FrYars has revealed details of his debut album, due for release in March 2009. Entitled Dark Young Hearts, the album was produced with ex-Clor guitarist Luke Smith over the course of 2008, and will be released on FrYars’ own frYarcorp label.

The album includes favourites ‘The Ides’ and ‘Olive Eyes’ from frYars two acclaimed EPs, and continues to develop the themes that frYars outlined in these early releases: conflicts between reason and passion, between reality and spirituality… or so it says here…

There’s also a guest apperance from Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan on backing volcals on new track ‘Visitors’ - which will be available as a free download from 8 December. Watch this space…

frYars, aka the nineteen year old Ben Garrett, is something of a prodigy. His first two releases, EPs entitled ‘The Ides’ and ‘Olive Eyes’, combine lo-fi electronics with a rich, timbred voice and songs about childhood, jealousy, incest, cannibalism, war and murder; but there’s a contrasting lightness in frYars’ pop ditties that shows a pleasing sense of perversity.

Trying to pigeonhole frYars’ has proved tricky to the journos that have tried - widespread Nick Cave comparisons that have been bandied about in the London crapsheets seem like witless press release recycling. More viable links might include the “Dramatic Boy” school of pop, recently exponents of which include Patrick Wolf and Simon Bookish, or the vaguely experimental, literate alt-indie of clever young men like Jeremy Warmsley and Eugene McGuinness. Musically, there are echoes of one-hit-wonder White Town’s plinky bedroom-studio keyboard sound, and Cursor Miner’s more expansive take on ‘readymade’ synth sound palette. Piano-led ballad ‘The Novelist’s Wife’ is remniscent of Anthony & The Johnsons. But tellingly, none of these comparisons quite tell the whole story - frYars has evolved a pleasingly individual aesthetic. Continue Reading