Get Into the Woods with Fol Chen’s New Video
May 19th, 2014 , by John Beeler
Fol Chen‘s new video for “Boy in the Woods” captures the flight of a kidnapped anthropogenic rabbit rescued by a host of forest friends. After his escape, he must flee through the woods to escape prowling lions–who actually turn out to be rabbits themselves? It makes sense once you watch.
Nancy Jean Tucker directed and animated of this venture into The False Alarms, which is available now. Says The Line Best Fit, who premiered the video: “Everything is meticulous, deliberately ingenious. It all flows excellently; there’s no disjointed genre-hopping here.”
Check it out over at The Line Best Fit here.
Fol Chen on Sale on iTunes
October 24th, 2013 , by John Beeler
The False Alarms, Fol Chen’s latest and greatest, is on sale on iTunes for just $7.99.
iTunes User pomengranates gave it five stars, calling it “future music.” User shajaaaahaaajaaa loves it too, suggesting that “in no way should you hesitate to buy this.” Here here iTunes friends.
Click here to purchase on iTunes.
Fol Chen Release New Video to “False Alarms”
August 3rd, 2013 , by John Beeler
In March, Fol Chen released their third LP, The False Alarms—pure pop on the surface, witty and appealing, but all the more satisfying for the dark and uncanny sensibility lurking just beneath. Now, Keith Musil has released a video, accompanying the album’s title track, that acutely captures the wry and ambiguous tone of Fol Chen’s eerie pop project.
Almost like a horror movie, Musil’s “The False Alarms” starts out at a spooky teenaged slumber party, but when a game of “Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board” takes an unexpected turn, it’s not quite clear whether the audience should be frightened or elated. When the main character, played by Fol Chen vocalist Sinosa, rises from the floor, has she become liberated from gravity, or trapped in the air? Is she suspended by dark forces beyond her control, or is she levitating under her own power? The video, and Sinosa’s unsettingly serene performance, refuse to give us any simple answers.
Composer Jules Gimbrone just sent in a remix of “False Alarms,” which you can listen to here or below.
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[youtube width=”542″ height=”305″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDH1jl3BMe0[/youtube]
Asthmatic Kitty Invade UK
June 4th, 2013 , by John Beeler
We have not one, not two, but four shows in just three days for Asthmatic Kitty artists Fol Chen and Denison Witmer in London, starting on June 3.
Denison’s recently released self -titled album has received glowing praise from the likes of Uncut, who gave it an 8/10 and said “it’s a beauty” and featured one of Denison’s tracks on their Best Albums of the Month compilation. Denison will play his first headline UK show at the Angel in Islington on June 3. He follows that and then an invite only show at Black’s, also in London on June 4 (for an invite, please email tom at asthmatickitty dot com. Denison then heads north to Manchester for a show at the Castle on June 5. All ticket details are available on the tour page.
Fol Chen will make their way into the UK for their first London show for 3 years when they play a free gig at the Shacklewell Arms, London on June 5. Tickets can be downloaded here. They’ll be playing songs from their brand new long player The False Alarms described by The Line of Best Fit as “everything is meticulous, deliberately ingenious. It all flows excellently; there’s no disjointed genre-hopping here.”
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All Skate: New Video from Fol Chen
April 13th, 2013 , by John Beeler
Premiered by Impose Magazine here, and directed by Chris Wilcha, this new video of “I.O.U.” captures everything you love about roller skating and Fol Chen at the same time.
“I.O.U.” comes to us from Fol Chen’s new album, The False Alarms. Notably Canadian Exclaim wrote that “listening to The False Alarms is like hooking up an I.V. drip with maple syrup to your arm.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgXNCee77vE[/youtube]
A Great Leap Forward: Fol Chen’s False Alarms Out Now
March 19th, 2013 , by John Beeler
Fol Chen returns with The False Alarms, hits from a secret dance party you haven’t been to yet. The Los Angeles band’s kaleidoscopic first two albums (Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made; Part II: The New December) offered a taste of everything: minimal electronic grooves and complex layers of organic sound pivoting across genres from rock to soul/funk to dance. The only constant across their extremes of experimentation, through all the asymmetrical rhythms and screwed vocals, was the consistency of their pop instincts. The vehicle for their musical ideas was always a tightly, meticulously synthesized earworm. Their third communication, The False Alarms, takes Fol Chen’s subversive strategy one leap forward.
