This is unusual material. You'd almost have to refer to it as both hardcore/punk and indie rock on some level, but despite obvious connections to both the end result rests in this strange middleground. The guitars are barely distorted at all, which definitely hints at a jangly sort of indie sound, as does some of the noisier and more discordant riffing, while the shouting/yelling vocals have a definite hardcore/punk aesthetic happening. But then there's the rhythm section, which is thick and rock solid, so... the end result is structured and tightly performed as a whole, with the guitar parts possessing a gritty edge at times. "Understanding by Design" is more balanced and powerful in its delivery, complete with raging basslines and killer drumming, thus making for my favorite song herein. Side B contains a cover of "Going Underground" by The Jam, and though I've never heard the original version the structure comes off as a bit more conventional than The Fiction's originals, while still perfectly fitting in against the other two songs... so my guess is that they've tweaked it at a least a bit to reflect their own approach. I do like the production. I feel like the guitars need a little more distortion to be truly effective, but the mix is clear and the rhythm section sounds fucking awesome. The levels are well balanced too, so every individual instrument plays a good role and interacts nicely with the other elements. The sleeve is printed on matte stock and has a pretty simple design with basic illustrations and clean text. The inner spread looks a tad plain compared to the cover, but it all gets the job done. The lyrics are succinct and rather abstract, carrying a message but nothing very direct at all: "You came back from the tailor and guess what, you're fucking naked, and I will play this game no more." I'm certainly intrigued by this one. I'm not blown away and I can tend to be picky with things of this nature, but there's a lot of potential here, and "Understanding by Design" is a great song. I'll be interested to hear more from this trio to see what they do with this foundation.
[Dark City]
Running time - 8:00 (approximately), Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: Understanding by Design]
Dark City Records - http://www.darkcityrecords.org
