UK band FUTURE FICTION was was formed in 2012, and explored a brand of music they described as Future-Retro Progressive Rock. They released their debut album “Looking for a Broken Dream” in 2013, with a second album planned for a 2014. The latter never saw the light of day though, as the band went into a state of hiatus that year due to internal band issues.
It would appear that this band had a firm foundation set in 70’s hard rock, and an affection for that type of music from both sides of the Atlantic too. They have quite a number of compositions here that to me comes across as English sounding, while others comes across as with more of a base in US hard rock. The use of keyboards in the material may be the main detail separating them, but as I haven’t given a detailed inspection of hard rock from that period this is a tad hard to pinpoint.
The guitars are the stars of the show as far as instruments go though, and the band favors a blend of acoustic and electric guitars in most of their material. Typically a song will start out fairly gentle, with bass, drums, acoustic guitars and vocals, with the electric guitar added in at some point with typically vibrant, edgy vintage sounding guitar riffs, the occasional keyboards mostly restricted to either supplemental backing or as the lead instrument in the instrumental section, typically placed midways or thereabouts. And while the main foundation is vintage hard rock, the band also adds in some quirkier or elegant riff cascades, of the kind that gave me associations to mid 70’s Rush, and in what I guess covers the future part of their self-described style we’re also treated to occasional textured-oriented guitar details that reminds me of post-rock.
The lead vocalist is the main asset here however. This is a guy that is a powerhouse, dramatic singer, of the kind that gave me associations to The Darkness just as much as Frank’n’Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, arguably with a wee bit of Freddie Mercury at times too. Extravagant, flamboyant and powerful in a manner that gives you the vibe of a big name vocalist well aware of his talents and unafraid to show them to the world. The kind of person you admire for his skills, while at the same time be carefully worried may have an ego problem as he’s just so utterly up there, out there and, well, extravagantly flamboyant. The kind of vocalist that gives you a no limits and no limitations vibe. The end result is rather amazing of course, always bordering but never quite falling into the powerhouse vocalist cliche trap, but at the very edge of falling in on a number of occasions. A vocalist that will carry and sometimes totally take over a song, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but always impressive in his own right.
While Future Fiction described themselves as Future-Retro Progressive Rock, personally I’d stick with vintage hard rock 70’s style as a general description I suspect. Some details here and there documents a band aware of their progressive rock and possibly their post rock as well, but the core foundations of their style is vintage hard rock, and due to the lead vocals in particular one that can be given flamboyant as the key descriptive word. An album well worth the time for those fascinated by material of this very nature, a vibrant and easy to enjoy production from start to finish.
My rating: 78/100
