New York’s MELOMANE make smart, cinematic rock music. They write great songs and use real instruments, strings and horn sections; they also know how to rock computers and electronic drums to spice up a pop song. Their distinctive sound has been described as Roxy Music covering Elvis Costello or Calexico covering Wings. Some have called Melomane “the most European band in America,” and others call them pop-noir. Experience the lush sonic textures, sweet harmonies, and biting yet hopeful lyrics and let your ears decide. “These tracks combine garage accessibility and boho poetry with an ingenuity that will win over intelligent listeners and show musicians just how far a band can travel…” (All Music Guide).
Glaciers (2006,Vermillion Music), Melomane’s 3rd full length CD release is the group’s most stunning to date. The group has expanded on their enormously appealing artful arrangements throughout this collection of songs, notably with the track I’m in Love with Love/The Ballot is the Bullet, a timely and personal comment on the American situation as it stands. From opening track Hilarious, a deft love waltz set against the backdrop of global warming, to final track Kill Kill Kill, a death-disco invocation against violence, this album thrills and chills throughout.
Melomane’s first two releases, Solresol (2003) and Resolvo (2001) received rave reviews throughout the US and Europe including Rolling Stone, Magnet, The Village Voice, Intro and more. These CDs are available in the US on the band’s Vermillion Music label via the band’s website www.melomane.org, myriad online distributors, and in Europe through Hamburg-based XXS Records/Indigo, Seahorse Recordings in Italy and Soyuz Records in Russia.
Originally conceived in 1998 by front-man Pierre de Gaillande, Melomane’s line-up eventually solidified to include bassist/vocalist Daria Klotz, cellist/synth-player Frank Heer, keyboardist Quentin Jennings, and drummer Kenny Savelson. Frequent additional performers include Philippa Thompson on violin and saw, Brad Stewart and Jesse Neuman on trumpet, and Jody Redhage on cello.
Over 6 years, Melomane has performed regularly in NYC at venues such as Joe’s Pub, Tonic, Mercury Lounge, BAM Cafe, Northsix, and others. The group tours Europe each year and has appeared at festivals and venues throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy and France. They were sponsored by the US embassy in Moscow in September, 2006 for a four-concert series in Russia. Melomane has appeared in New York, nationally and internationally with artists such as Wilco, Keren Ann, Luna, Arab Strap, Eleni Mandell, Fastball, and many others.
Glaciers
reviewed by:New Yorker – www.newyorker.com/goingson/nightlife/
Melomane, a Brooklyn-based collective known for intricate pop songs with chamber-music flourishes, sets up shop in this converted silo beside the Gowanus Canal to celebrate the release of its third CD, “Glaciers.” The singing, which is done by the Parisian-born front man Pierre de Gaillande and the bassist Daria Klotz, rises to adventurous peaks, and the rest of the band—a cellist, a keyboardist, a drummer, and often a violinist and cornettist—gives the material a cinematic lushness. On “Glaciers,” the songs move with a deliberate force that befits the album’s title.
reviewed by:New York Post – www.nypost.com/entertainment/67350.html
POP IN THE GOWANUS CANAL ZONE
MELOMANE creates lush, expansive pop music, and the Brooklyn act’s release party tonight for its third album, ‘Glaciers,’ should be a night to remember (not only for the guest musician on the saw, either).
The group will celebrate at the Issue Project Room (400 Carroll St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; [718] 330-0313), a circular music space in an old grain silo on the gritty banks of the Gowanus Canal.
For a twist, Melomane will perform from the perimeter of the space as the audience listens from the center, which, the band explains, will be like a ‘a live surround-sound ‘Zaireeka’,’ referring to the Flaming Lips’ set of four discs that are supposed to be a played simultaneously. There will be a moonlight stroll along the water after the set.
By Mary Huhn
reviewed by:St. Petersburg Times –
October 2006.
Click here for article.
reviewed by:Affisha –
September 2006
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reviewed by:Lift – lift.altervista.org/seconda/recensionidisch
October 2006
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reviewed by:Italian Connection – www.melomane.org/images/icc.htm
reviewed by:Blow Up – www.melomane.org/images/BlowUp.jpg
reviewed by:Rockerilla – www.melomane.org/images/Rockerilla.jpg
reviewed by:Rumore – www.melomane.org/images/Rumore.jpg
reviewed by:Lucid Culture – lucidculture.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/cd-review-me
Melomane “Glaciers” Vermillion/Seahorse 2006