REVIEWS:
SOLRESOL (Look for upcoming reviews in Magnet and Blender in October as well.)
Reviewer: SPLENDID ZINE Let's begin with a alphabetized list of bands and artists that NYC's Melomane has been compared to: 10cc, Lou Barlow, Beck, Calexico, Can, Leonard Cohen, Donovan, Duran Duran, Fugazi, Joe Jackson, Ennio Morricone, Nirvana, Pavement, Pixies, Spiritualized, Stereolab, Tindersticks, Tom Waits, Wings and Yo La Tengo. Yup, you counted right -- that's twenty separate musical entities, none of which has much to do with the others. Is this an act of extreme sonic hubris? Rampant overpromising? PR run amok? The funny thing is, as I listen to Solresol, none of the above name-checks seem to be all that egregious. So how does a band manage to evoke so many musical forebears at once? For starters, by jettisoning any pretense at having a core sound. Melomane is an eminently mutable combo, flitting from ye-ye pop to loungy cabaret without even a raised eyebrow. True, it's all delivered with a dark, smoky vibe imported from the decadent jazz clubs of Paris (lead singer/songwriter Pierre de Gaillande is a native), but that could hardly be described as a unifying feature, especially after sampling the quirky, wildly eclectic offerings on display here. "The Fighting Guitars" evokes the American West with weepy pedal steel and brushed drums, "Far Out" dives in with crunchy guitars, and the title track seems beamed in from a Euro-Pop variety show circa 1966. For those of you playing spot-the-influence, check out the Pavementisms in "Aria in D" and the Leonard Cohen-gone-jazz of "Complicated Melody." In truth, there's more to Melomane than globetrotting, pinch-of-this/dash-of-that fun. Both de Gaillande's literate lyrics and the band's tight musical chops elevate Melonmane above their peers, who so often treat genre-hopping as an end, not a means. Listeners seeking elegant pop that walks a fine line between high seriousness and goofy kicks will be nicely surprised by Solresol. At the very least, it's an excellent primer for the vast musical universe that Melomane calls home. - Ben Hughes
Reviewer: ALL MUSIC GUIDE Only a handful of artists can match the ability shown throughout Melomane's Solresol to bring tired images back to life, not exactly by pepping them up, but rather by exposing shadows within them that have never quite been noticed before. Smoking as a gesture of glamorous dissipation, for example, goes back to the 19th century, if not to whatever new-world-weary poseurs there were awaiting Columbus, but to turn that image into a metaphor for relationship in "The Spirit of Smoke" takes a deft hand as does the even bolder equation of musical scales with romantic entanglement on "Complicated Melody." And even though alt-pop writers have long clogged the road to irony, few have shown the moxie to deliver lines like "it's a revelation of massive scope," especially with the deadpan ennui shown in "Sol Re Sol." Augmented by yard-sale instrumentation a single fiddle, a lonesome trombone and sung either by Pierre de Gaillande alone or in dolorous duo with Daria Klotz, 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 when nested between self-imposed limitations. Robert L. Doerschuk
Reviewer: TASTES LIKE CHICKEN When I first put Melomaneıs new sophomore release, Solresol (Vermillion Music), into my CD player, my good friend Latta de Saint was in the room. The first track, "Complicated Melody", starts the disc off. "I donıt fucking believe it," I said. "What?" Realtoon inquired. "I actually got a CD I like to review. Hot!" And right off the bat, musically, Melomane reminded me of something. But I couldnıt place it. Their press release compares them to Calexico (a definite influence), Leonard Cohen (somewhat of a stretch), Beck (nowhere near as funky), and Stereolab (most definitely). But that still wasnıt it. What the fuck could it be? It has been making me nuts for weeks now. Until tonight. It finally hit me: Os Mutantes. They sound like Os Mutantes,.. only they speak English. The sextet combines guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, cello, trumpet, and samples. Itıs pretty,.. indescribable, to be honest. Itıs poppy, yet melancholy. Itıs light-hearted in its vibe, yet dark in its melodies. Itıs a mish-mash of a bunch of different things. And I dig it. And it also invokes memories of me being young and watching episodes of The Banana Splits on television. Donıt ask. At first, my only complaint was that I didnıt feel that singer Pierre de Gaillandeıs voice was doing the music justice. But, as someone close to me pointed out, "Give him a break. Heıs French." But as time went on, and as one listening turned into two, and two into many more, I have grown to like the vocals. Pierreıs voice actually fits now. And I no longer think that it is him that was out of place. I think it was me. Songs to pay extra special attention to are the slow and saucy "Far Out", the Modest Mouse-esque "The Cruise" (Yes, I made a GOOD comparison to Modest Mouse. Lay off.), and the lyrically addictive end track, "A Capella". Theyıre all pretty yummy, though. Since this is a sophomore album (and since most sophomore albums are typically mere shadows of freshman attempts), Iım now forced to hunt down their first album, Resolvo. Goddamnit. More money for me to spend. Guess it looks like Iım off to sell more guns and drugs to children in the inner-city. - insane wayne chinsang
