Real Lies’ debut album, Real Life, released back in 2015, was an ode to suburban youth wasted in London’s fringes. A constellation of nostalgic synthpop, optimistic dub, dark clubs, bad pubs, and house music.
After spending two and a half years working on a follow up the first track is here today, appropriately just in time for the hottest weekend of the year so far. The Checks is a seven-minute-long slice of swaggering mid tempo bang-the-box restraint-and-release techno. A swirling, psychedelic, pumping tribute to the existential mysteries of nights out.
“Less Pet Shop Boys, more British Murder Boys” is their description of their new direction. The Checks was “written on the streets of London on a hot summer’s night that was as lonely as it was euphoric.” A song inspired by “fairground waltzers, shit housemates, the broken cadence of radio football commentaries, Depeche Mode, Carson McCullers, lost-hours sofa mystics, Euthymol, pylon grids, the Blackwall Tunnel, the rain, strangers and battery life.”
The Checks is being released via the bands new label, UNREAL, and will be accompanied by a new club night on June the 15th at Emily’s bar. They have also made a Spotify for you to listen to, full of musical inspirations and treasures. Sign up to the mailing list at the band’s website reallies.co.uk for tickets and the inside track on the succession of new Real Lies releases and remixes that will follow across the summer.