Tag: Haute

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Rising Paris-based act BLOW Performs Languorous and Woozy “Shake The Disease” on A COLORS SHOW

BLOW, a rising Paris-based indie pop act featuring Quentin Gugliemi (vocals), Thomas Clarice (bass), Jean-Etienne Maillard (guitar) can trace their origins back to Nancy, France’s Music Academy International, where Claire and Maillard first met — as roommates. With the release of their earliest material — 2017’s Fall in Deep EP and 2018’s full-length debut Vertigo — the French indie pop trio quickly established a a sleek, modern pop sound inspired by acts like Moderat, Jungle, The xx and others, paired with lyrics written and sung in English.

The Disease is slated for release this fall. Much like their previously released work, Shake The Disease’s material is written and sung completely in English; but unlike its predecessors, the album sonically and aesthetically is a creative left turn for the members of BLOW: While largely inspired by a collective love of hip-hop, particularly for obsessive hip-hop fans Crayon and Clarice, Shake The Disease finds the members of BLOW driven by the collective instinct to leaven the electronic textures of their previously released work with more organic sounds.

Written both prior to and amidst France’s pandemic-related lockdowns over the past 18 months, Shake The Disease reportedly is deeply inspired by the immediate circumstances of its creators, and as as a result, the album’s material reportedly throbs with the anxiety and unease of living in an increasingly unsettled world on the verge of collapse. Lyrically and thematically, the album’s material often seems to hold a mirror up to a generation — or two — that finds themselves forced to increasing question everything they’ve done and been told.

Shake The Disease’s latest single, album title track “Shake The Disease” is a languorous and woozy track featuring an elastic groove, tweeter and roofer rattling beats, swelling atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, bursts of strummed guitar and a scuzzy yet soulful guitar solo reminiscent of Steely Dan’s “Peg.” Crayon’s Yacht Rock meets Quiet Storm-like production serves as a lush and sultry bed for achingly vulnerable vocal performances from BLOW’s Gugliemi and HAUTE’s Anna Madison that express longing, confusion, a desperate desire for connection with someone in a complicated, mad world.

“This is not a love song,” the members of BLOW explain. “It’s a call for help written during a complicated time where we were losing our marks. We naturally thought of Anna to perform and embody one of the two characters in the track’s narrative. We love her voice which was perfect to bring warmth and sensuality to the track, which she effortlessly did. We’re very proud and happy to have her on the album. 

Gugliemi and HAUTE’s Majidson recently performed “Shake The Disease” on A COLORS SHOW, an ongoing live series by ColorsxStudios that features emerging artists performing material in an extremely minimalist fashion: in a room with floors and walls in a single color and a microphone.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Electro Pop Duo Synapson Teams Up with Sengalese Singer/Songwriter Lass on a Breezy and Genre-Defying Single

Synapson is a French electronic music production and artist duo, comprised of Alexandre Chiere (keys, saxophone, beats, vocals) and Paul Cucuron (drums, turntables, production and mixing) and since their formation in 2009, the duo have been critically and commercially successful — they’ve sold over 150,000 physical copies and have amassed over 100 million streams; however, they may be best known for their remake/re-work of Burkinabe singer/songwriter and musician Victor Deme’s “Djon’maya,” which they renamed “Djon Maya Mai,” and their original track “All In You,” featuring Anna Kova. Both tracks were smash hits in the duo’s native France, as they charted at #12 and #10 respectively. 

The duo’s soon-to-be released album Super 8 will further cement their reputation for a sound that possesses elements of nu-disco, deep house but it finds them at their most ambitious, as they collaborate with a diverse, international cast including French act M83’s Mai-Lan,  Archive’s Holly, Kaleem Taylor, L. Marshall, Idyllwild’s Casey Abrams, Miami-born, Paris-based rapper Beat Assailant, Jamaica-born, London-based Taneisha lJackson, Tim Dup, Haute’s Tessa B. and Blasé, Sengalese singer/songwriter Lass and a list of others. 

Super 8’s latest single “Souba” synthesis of French electro pop, house music and Afropop as its centered around a slick yet soulful production featuring a looped, shimmering guitar line, a sinuous bass line, thumping beats and a club rocking and radio friendly hook. And unsurprisingly, the two step inducing track will remind the listener that electronic dance music translates language and culture, and that perhaps most important, it’s music that’s always a beneficial unifying force. Additionally, the track will establish the duo on a growing list of French electronic music acts that blur genre lines with a globe spanning bent. 

The recently released video employs a simple but endearing concept — we see Lass and the members of Synapson hanging out in and around a prototypical European car. At points the videos features the members of the trio brooding, but for the most part they’re hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.