Rapid Fiction started in 2004 when Carl Thompson and Nick Mann pooled their creative talent and has since expanded incrementally like the hole in the ozone layer (except they sound better). Demis Kyriacou was looking for a car and found them. Hugo Bronstein was looking for wild sex and found them. Marc Picazo was probably just looking for muffins when he found them. They didn’t have a policy on only employing people with good surnames; it just panned out that way.

Hailed as dark, edgy and enigmatic, with a touch of captivating madness, they have been compared to early Roxy, Interpol, The Killers, The Cure, Joy Division and The Faint.

The band has a popular following within London’s growing alternative, electro, glam rock clubs, giving a refreshing and addictive break from the safer sounds on offer around the capital.

Having appeared at the renowned Underworld in Camden and Madam Jo Jos in Soho, Rapid Fiction have also played at among others, the decadently glam Club Bohemia and Deviant nights in Islington, The Twisted Club, The Rhythm Factory, Sound and The Metro Club. They also featured on XFM Unsigned in June 2006. Having previously forayed into North-East England, they intend to spread their influence further afield in the near future.

A single, Pristine 18, will be released in September, which follows the search for the face of the record, attracting 19 models and nearly 24,000 votes on a dedicated site – www.pristine18.co.uk

Rapid Fiction's song Narcostar featured on Germany's Radio Electrowahn recently, and their single, Pristine 18, was song of the week in Nov 2006 on the Sky and internet radio station, Pulse Rated.


Line up

Carl Thompson – vocals
Nick Mann – bass
Marc Picazo – keyboards
Demis Kyriacou – drums
Hugo Bronstein – guitars

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Press

"by this time next year, [they] could be dominating your CD collection and demanding your complete idolisation."
Review from Heathen Angel

Rapid Fiction have created a 3 track CD of edgy, dark, electronic-new-wave-indie-with-keyboards. The 'Under The Pulse' EP is essentially built up of strong and steady syncopated drum beats, sharp and piercing guitar, and the kind of vocals Brandon Flowers wanted to achieve after he'd first heard a Joy Division record. In essence, Rapid Fiction have taken everything they've loved about the bands they've listened to themselves, and tried to subtly fuse them together, with successful results…Give it time; Rapid Fiction are the kind of band who, by this time next year, could be dominating your CD collection and demanding your complete idolisation. Rating: 7/10


"a buzz and fervour and the ability to swagger out of the doom to instil urgency and passion and an unabashed nature to preserve it…a tune Interpol would currently kill for."
Review from Damn Pest

Intense, dark, electronic and Gothic. East London's Rapid Fiction successfully merge the Birthday Party 80s atmospheric dirges with modern electronic rock akin to the likes of The Faint. The result is a similar edginess we encountered when first sampling Interpol. Yet Interpol now sound pompous and pretentious, Rapid Fiction have a buzz and fervour and the ability to swagger out of the doom to instil urgency and passion and an unabashed nature to preserve it. Leave them all behind is the rock track of the trio, frayed, charged guitar with swirling electronics yet is tempered with a sophisticated, elegant, almost Chameleon vocal, a vocal that does indeed bring us back to the broody days of The Comsat Angels and the aforementioned colour changing lizards. Phone is a repetitive, driving mantra that engulfs and en-trances. Yet it is in the final track Sheet Music that Rapid Fiction escape the shackles of their influences and produce a sound of their own. Introspective, atmospheric, a smoke filled silhouette that simmers just below boiling point, a tune Interpol would currently kill for.


"a seductively dark velvety affair"
Review from Vanity Project

Rapid Fiction is a seductively dark velvety affair, gothic swirling keyboards, early Joy Division guitars and David Byrne style vocals. The Narcostar demo has two tracks that sound like the Talking Heads man fronting early Cure, it is dark, black and dripping in eyeliner beneath a big coat. Under The Pulse is their latest demo, three tracks of dark electronic rock that builds on its predecessor. Yeah it is very 80s sounding but they do it very well and yeah you can hear many other bands in it but they end up sounding like Rapid Fiction rather than some nostalgia trip. Lots of nice little things happening like the little eastern swirl of synth in Phone while Sheet Music is pure dark cabaret and brings to mind Dream City Film Club. Bewitching pair of demos that bode well for the future.


