Fink is certainly not the first artist to move from making hip hop and electronic beats to a more traditional rock approach, but while results from the likes of RJD2, Money Mark and Everlast haven’t always been on par with their previous work, Fin Greenall, as he’s known to family and friends, gets it exactly right.
The rhythmic acoustic blues he’s making these days is powerful stuff and Distance and Time, his latest album for Ninja Tune, is a memorably forceful break up chronicle. Recently in Chicago on the tail end of a US tour with the band he also calls Fink, Greenall and company played to a much larger crowd at Schuba’s than during their free show a year back at Empty Bottle.
Backed by Guy Whittaker on bass and Tim Thornton on drums, Greenall performed from a stool at center stage, delivering his laments and recollections with appropriate emotion. His tales of past love and the weariness of the workday world were matched by driving sounds with force but no pressure. Thornton’s drumming moved from subdued to crashing even while he played with brushes, and Whittaker’s bass tied those beats together with Greenall’s heavily plucked acoustic guitar.
Fink might not be making the downtempo beats he started with when he first signed to Ninja Tune, but his revised musical focus has been a very rewarding endeavor. The band have a few more West Coast shows before heading back to their native England, but it seems people are starting to notice that Fink have some of the best sounds around. After the set, Fink mentioned that a live album is being discussed and with the show sounding the way it is, that would be an excellent idea.
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