Fiction, the London-based band behind critically acclaimed debut album ‘The Big Other, have unveiled the lead track from their upcoming EP, ‘Best Before’. The track is a perfect example of what’s to come from the band, beginning with wailing feedback and samples of operatic singing, before jumping into their trademark combination of deft guitar lines and perky vocal melodies.
Of the track, the band say: “[it] concentrates on what Simon Reynolds describes as ‘pop culture’s addiction to its own past’: yearning for the rave era of the late 80’s and 90’s – employing the infamous sample of ‘O Eucheri’, a centuries-old melody used by The Beloved and Orbital.”
As for the EP, ‘Instant Memories’ – released on June 1st – it will consist of 5 tracks, all of which display Fiction’s finesse for idiosyncratic guitar-pop invention, combining shimmering guitar lines with inventive & erudite word play.
Highlights include EP closer ‘Take Those Glasses Off’, which presents an intimate moment set against a vast, layered soundscape: “The song is a tender plea for human contact without the mediation of technology. It envisions a future in which memory itself is commodified, and sings against that.” – Fiction
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Full EP track list below:
1. Half Yawning
2. Best Before
3. Sabbatai Zevi
4. What To Say
5. Take Those Glasses Off
Having received widespread critical acclaim for their debut album ‘The Big Other’ back in 2013, Fiction have since been holed up in their spiritual home, Dalston’s Total Refreshment Centre, to complete work on their much anticipated second album.
The band formed in South West London in the late-2000s by brothers Mike & Nick and friend James Howard, and later grew with the additions of David Miller on bass and Danish drummer Jacob Smedegaard. In that time they have also evolved sonically and lyrically. Much like their artwork, the themes dealt with in Fiction’s tracks sit between the surreal and the everyday. Conflicts of futurism and nostalgia are prominent in their lyrics, say Fiction: “The title of the EP point towards the yoking together of past and future. We try to explore these issues playfully and with humour, both critiquing and embracing the idea that ‘nothing is new’ (itself a phrase as old as the bible)”.
These dichotomies are also reflected in the band’s influences, which range from earlier pioneers such as Orange Juice and The Stranglers to later artists also pushing the boundaries of guitar pop: the likes of Beta Band and Broadcast among them.
Fiction will launch the release of the ‘Instant Memories EP’ by headlining a show at The Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston, London on Thursday 28th May.
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