations and her need for a deeper love in "With Kisses (Maryjane)"—"Loving doesn't have to hurt…Anything dangerous I can't resist." Again I give tons of credit to this album on a lyrical level, as it weaves its tale without being too obvious.

City of Night is quite an accomplishment on many levels. Musically, it blends genres like funk, rock, jazz, electronica, and hip-hop to create a world all its own—a combination of seedy, writhing beats with ambient textures provided by guitars, vocals, horns, synths, and other instrumentation. Lyrically it manages to probe a dark, sexual story without being overtly sleazy or pornographic. As White puts it, "It's the next chapter of the oldest story, isn't it? Boy meets girl, boy meets OTHER girl..." With that in mind, the story has appeal to virtually anybody, regardless of the setting in which it takes place. I admire any group that can pull of a concept album. As most music fans know from both the successes and failures of the genre, it's not an easy task.

Check out The Fog People on the web at http://www.fogpeople.org/ and http://cdbaby.com/cd/fogpeople