Fanfarlo are a band that have been kicking about on the fringe of the hype machine for a while and now, after a recording session stateside in Connecticut, their debut album Reservoir is finally unleashed.
The album starts with “I’m A Pilot” which is the perfect statement of intent. The song begins with loud, confident foot stomps and progresses into a piano-led anthem- combing gently soaring violins with woeful guitar slides.
The album continues with the emotive force of the opener, the array of instruments entwining and gliding around one another, soaring into climatic peaks and falling into delicate descends.
Throughout “Reservoir”, the collection of instruments consistently chops and changes in an array of different moods and styles. The mandolin of “The Walls Are Coming Down” provides a jaunty but melancholy ditty, while the trumpets on “Fire Escape” sound like horse riding hero trotting off into the sunset.
It’s often pretty remarkable stuff.  On first listen though, one criticism easily thrown at “Reservoir” is that it wears its influences pretty obviously on its sleeve. This album often takes the style of grand, swooping songs which almost always seem to be sound tracking the end of the world or the resurrection of Martin Luther King. In other words; hello Arcade Fire.