Listening to Marc Riley today, he played a song from The European. As you do when half paying attention to the radio – I didn’t catch it all. But by the end of the song (In a Very Real Sense Now) I was scrambling onto google to see what more I can find out about the band. It turns out a New LP (debut?) has just been released on Stolen Recordings. I couldn’t wait so got the songs from iTunes, with a vinyl order to arrive in due course too. I haven’t been able to find out much about The European apart from what is written on the Stolen Recordings web page:
THE EUROPEAN is a new solo project from musician, artist and software designer Simon Break (formerly of ICEBREAKER INTERNATIONAL and PIANO MAGIC). Influenced by classic pop, computer music, seventies minimalism and vintage blues and folk, THE EUROPEAN rejects the staple pop subject matter of romance and facile self-actualisation in favour of themes of compromise, frustration, psychosexual angst and cultural confusion.
And who am I to disagree. Stolen have good taste and this LP is rather wonderful. Sparse electronic pop with a warm heartbeat. I’ve only played it once through and it sounds like a lot of things – but no one influence looms large. If that makes sense. It’s rather hypnotic and quite wonderful. You can hear the electronic pop of Kraftwerk (and a host of others that followed in Kraftwerks wake in the early 80s) and classic pop leanings of bands like The Magnetic Fields. But this doesn’t actually sound like either of those bands – but you can hear their influence below the surface. That’s not to mention the feeling on the album closer ‘Tearaway’ you are listening to an out-there version of Abba. Like I said, this is just a wonderful album and it’s sure to be getting a lot of plays around these parts for the foreseeable future.
Links: The European | Stolen Recordings
Recent Comments