http://www.popnews.com/pop..news/the-fatales/New York saw the birth of The Fatales. The quartet was observed on a
compilation of Quebec label Where Are My Records, on which they had
slipped under the "Stadtpark". Yet a few years before, they had
self-released an EP in 2004, "Pretty in Pixels", which had not
attracted attention: this is the compilation of the label Québec who
provided the initial impetus and therefore needing to travel to Athens
last summer to record this first album, "Great Surround".
New Yorkers show their influences from the beginning of "Evergreen".
The darkness of the first Interpol meets romanticism of venomous
Tindersticks, arrangements for strings open space while keeping this
vaporous, which surrounds the melodies of a mantle of fog and
beautiful. Engage immediately on something else, "Islands of Fortune"
is more direct, worn by the galloping bass line, rhythmic backbone of
the song, in which guitars are added in the background, always
threatening but never aggressive, the drums and panting synthetic keys,
which are in effect raising the illuminations title. And it is very
difficult to take in the absence of the songwriting New Yorker, as "Old
Painter" and his duo-piano drums are wonderfully enhanced by the breaks
that always fall just where it should, and also by the exalted song of
Wayne Switzer, who is somewhere between those of Tom Smith (Editors),
Thom Yorke and Paul Banks. The group is even able to write an anthem
perfect for stage, as he proves with "Vanishing Act" and its soaring
vocal, and his emphasis in his final apotheosis.
The climate becomes more gloomy, weighing on "Stadtpark", a beautiful
waltz with both ice and sensual. What is ultimately the most amazing
and most astounding in the music of The Fatales, this ability to
manipulate the listener gently through the atmosphere, always
ambivalent, playing on a range of emotions very broad. Mixtures of
these melodies out of any beauty, sublimated by the production of Andy
Lemaster (Bright Eyes), light when it should be, powerful songs to
accompany more direct. This exercise is performed perfectly on the
cavalcade of "Darkened Country," whose melodic lines moving at full
speed, sometimes air, sometimes engaging in frontal attacks, with
guitars that suddenly become abrasive. And when the ethereal "Violet"
begins, the listener changes his musical universe (guitars and
compactness have left their place to synthetic groundwater and open
spaces) but the class that comes from the song, its appearance in both
romantic and melodic, its underlying melody are hyphens between the
titles. A hyphen, it is still the issue with synthetic "City Route",
heartbeat rhythm and plans to announce the sublime "torches" which
closes the disc. Caressing, magnificent, singing a melody accompanies
Switzer unstoppable, which seems to cut again to a stage but never
sounds complacent, opening the door, I hope, a bright future for The
Fatales: in any case, "Great Surround "is a masterstroke, composed of
ten titles in a stunning beauty.
Mickaël Choisi