Fritz Michel – Darker Now
Some folks make music that will open up the doors to the world to them. These are the people that dream of touring, meeting people, sleeping on their floors, living the adventure of their lifetimes. Other people like spending a lot of time locked up in their room that may just conveniently double as their studio. They don’t so much dream about meeting people through their music as much as feel weary about it. Still, they too long for making connections. These are the people that have listened to a lot of tunes that have been produced by like-minded studio hermits, or by people who’ve taken their love of literature and brought that passion towards their music-making.
French-born, New-York artist Fritz Michel feels like he belongs to the latter category. His music draws from the late-night bohemian music of artists like Lou Reed, or Brian Ferry. It also takes its cues from Lindsey Buckingham and Phil Spector, music production architects.
The song is a pure musical neo-noir, with a guitar that spits out brilliant reverb-soaked riffs, vocal melodies that glide weightlessly as a leaf in the wind, and a clear delimited, excellent construction. Darker Now digs into the realm of the classics and could well become one itself.
Hallan – Hands Up
The pop-art revolution has failed us, or at the very least, has failed to change the world in a significant way. The thing to do about it, I reckon is to go back and see where we collectively made a false step.
Many bands are looking towards the past, dressing retro and occasionally looking like something Led Zeppelin might have dressed up after a night of particularly hard boozing. There’s a lot of recycling going on.
Still, some like Hallan are looking back and remaking blues-rock into their own image. It’s the kind of sound that should have dominated the airwaves, the natural step forward if the psychedelic 60s had not been derailed by the materialistic 70s.
Clever, well-produced and looking for a fight, Hallan is a band crafted to demand attention like a drunken clown at a children’s birthday party.
