finn.
Expose Yourself To Lower Education

"Expose Yourself To Lower Education" is a private collection that sketches snippets of sorrow in low fidelity and subtle existential torments that hinder sleep.
The delicate cover artwork, curated by Finn himself, spreads the fragile breaths contained in the disc.

Finn's music floats in deep waters. The same waters frequented for a long time now by Arab Strap especially, but also by Flaming Lips and Low.
It is, therefore, warm, sweet, and shamelessly melancholic music that, among others, will drive crazy those who have followed the sunken delicacies of Sparklehorse for years.

The arsenal is also the same as that of the mentioned "veterans of slow-core": purely acoustic guitars harmonize with gentle throbs of drum machines, while inexhaustible backgrounds of mellotron (the undeniable protagonist of the unique track that both opens and closes the dances) warmly dialogue with vintage analog synths.
Patrick Zimmer's (AKA Finn, still him!) vocal tenderness cradles and soothes the world's anxieties for a moment. Then everything inevitably returns as before, as if nothing ever happened.
And on the surface, as is well known, everything (self-)modifies.

These tracks are post-modern enchantments, if one must define them at all costs. Damnably old-fashioned at this time, yet fully part of a certain phenomenon whereby in the world of music (but not only) a product from nowhere forcefully approaches the ruthless show business (solely through its own efforts) and becomes a small case for someone.

As a matter of record, the author of this album is a young German, and indeed this is what's surprising. Germany, especially the homeland of refined electronics, breaks through the endless cataloging created about it by reporters worldwide and inevitably seems to be one of the less transitory surprises of recent times.
Finn with this album is fatally and accidentally adherent to it. His work is well done, neither particularly innovative nor yet another revival. Nothing absolutely essential but not avoidable for that.

There has been much talk in recent months about the return of rock'n'roll. Well, Finn does not make rock'n'roll (at least not in the way it is currently defined) and the distribution of his creation is moreover inadequate. I still wonder why. And I surrender almost instantly.
It is enough for me to think that a guy who wants to present his music, at the cost of enormous sacrifices, can still do it if he wants to. This reassures me and you know what I say? I listen to it in spite of those who have remained trapped in the grip of fake rockers (nothing wrong with that, happy them) who pretend to be authentic (...here I would have more to argue about...) and credible subverters of the new millennium.