This is a review of "The Swine Fever Diaries" recorded by Farming Incident. The review was written by Dave Sugden in 2001.

Farming Incident are still doing their own experimental, art-rock thing. It's still lo-fi and it's still very strange. "The Swine Fever Diaries" is dedicated to "... all the pigs that were slaughtered during the summer of 2000" and is a progression from the debut EP. If you listen to it you'll realise I can write about it in a number of obscure ways and each time I'd be mirroring an aspect of the music.

Compared to their previous CD, this is more subdued in nature: it has more going for it, but in a controlled manner. There are glimpses of the old style - the quirkiness, the lo-fi and alternative "chuck this here and there" angle, though overall it is more coherent. By being clearer and more identifiable, it has taken away that certain edge their previous material contained - I'm unsure whether this clean-up is an improvement or simply a shift sideways.

My favourite live song opens up the CD. "Spindrier", with its mainstream bass intro and the lyrics, "This is not art, It's artificial, When you spell my name, Use the correct initial, It's S, It's S, For Spindrier". Words are not the most noticeable feature to come of a Farming Incident track, so it's no surprise that these are the only lyrics in this song. In fact, these are the only lyrics on the whole CD!

"Edrych Fel Teegar" is frantic, very what-I-was-into-five-years-ago and the sort of stuff, for it is stuff in it's own way, that I try to write. "This Is Farming Incident" feels like it goes on for literally ages, but I don't really understand what it was trying to achieve and then "Complicity" closes the CD off. The final track is more of a kick-ass version of its predecessor on the CD, a jumble of ideas patched together with the faintest of links.

To close, it's difficult for me describe what it is I've just listened to, except to say that I do like listening to this band. I'm not convinced this is better than their last EP - which I think was more likely to appeal to a general audience (though in its very nature was going to appeal to very few) - but this is certainly more experimental.