Kepler are feeling a little down today. It's no different than yesterday, the day before, or last year. But they don't need your sympathy-- not yours or anybody's. They live for it. After all, it's what allowed them the means to record their debut full-length, the angstfully titled Fuck Fight Fail. It's all very dramatic.

During the course of eight songs, these guys mourn their way to personal fitness over dramatic, synthesized string sections, weeping guitar and the occasional airy effects. But rather than whining overwrought emo sentiments about dark Septembers and forgotten mix tapes, Kepler go in for darker and artier statements like, "There's blood on the sidewalk/ Bones behind the garbage." Alright, so the emocore has left some kind of impression on these guys, and it shows up in their songs from time to time. Kepler, however, are closer in execution to traditional slowcore outfits like Codeine and Rex than burgeoning monstrosities Sense Field and Fireside.

Fuck Fight Fail opens with the glistening, minute-and-a-half-long instrumental "I Will Not Return Your Records", spotlighting Jeremy Gara's glossy guitarwork and Michael Sheridan on 'space machine.' "Light House" follows the tidal, almost shoegazer "Loose Ground", with frontman Jonathan Georgekish-Watt delivering the refrain "Everyday, my sentence is remanded/ My execution is stayed" over wind chime guitar and ex-Pitchforker Samir Khan's cello-like basslines. The record's highlight, though, comes in the dead center, with "Upper Canada Fight Song". Over nine minutes, the song gradually builds to a Godspeed-esque crescendo that peaks with crashing cymbals and huge drums that drown out nearly every other element.

So, yeah. Kepler are better than I'd hoped they might be, despite the melodramatic flair for song titles like "The Way You Fall Apart", and a bandname that references that astronomer guy who discovered that planets move in elliptical paths. Still, they could stand to shed some of their emo tendencies in lieu of something a little more artistically viable. Fuck Fight Fail's louder territory, and even its more 4AD areas, are really the album's shining moments. Regardless, the boys have got a great deal of promise, and their next album will likely shock this one into submission.

-Ryan Schreiber, December, 2000