Sometimes a fine band must age like a fine wine or cheese. Ashrae Fax have done just that. The Greensboro, North Carolina duo has announced the release of their first new tracks in eleven years. Formed by Renee Mendoza and Alex Chesney, Ashrae Fax recalls the the celestial mystique of a band like The Cocteau Twins, however, they are making this music now. As Mendoza once said in an interview, “Things happen in cycles so the Internet and a decade of time passing has made it so that what was out of place then is in now.”
In 2003, the band recorded a sleeper hit, Static Crash!, but then disbanded. Following Mexican Summer’s successful vinyl reissue of the album in 2013, Ashrae Fax was resurrected. In the years since, the band has compiled ten forgotten ’90s demos into the album, Never Really Been Into It. “This would have been our first full-length if we had any idea what we were doing,” says Mendoza of the record. Without reading any of the above, a naive listener might mistake the album’s first single, “CHKN,” as a song straight out of the ’80s. Their mistake would not be without cause. “CHKN” has the soaring vocals and the dark yet danceable synths of classic 4AD ethereal dream pop. Never Really Been Into It exists in its own world, untouched by time.
Never Really Been Into It will be out August 26 in both vinyl and digital formats via Mexican Summer.
