UK band HI-FICTION SCIENCE was formed back in 2008, following the demise of the band Suncoil Sect. They released their self-titled debut album in 2011, and following that they contributed to a number of projects instigated by UK vinyl specialist label Fruits de Mer Records. “Curious Yellow” is their second full length production, and was released through UK label Esoteric Recordings imprint Esoteric Antenna in 2014.
The music of Hi-Fiction Science as it appears on this album is a hodgepodge of details assembled in a manner that makes it fairly hard to describe in an accurate manner. Many bands have been given such a description over the years of course, what sets this unit slightly apart from others is the manner in which they blend time-typical details from various decades together in a non-typical manner I think.
The lead vocals is a dominant aspect of it all, and merits a special mention. Angeli and almost ethereal at times, the naive outerworldly voice of Maria Charles contributes with a delightful voice of the kind that rose to prominence in 1960’s psychedelic pop and rock and have stayed in vougue thereafter. The kind of delightful voice that will send men daydreaming and with that undefined trait to it that may make their girlfriends or wives ever so slightly jealous, without ever coming across as seductive. Pure naive bliss if you like, given a voice.
The drum patterns also tends to hover around a simple 1960’s oriented mode of delivery, keeping it, at least on the surface, fairly simple. The hovering and carefully surging organs also adds a distinct 1960’s flavor to the proceedings. The basslines, on the other hand, have a tendency to operate in more of an 1980’s new wave manner, reminding me of a band like Joy Division and their successor version New Order. The guitars used have a wider range again, with frail, reverberating 60’s style psychedelic details and early 70’s darker toned, rougher garage rock oriented modes both utilized alongside vintage psychedelic dripping and at times acidy guitar solos and effects. That the guitars also may well flip to a more typical post rock style textured mode and with the almost typical and expected nervous plucked and intense post rock motif style frail guitar added to the proceeding as well adds to the fairly unique sound Hi-Fiction Science explore. In addition you’ll also get some futuristic sounds and surges from the keyboards adding a cosmic vibe to the proceedings from time to time.
“Curious Yellow” is an album that picks and blends features from multiple decades and styles into a non-typical style very much their own, stunningly beautiful at best and tantalizingly mesmerizing elsewhere. Music with a generally naive and innocent sound taken from 1960’s psychedelic rock, given a certain emphasis with the addition of the 90’s and onwards post rock details, with darker undercurrents of 70’s garage rock and 80’s new wave. A special album on many levels, and one I’d suspect would appeal most to fans of psychedelic rock with an interest in progressive rock, and vice versa.
My rating: 84/100