"Really edgy, almost fractured dark electronic new wave rock... focused and wired and in danger of falling off that edge they are walking on"
Discourse/Narcostar gets demo of the week on Organart:
Review from Organart

Edgy, really edgy, almost fractured dark electronic new wave rock, it sounds like early Roxy, actually he sounds like Bryan Ferry and they sound like PIL, focused and wired and in danger of falling off that edge they are walking on, twisted dimensions and fighting apathy, guitar driven dark electronic music, like a Franz from the underworld, Fire Engine, The Cure. Perfectly named as well, rapid fiction indeed. From London, they are watching when it all collides. Refreshingly unsettling.


"Quite simply, the whole thing reeks of a sublimity most residents of suburban Britannia haven't witnessed since Live Aid"
Review from Drowned in Sound

While the icicles fall off the windows and the bottom drops out of the wallet, the last thing you need after a cold Christmas is yet another band proclaiming their love of all things Le Bon et Flowers, right? WRONG. London based four piece Rapid Fiction may have the right influences (CHECK) and the right sound (CHECK) but there you have it...and so do they! Y'see, in these times of wishy washy eighties pilfered rehashed quagmires of aural junkfood, Rapid Fiction shine through like a beacon in the most smog cascaded blizzard.

And little wonder too when the beautifully discordant charm of 'Discourse' - all 'Speak And Spell' era Depeche Mode synths colliding with a bassline straight out of the Dengler book of D'chord polished off by the most Ferry-esque vocal since well....Bryan Ferry last gave a fuck about anything really.

Likewise the introspective 'Narcostar', which caresses Bowie's third decade-nt metamorphis and throws a new light over the phrase "new romantic".

Quite simply, the whole thing reeks of a sublimity most residents of suburban Britannia haven't witnessed since ooh...Live Aid. 4/5


"they have a lot to offer."
Review from Ryan Butcher of Coolnoise

They are ambitious in musical terms by trying to create less obvious melodies and structures in the interests of unsettling the listener. I particularly like the Leave Them All Behind track - it reminds me very much of Essential Bop (but I am probably the only person who remembers that Bristol Band). They will be gigging in London soon and promise much. The vocals and keyboards suggest that they have a lot to offer.
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1. Rapid Fiction - Discourse
2. Rapid Fiction - Narcostar

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Olga aka Shrinkwrapper

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Arrgh! Sorry, guys! Misquoted yr lyrics - I went back and checked cos it nagged me: "I put the phone through my head, etc" is what you sing - I'm so thick there's no way the phone would go through this bonce. - (Note to self: Brush up on multitasking skills. Lesson 1:- How to chew gum and type at the same time) - Love, Olga

Thursday August 24 2006 @ 10:47 pm

Olga aka Shrinkwrapper

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Rapid Fiction's set at the Hope and Anchor, Islington, a few months back (when The Buzz were also on the bill) was one of the most exciting 'first encounters' I've had. Love at first sight & hearing. "Pristine 18", in all its versions and remixes is great - but I can't pick up a phone without hearing that insistent riff and cry "I put the phone to my head, I put the phone to my head, I put the phone to my head..." I'm gonna put my hand in pocket and buy your CDs for everyone I know. I put my hand in my pocket, I put my hand in my pocket etc etc - Love, Olga

Thursday August 24 2006 @ 10:36 pm

heykiddego (Webmaster)

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EDM Spectrum email: lustrealitypromotions@edmspectrum.com
Myspace Profile: www.myspace.com/rapidfiction
Website: www.rapidfiction.co.uk