The phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" is often used in relation to modern music. Crash Test For Favourite Things are a living breathing embodiment of this concept. Their sound is multi layered and multi textured, yet it's the way that those very layers and textures interact that result in something so remarkably original.
The term "progressive" was almost derisive in times gone by, but it's one that is appropriate and complimentary in this case – and all the more so since the progressive approach is used with an enthusiasm and innocence rarely found in modern popular music.
Their sound is as atmospheric and ethereal as Pink Floyd at their psychedelic peak, yet there is a sub strata as uncompromising as Soundgarden or Tool.
Lyrically there is a personal and political challenge as relevant today as in 1968 or 1998 – yet without the direct value judgements of the former.
Crash Test in their live setting are a journey into many spaces. Take the trip.
Angel J Gordon
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Writing about Crash Test For Favourite Things is an exercise in attempting to describe the indescribable. Not because it's hard to pick the adjectives, but more because there is just so little else with which to compare them. I first crossed paths with them in 2005 when I mixed their show at an uptown but down home city venue. For a three piece (as they then were), they sure filled up the channels pretty fast. Bass, guitar, drums, three vocals, two keyboards, and a sampler. After a three song sound check I had notes and markers everywhere. They just had so many ways to combine and layer their chosen instruments. The endlessly varying texture and dynamics were, for a sound engineer, dream, challenge and fear all in one.
Two days later, sitting at the computer, updating the data base of bands I'd been compiling for years, I set up an entry for C.T.F.F.T. ….. I get as far as entering the name at the top. It was probably an hour before I wrote anything else. Racking my mind and memory for a description or comparison. By the time I hit "close and save" there were only a few words other than the name. As wide a sweep as it seems, the two things I wrote were 4AD (80's English label – Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Modern English) and Comsat Angels. When I look back at that now, I realize I had forgone trying to describe the sound, and settled for something that reminded me of the feeling, the atmosphere, and that sense that you have seen something so rare and unusual.
Years later, a friend of mine – a freelance music writer, asked me for a heads up in preparation for an interview with C.T.F.F.T. I said, "they are a cross between Soundgarden and Pink Floyd". I wasn't joking.
2009 saw a surge of creativity from lead singer and writer Mikey Brown, that took on ever more expansive influences. This period also saw the departure of bass and keyboard player Tony Swift. Left with a project in a state of flux, the new material was symphonic and multi-layered – with a freedom borne of the fact that no one could predict the coming shape or line-up of the live act. By mid 2010 they were a four piece, leaving Mikey to play keys full time yet still have that ambience provided by a swirling chorus drenched guitar sound. They still retain the use of samples – newsreels, movie soundtracks, and projected backdrops that all add to a multi media experience.
It's no easier to describe them now than it was back in 2005. Yes, I can still hear Soundgarden and Pink Floyd. … but having had the privilege of mixing their live show many times I've heard everything in between as well, from the power of Killing Joke or nirvana, to the tender frailty of Elliott Smith. It's all in there. And it's still growing.
