FASIV - Appetite

FASIV

Appetite
self-released; 2015

3.6 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

So are you wondering what FASIV stand for? Even if you aren’t I’m going to tell you. It stands for Frank Abreau Salazar IV who is the man behind the music on his recent release Appetite. Hailing from San Francisco he has been playing music for most of his life. Appetite certainly supports this notion as all the songs are well written. That being said Salazar is all over the place when it comes to genre and style.

After the first two songs which are garage rock and lie somewhere between The Stooges and The Strokes I thought I knew what to expect from Salazar but I was quickly proved wrong. Before we get into that let's talk about those first two tracks. The opener “I’m On Drugs” is visceral, raw garage rock that will make the ladies swoon. This style of music had a reemergence about ten years ago. The following song “Better This Way” has Strokes written all over it. Not a bad thing but the comparisons are undisputable. 

The album starts to go off into different directions after this. “Medication” borrows more from ‘90s Brit rock than anything else on the album while “Parisian Afterlife” is the biggest deviation yet. I’ll make a point to say all these songs are quite good. “Parisian Afterlife” is an exceptional song but it just felt so disparate from what I had previously heard. 

Salazar ditches the distortion completely on “What I Want Is You” and attempts (and succeeds) with a folk/pop vibe. “Oh Mercy, Oh My” is a straight old school blues song. Salazar is on point but it only leads to further head scratching as to what I could expect next. “Time Lapse” is a gorgeous melancholy song held down by piano and solid vocal work.

“Sleeping Giant” is arguably the highlight. Salazar sheds distinctive genres with this track and finds an original, unique sound. He combines ambient soundscapes with exceptional guitar playing and lyrics. 

There is no doubt Salazar is a serious talent but his genre jumping from song to song is indeed detrimental to him finding a reliable, solid fan base. Fans of artists get perturbed when an artist switches up their style from album to album let alone from song to song. If Salazar can solidify his sound I can say with great certainty that his fan base will grow. 

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