Popcorn Fiend releases a new single, ‘Bear On Bear’, on the Pure Moth label.

Available to stream or download, it’s the first single to be taken from an album, ‘Distance’, due out on September 18th.

It’s also the first new material in eight years from Michael MacLennan, with the debut long-player from which the track comes being 17 years in the making.

The opening track on ‘Distance’, is, like the album’s 12 tunes, co-produced by Chvrches collaborator and engineer David R Simpson.

Also featured on the release is the drumming of Ross Rankin (The Kills, Titus Gein, and Lauren Mayberry’s previous act Blue Sky Archives, with whom MacLennan worked on in producing their videos).

“Bear on Bear was written specifically with Ross in mind, who is one of the best and most fearsomely entertaining drummers I have had the pleasure of playing with,” MacLennan says of the percussionist, who also played in a live incarnation of Popcorn Fiend, formed to promote most recent offering, 2011’s ‘PF/EP’.

“Ross plays with such ferocity I wanted to create a bank of electronics that he would effectively be playing against, setting up a musical clash of titans, a showdown finale between man and machine,” he adds.

The track also comes with a Manga-style animated video directed by Mike Chase. “It was important to have a video which represented the idea of a titanic clash but was also nimble, fun, and moving,” say MacLennan. “Manga had just the sort of heightened realism that felt like it would match the track perfectly.”

Popcorn Fiend began life in Aberdeen in 2003, releasing debut EP ‘Subliminal Messages Will Mess With Your Mind’ – its lead track ‘No, Martha, Not The Gun!’ appearing on the covermount CD which came with issue #8 of is this music? magazine.

Since then, MacLennan moved to Glasgow, where in 2011 he recruited a full band, which included members of Blue Sky Archives, Deathpodal and Titus Gein, to promote ‘PF/EP’, before leaving Glasgow for Manchester, then London, and then Salzburg in Austria.

‘Distance’ was built up over the course of 2019, with engineer David R Simpson, an old friend, being brought in to co-produce, mix, and master the album.

‘Distance’ track listing:

01 Bear On Bear
02 You Don’t Know
03 Sketch of a Plan
04 This Ballroom’s For Dancing
05 A Virtue
06 The Fourth Wall
07 Remain
08 Reciprocity
09 My Life. Your Life. Our Life
10 I Wish
11 Call For Aid

More at facebook.com/popcornfiend.