Fan Modine

The one-man baroque outfit known as Fan Modine isn’t especially prolific – Gordon Zacharias has made three albums in the last decade and a half – but the first two have become cult classics, and the third, Gratitude for the Shipper is a well-polished pop gem that could easily follow the same trajectory.

Zacharias recorded his first album Slow Road to Tiny Empire in the mid-1990s, eventually releasing it on Rykodisc. The follow-up, Homeland came in 2004. Pitchfork gave it an 8.0 rating and said, “On this sophomore effort, Fan Modine mastermind Gordon Zacharias draws from the elegance of early Magnetic Fields and the groove-based intimacy of The Folk Implosion more than, say, Beat Happening.”

Gratitude for the Shipper was co-produced by the dBs’ Chris Stamey at his studio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Although the record has the eccentricity of a solo project, it is densely orchestrated, with a slew of musicians including Mitch Easter, Ash Bowie (Polvo), Jeremy Chatelain (Jets to Brazil), Lee Waters (Essex Green, Dean Wareham) and Chuck Johnson (Shark Quest, Idyll Swords). It’s out May 24 on Daniel 13 Press Records and can be ordered via the Fan Modine website.

"Julu Road"


"Smile for Me (The EMI Song)"