i think i'll never forget the day i first heard vitesse... it was a rainy winter day, which means a perfect day for vitesse sound. they're music moved me so deep that after a week i had listen more than 700 times their songs and they got to #1 in my last.fm account. i tend to say that if i were music, i'd definitely sound like vitesse.
vitesse is an american duo formed by hewson chen on vocals, guitars and keyboards and joshua klein on bass and keyboards. they first got together at university of chicago, back in 1997 for a collaboration on a study for they're class of music composition. after 36 hours they had what would be their first lp: a certain hostility.
so this is really bedroom music... their biggest influence is british synthpop from the 80's. but vitesse sounds way more delicate, melancholic and melodic. they tend to sound less electronic, giving more attention to the melodies and a wide range of sounds to create beautiful and unique pop synthscapes.
chen's voice is also a great feature... it's mellow and so lazy that some people say that he seemed to be bored as hell when recorded the songs. i disagree and actually think that this languidness is perfect for their music and lyrics because brings a sense of confort and warmth.
in a certain hostility you'll find a very competent cover from cheap trick's 'southern girls' and one of my favorite vitesse's song 'car crash' that opens beautifully the album.
'the human element' is also a great song with its rhytmated drums and awesome combination keyboard+guitars and chen's singing 'ta ta ta ta ta ta' behind the lyrics... just wonderful.
vitesse goes very well with dark weekend afternoons when you have nothing to do and just wanna spend your time watching life goes by by the window.
01. car crash
02. the stars don't shine as bright as street lights
03. the saddest day
04. a fine young age
05. the selfish nature of your eyes
06. southern girls
07. the human element
08. spun right around
09. a day's education
10. greener than the everglades
11. before today
12. faded and covered with dust
ps: in 2002 the band quietly broke up. according to their label's website, what was last known of the pair is the following: “…Hewson currently lives in Nashville where he attends Vanderbilt University’s Law School. Josh is settled in Chicago where he writes extensively for the entertainment section of a very funny weekly paper. Don’t expect any live dates soon.”
No comments:
Post a Comment