Format: Vinyl
Label: Lucy Lee
Cat Label Num:001
Release date : Jan 30th 2005
The first release of the young Brussels-based label Lucy Lee gives new relevance to a sound too often neglected on the dancefloor: a music that is brutal, hedonist, and existential. The source of this delicate equation goes by the name of tHe pEneLOpe[s], a Franco-Finnish duo based in Paris and the authors of a decadent and theatrical electro-pop. Refusing to choose between electronic and rock, theirs is a deliberately elusive attitude, rather like that of a dandy cultivating the elegance of his aura to probe beyond the superficial coating of people and things…
With their intense and incendiary live performances tHe pEneLOpe[s], have caused a storm in Parisian arts circles and count authors like Chloe Delaume, Regis Clinquart, the cineaste Jean-Paul Civeyrac (for whom the duo appeared in the film Le Doux Amour des Hommes) or the designer Agnes b., among their biggest fans. Their concerts, following in the wake of Morrissey or The Tindersticks, adhere to a tradition close to cabaret, to create a melodramatic, aggravated, but dance stage-setting of the human passions. Unforgettable performances that have indelibly marked many at Rex, Pulp, Culture Club,...
Musically, tHe pEneLOpe[s], have found the ideal range to depict their universe, mixing guitars and machines, somewhere between primitive constructivism inspired by post-punk (Fiction/Factory/Mute/Beggars Banquet/4AD nebula), synthetic disco, and German electro-tek. A mighty alchemy - fed by their common passion for compound melodies and vintage electronic instruments - with breathtaking results: a fantastic remix of LTNO (Black ex-pacifiers); their exquisite debut Purity Ep (released on A-Traction), and blinding contribution as the only French representatives on DJ Hell’s latest ‘International DJ Gigolo' compilation.
Simultaneously mechanical and vivid the “Steal This” EP, released on Lucy Lee, embodies the unique style of tHe pEneLOpe[s] with determination.
On “Steal This”, tHe pEneLOpe[s], revisit “Alice” a classic track from the Sisters of Mercy's gothic era, reviving an energy put to sleep for 20 years, and rediscovering its original pulsation, guitar, and guttural voice. On the poppy “Do you Think…?”, every melodic phrase reveals a different shadow: aspects of Andrew Eldritch (this time his side-project The Gift), New Order or the Belgian EBM scene (A Split Second). The B-side plays out with ”The Train”, a mechanical ballet whipped by synthetic guitars and an avalanche of snare drums and handclaps, the duo’s self-confessed péchés mignons.
3 floorfillers to make you forget the dawn closing in…
Tracklisting: A: Alice B1: Do You Think…? B2: The Train.
image
photography by Frederic Leemans
art direction
Coast
copyright Lucy Lee
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