Where
1A Camden High St, London
Oslo-based pop duo Philco Fiction have received great reviews for their latest single Runimals. On 5 February the London audience get a chance do dance along to their musical tunes at their concert in Camden.
Among the several electropop musicians in Norway these days, Philco Fiction stands out in the way they embrace widely covered truisms of life and love in their music. With music consisting of blazing horns, melodic and tender keys, as well as bouncy drums, Philco Fiction are building suspense before their debut album Talk/Brag are due on 29 January.
“The song is slowly building, constantly introducing new elements and new members to the band”, the duo explains about their most recent single, Runimals. “When we get to the third verse, everybody’s there and we’re stronger than ever, preaching every cliché we know and love. It’s “Let’s stay together” and “You’re the inspiration.” It’s “Lean on me” and “I’ll be there”.
Turid Alida Solberg and Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød in Philco Fiction. Photo: Kjell Ruben Strøm
“Our music is about making people dance and cry at the same time“, drummer Andreas Lømo Knudsrød has said, which probably sounds a lot more alarming than it is. Their first album, Take It Personal, landed in 2011, bringing layers of thoughtful, breathily sincere vocals to the kind of upbeat dance-pop rhythms last heard in the early 1990s. Norway’s gig-goers were hooked, and the world’s music critics had to polish off adjectives rarely since the golden age of Prince. ‘An unashamed explosion of colour-drenched neo-pop and crystalline dream disco,’ said Dazed, while The Guardian named the ‘twisted pop sensation’ band of the week in January 2012.
Since then, Philco Fiction have filled their diary with festival appearances (including The Great Escape, Øya and SXSW), toured Europe (appearing with the likes of Neon Indian, Chromatics and I Blame Coco), premiered their quirky, jerky, quasi-industrial dance single ‘Oh Future’ on MTV Iggy, and performed across the breadth of China, from Shanghai to Lijiang.
Runimals, recently premiered on Noisey . The review of the track says that “the song’s sleek percussion evolves continuously, with singer Turid Solberg’s breathy voice gliding gently over swelling synths and momentous, brassy vivacity”.
Everyday bliss, in other words. Moreover, it does not look like Noisey is alone on loving Philco Fiction’s music. Colorising consider Runimals to be the best single yet from Philco Fiction, and describes it as “ripe with musicality”. Not only, do they write, does the Oslo duo know how to make catchy pop tracks, they understand how to make them big.
Check out Runimals below and see whether you agree:
