Fanfic debut LP Maneuvering Around Awkwardness
Fanfic from San Antonio in the USA release their eight track debut LP Maneuvering Around Awkwardness on 24th April 2012.
When I initially reviewed Fanfic I described their sound as though it were emanating from a Nightclub in Berlin and here we have as the opening track on the debut album Nights in Berlin. The brooding atmospherics drip like candle-wax from the speakers, creating an ever spreading warming and sensual elixir in which to cavort.
Damaged emerges next as though hidden behind a vapour cloud caught in blue neon flashing lights. There is a frisson of bohemian decadence in which Fanfic is firmly cemented and this track contains that core intrigue.
Track three – Touchmachine – finds a strutting showmanship which reveals a rawness that is an intriguing edge to the release.
Maneuvering Around Awkwardness is the track I have most of a problem spelling as in the UK the word is spelt manoeuvring, . But aside from my spelling difficulties, the title track finds the band at perhaps their most mainstream sounding, though lyrically still sharpening the knives. Whilst a strong piece, I prefer the more louche sound that defines the band.
The brief Slaves in Heaven could have emerged from the works of Marquis De Sade.
City of Crosses is a supreme piece of music and lyric, pouring with contemplative refrains and demanding lyric.
The penultimate track, Amnesia, has a feeling of calmness, which is reflected in the lyric which is living in the moment with the past and future irrelevant.
Finishing off a fine exposition of synth-pop (This is not an) Exit completes the debut album for Fanfic and delves once again in to the questioning of whether all is as it seems.
Delighted to have the opportunity to once again write about a band from San Antonio in the USA who would be equally at home in the burlesque in Europe.