MUSIC REVIEW: Fluvster: Stained Glarse Windows (Lost Moment Records 2023)

Soundtrack to a life of grime, with the irrepressible Fluvster.

What do you do if you are sat in Amsterdam with your own bedroom studio and an urge to make music? You bloody well get herbal and make music.

And our man Fluvster has a major urge to make music. There’s no stopping him. He churns it out quicker than this lazy arse reviewer can keep up with.

Very often the music lives on the interweb, for Soundcloud aficionados to stream, but this release is available on a bona-fide disc of the compact variety – available from Lost Moment Records or via 14th Floor distribution (as are four other Fluvster releases).

On this release we get ten glimpses in the mirror of the workings of Fluvster’s mind. With song titles like ‘Fuck a Duck’ and ‘Cunt on a Stunt’, he scuppers any chances he might have had of breaking into the top ten album chart, but somehow,  we get the impression he really couldn’t give a toss anyway.

This is music that is at home in a squatted warehouse whilst mates stumble around grinning – and occasionally gurning.

That squat gig would require some of those mates to join the Fluv on stage though,  because this be a (mostly) solo album, with the Fluvster banging all the guitars and strumming the drums himself.  Fren Delique pops in to keep him company though, contributing backing vocals on a few trax and lead vocals on “A stitch up “. Robert Dinero guests on ‘Fuck a Duck’. Yes he does! Honest!

I’m not sure where The Fluv lives, cos when we say ‘home studio’, we don’t mean Cubase (or whatever the techno fraternity use these days) and headphones.  We are talking full on racket with actual drums and guitars and I doubt he has invested in state of the art soundproofing. He must live in the middle of nowhere,  because I can’t hear neighbours banging on the wall.

After nine chunks of a gloriously dirty racket, the album ends with the title Track, ‘Stained Glarse Windows’. It’s a mellow way to end, with acoustic guitar and keyboards – although it does come to an anthemic crescendo towards the end. We are tempted to get our lighter out and thrust it in the air. Me thinks it is our favourite off this particular release.

In short – down to earth DIY post-squat-garage-punk which has been made cos Fluvster might explode if he kept it bottled up. And we don’t want that mess to happen.

Buy it here  https://www.14thfloormusic.co.uk/product/fluvster-stained-glarse-windows-cd-album/