Comprised of Chrissy, a based genre-bending electronic music producer, artist and DJ, known for critically applauded releases through Classic, Freerange, Planet Mu and Hypercolour, his DJ residency at Chicago‘s legendary Smart Bar and his influential My Year of Mixtapes blog; and Hawley Shoffner, a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, who has developed a reputation locally for writing thoughtful, contemplative lyrics, Chrissy and Hawley are a Chicago, IL-based electro pop duo whose sound has been compared favorably to the likes of Yazoo, Pet Shop Boys, Arthur Russell, Kid Creole and The Coconuts, Larry Levan and Patrick Cowley. And as a result, the duo have received public praise the likes of The Black Madonna, Honey Soundsystem, Prince Rama, Skream, Soul Clap and Avalon Emerson.
As the story goes, Chrissy and Shoffner are both originally from Kansas — although they met in Chicago and began working together on an album that effortlessly meshes both of their unique styles — and as you’ll hear on their latest single “My Top Twenty,” off their soon-to-be released self-titled debut effort, Chrissy pairs a propulsive production of shimmering, brief bursts of twinkling keys and wobbling synths and skittering drum programming with Shoffner’s coquettish vocals singing lyrics about the connection between love and your favorite albums. And in some way, the duo’s latest single reminds me quite a bit of the propulsive and shimmering sounds of Soft Metals impressive Lenses album and classic house music — although “My Top Twenty” is far more coquettish and airier.
The recently released music video is an appropriately lighthearted and goofy video that features the duo’s Hawley Shoffner singing the song at a karaoke bar while the video within the video features Shoffner pensively wandering around parts of Chicago and goofing around in the karaoke-styled visuals you’d expect to see in a karaoke bar.
