Part Ii: The New December

For its second album, Highland Park sextet Fol Chen presents Part II:The New

December, songs of malaise and miscommunication set to dark pop and glitchriddled

chamber funk. Since the band’s inception, Fol Chen has remained a

mysterious entity – its membership disguised by masks and aliases, its lyrics

appearing as transmissions from a fictional world.

Fol Chen’s wildly eclectic 2009 debut, Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made,

spawned some healthy praise (from NPR, no less), a remix album

(featuring No Kids and Junior Vasquez, among others), a BBC session, and a

video collaboration with the Laker Girls.

Fol Chen’s bent, blackened takes on the pop eccentrics of yore provided

fresh context for its own kaleidoscopic songs, and The New December shores

up the group’s slippery identity further still. This is Fol Chen’s most focused

work – as consistent as it is consuming, as enjoyable as it is unusual.