Fol Chen is a mysterious, eccentric and experimental indie band from Los Angeles, led by producers Samuel Bing and Julian Wass, and they had disappeared from my radar for a little while since their residency at the Echo two years ago.
But they seem to have surfaced again with an upcoming album, a tour, and they have even debuted a new, six-minute-long, track on Soundcloud. ‘200 Words’ is a long opening song, slowly expanding with the sexy-icy voice of their now full-time vocalist Sinosa Loa. It’s quite an unclassifiable pulsating pop-electronica curiosity, which starts like a deep-sea movie soundtracked by Massive Attack, then goes into a series of stop-start clapping with Loa’s spoken-words-vocals, then takes an interesting turn after 4 minutes and half, building a fuller sound, angelic vocals and mystic drama. With such a maze of sounds, meandering between dark synth, operatic vocals and spacey orchestration, Fol Chen can’t certainly be blamed for a lack of originality.
‘200 Words’ will appear on ‘False Alarm’, set to be released on March 19th via Asthmatic Kitty, the same label that released ‘Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made’ in 2009 and ‘Part II: The New December’ in 2010.
‘The False Alarms’ Tracklist:
01. The False Alarms
02. I.O.U.
03. A Tourist Town
04. Hemispheres
05. The Fifth Season
06. Boys in the Woods
07. 200 Words
08. You Took the Train
09. Doubles
10. This Place is on TV
Fol Chen’s tour dates
Mar 08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
Apr 03 Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
Apr 04 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands