N0V3L - Non Fiction (2021) Hi Res

N0V3L's debut full-length, NON-FICTION, comprises 11 tracks that function as a treatise on modern existence and the perverse parameters within which it's experienced. It's a collection of agile, carefully-constructed post-punk, new wave, funk, and garage rock that's been zapped and warped by an opioid overdose crisis, mental illness, populism, and the merciless onward march of time. Intimate sadnesses and structural violences are blurred to the jagged quirk of sharp guitars, commanding bass, acrid saxophone, and mournful keys, all propelled ever forward by nimble drumming. It's dark and occasionally danceable, a macabre late-capitalist disco under a pall of confusion. NON-FICTION was written between 2017 and 2020, and recorded on a Tascam-388 in the band's since-torn-down rental home. Bryce Cloghesy (Military Genius, Crack Cloud) produced and mixed the record, which trades in the first EP's martial rigidity for a broader approach to actualizing the band's tensions. The Vancouver tear-down, previously the band's headquarters for producing music, videos, and clothing, was slowly evacuated, as members moved out in advance of the inevitable. N0V3L, once a concentrated machine, is now spread across the western province of British Columbia.