There has always been a dark undercurrent to their music. Like a Philip K. Dick novel, Parts I & II warped the world around us into a cryptic, surreal vision of the future, sometimes to grotesque or even disturbing effect. But The False Alarms is that much more emotionally direct: funkier, funnier, sadder and sexier, sometimes all at once. This time, there’s no mistaking the lingering aftereffects of the slow toxin under the crunchy, ear-candy coating.
Buy it here.
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[youtube width=”542″ height=”305″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbXD8pnB0l4[/youtube]
200 Words: New Video from Fol Chen
March 5th, 2013 , by John Beeler
[youtube width=”542″ height=”305″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbXD8pnB0l4[/youtube]
SPIN has debuted a brand new video from Fol Chen. In the video for “200 Words” astronauts launch into space, only to fall back down again. Aaron Ohlmann directed the video, which features vocalist and keyboardist Sinosa Loa of Fol Chen.
View some photos from the shoot here.
“200 Words” is the first single from The False Alarms, which comes out March 19th and is available for preorder now.
The False Alarms: a new album coming from Fol Chen
January 10th, 2013 , by John Beeler
Los Angeles band, Fol Chen, will release their third album, The False Alarms, on March 19.
Fol Chen will tour North America this spring in support of the release.
Fol Chen’s first two records, PART I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made and PART II: The New December (produced by Samuel Bing and Julian Wass) cemented the band’s place as peddlers of dark pop in the alleys of independent music. Their live entity has a wide artistic reach with a propensity for interactive projects like the Tetrafol, a motion-based sound toy developed with musical interface pioneers Monome. Band events have been presented at sites such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Annenberg Space for Photography, and the Walker Art Center.
If you’ve heard their songs “In Ruins” or “Cable TV,” The False Alarms will change the way you think about Fol Chen. The band calls the genre of False Alarms “Opera House,” a name lifted from Malcolm McLaren but recoined as beat-driven electronica with grand, operatic gestures and lyrically-dense storytelling. The songs, written by Bing and Sinosa, play together as a surreal journey with a human core, created in a year marked by sudden losses of family and friends. On the dance floor or in the bedroom, The False Alarms is a set of pop symphonies that are chopped, screwed, mangled and beautiful.
We are releasing The False Alarms on March 19th, 2013.
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ANNOUNCING THE TETRAFOL, FROM FOL CHEN
November 21st, 2011 , by John Beeler
Fol Chen has joined forces with Monome and Machine Project to bring you the Tetrafol. Some of you already instinctually know what this is, because you've been waiting for it all your life.
Others may need an explanation, so here goes: The Tetrafol is a hand-held tangible electronic sound toy. Circuits enclosed by a wooden tetrahedron detect orientation and motion-gestures to modify the playback of a collection of Fol Chen's micro-compositions. Users can explore sound through objectual physical manipulation. The battery-powered device has its own internal speaker but can additionally be hooked up to a headphone or amplifier for broader consumption and recording purposes.
The circuit and firmware are based on open-source hardware and is itself published as open-source, allowing anyone interested to learn about its deepest inner-workings.
There are only 100 of these devices. You can buy one for $110 right now by clicking here. For now.
To get information about Fol Chen in your email, go here.
Hear a song created with these microcompositions below:
GET YOUR OWN FOL CHEN SONG AT WALKER ART CENTER ON THURSDAY
July 26th, 2011 , by John Beeler
Samuel Bing and Sinosa Loa of Fol Chen have invented something amazing they call The Fol Chen Verbal Algorithm Composer-Free Song Generator. They'll debut this wonderful new process at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on Thursday from 2pm to 6pm.