06 Mar 2012 — Henning Lahmann
A little while back
we premiered the video for "Rituals", the first track to be uncovered off
Death And Vanilla's self-titled debut EP, to be released March 13 conjointly by French imprint
Hands In The Dark and Sweden's
Kalligrammofon. Today, together with our friends over at
Hartzine and
Impose, we exclusively present the advance streaming of the whole album of the Malmö, Sweden-based duo, which was formed by Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson in 2007.
Blending 60s French pop, South European movie soundtracks of the same era, a pinch of library music, and a distinctly Lynchean appeal, the project's sound might be reminiscent of other backward-leaning dream pop outfits of recent years, think Still Corners or Trailer Trash Tracys for instance, yet the music of Death And Vanilla comes across as much more honest and thoughtful, and after all more sophisticated, especially in standout track "Cul De Sac", a magnificent psychedelic pop masterpiece that already has its spot reserved at any forthcoming late night summer rooftop barbecue this year.
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A little while back
we premiered the video for "Rituals", the first track to be uncovered off
Death And Vanilla's self-titled debut EP, to be released March 13 conjointly by French imprint
Hands In The Dark and Sweden's
Kalligrammofon. Today, together with our friends over at
Hartzine and
Impose, we exclusively present the advance streaming of the whole album of the Malmö, Sweden-based duo, which was formed by Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson in 2007.
Blending 60s French pop, South European movie soundtracks of the same era, a pinch of library music, and a distinctly Lynchean appeal, the project's sound might be reminiscent of other backward-leaning dream pop outfits of recent years, think Still Corners or Trailer Trash Tracys for instance, yet the music of Death And Vanilla comes across as much more honest and thoughtful, and after all more sophisticated, especially in standout track "Cul De Sac", a magnificent psychedelic pop masterpiece that already has its spot reserved at any forthcoming late night summer rooftop barbecue this year.
Quite a few things have already been said about Dylan Ettinger's recent turn towards song-based structures, for instance here or here, yet "Blue and Blue", the closing track of his forthcoming full-length Lifetime of Romance, is a good opportunity to re-emphasize our sheer amazement in view of this realignment which is, plainly, nothing short of mind-blowing. Though we couldn't find any Cure in here, the embracement of cold-hearted yet open-minded 80s synth pop is simply startling and keeps getting more and more exciting with every listen, and in this regard "Blue and Blue" is perhaps even more compelling than the already brilliant album opener "Wintermute" - crisp, focused, and not wasting a single note or noise, this is an excellent pop song.
Lifetime of Romance is out March 20 via Not Not Fun.
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