Hi Fiction Science - S/T

Quite an interesting offering this. Hi Fiction Science are an offshoot of former Bristol drone merchants Suncoil Sect. When this CD started out I wasn't sure I'd be into it at all, since the opening track begins with some fairly pedestrian indie rock, but pretty soon it settles into a series of extended kraut-indie jams. Singer Maria Charles's vocals are kind of folky and help draw it into quite shoegazey territory in places. As often happens when psychedelia and indie rock meet, though, sometimes the songs can seem a bit drawn out when they're more vocal-heavy, and the high points on this record for me are where they're all locked into a groove and the vocals take a break or are more incidental, like in 'Kosmonaut'. Whack some extra phaser on some parts of this album and you could be listening to Hawkwind or something. These guys are clearly used to playing together and the pace remains quite casual throughout, really. It's quite unusual hearing so much folk and early-90s indie influence on what is essentially a psychedelic record, but its straightforwardness can keep them from really getting as deep into their hypnotic grooves as I'd like. I'm finding this very hard to pin down. I guess as with most experimental music, some parts work better than others.