Reviewer: BABYSUE.COM Melomane - Solresol (CD, Vermillion Music, Progressive pop) The second full-length release from New York's Melomane. Resolvo, the band's debut album, created quite a buzz. Solresol is bound to receive the same reaction, as it features more inventive and unusual pop with a uniquely cool slant. Melomane tunes are not obvious. The band composes material that is strangely different...yet intertwined with enough familiar threads to make for an easy and smooth listen. The band consists of Pierre de Gaillande, Daria Klotz, Frank Heer, Quentin Jennings, Kenny Savelson, and Jesse Neuman. Not surprisingly, the band's music has a French flavor (de Gaillande was born in France, you see...). The twelve tracks on Solresol present this band's multifaceted nature...making it difficult to draw comparisons. Soothing, complex...and very intriguing. Includes "Complicated Melody," "The Fighting Guitars," "The Cruise," and "Buddha Statue." (Rating: 5++)
Reviewer: THE PHILLER While some Americans decided to throw out all things related to France including such things as French toast and French fries over the disagreements between France and the United States regarding Iraq, the New York-based "pop-noir" group Melomane led by Paris-born singer-songwriter Pierre de Gaillande was working on their second album, Solresol, to be released August 19th on Vermillion Music. Strangely, when you look up "Solresol" on dictionary.com it is solely defined as being "an artificial language" with no mention of Frenchman Jean Francois Sudre, the creator of the universal language based on music by that name. It is this language that is the subject of the title track and reflected throughout the album with songs that use the subject as metaphor such as "Complicated Melody", "The Fighting Guitars", and "A Capella". Melomane, a sextet consisting of Daria Klotz (bass, vocals), Frank Heer (cello, synth), Quentin Jennings (keyboard), Kenny Savelson (drums), and Jesse Neuman (trumpet) backing de Gaillande, uses its collection of instruments and musicians to create a varied assortment of music, each song expertly orchestrated and layered to emit the fullest sound possible. Throughout the album a playful, filmic atmosphere is present adding a certain amount of visual depth not present on most albums. Basically, when it comes to Solresol, my feelings could be summed up by the following line from the album, "if I had to pick a word to talk about it, itıs far out." -- PhiLL Ramey
RESOLVO
Reviewer: VILLAGE VOICE
As leader of the six-piece "chamber pop" band Melomane (French for "lover of melody," roughly), musical wunderkind Pierre de Gaillande has a certain way of handling musicians who forget to play their parts during rehearsal. He shoots them a sharp look and then begins insistently hum-hollering the bit until it gets played. It's not that de Gaillande's a tyrant, because he's not; it's just that he knows these majestic pop songs in their entirety. If his own able hands weren't so tied up wrangling myriad sounds from his electric guitar, he'd surely be waving a conductor's wand or at least wagging a finger in the direction of his fellow musicians.
"It's hard- there are no rules for a six-piece pop band," he says, and so as main songwriter and engine behind the dynamic operation he acts as de facto band leader, although of late, he claims, things have become something of a democracy.
A veteran of numerous rock bands (Creedle, Morning Glories, and C Gibbs Review, with whom he toured the States opening for watered-down acts like Everclear and Mellencamp), de Gaillande grew tired of playing rock. He'd seen just about every last exciting way two guitars could come together to convey a theme. "If I hear a melody and I write it on a guitar that doesn't necessarily mean I want to hear it on a guitar," he declares.
Hence the current lineup: cello, keyboard, guitar, bass, trumpet, drums, and the dual haunting vocals of former couple de Gaillande and bassist Daria Klotz (God Is My Co-Pilot, Kings County Queens). In the real world, things might not have been so perfect, but onstage, the pair's voices form a blissful union, his deep and mournful, hers mellow and angelic, the combination alternately chilling and soothing.
It's this versatility- often displayed within one song- that makes the mercurial band so spellbinding. Melomane breathe life into their music by raising the specter of chaos. At times, the instruments are unwieldy and disparate, sounding almost as if there's an orchestra tuning up in the middle of a rock song, but then they inevitably coalesce into a lush and ebullient refrain.
As a rule, the spirit of the melody conceals darker lyrical content. The up-tempo, bouncy "All the Northern Birds," from the band's 2000 release Resolvo (Rubric Records), tells the grisly story of a man who escapes his past by slicing off his fingerprints. "Blood on the limestone/Blood on the shirt/I am a new man/This didn't hurt" goes the refrain. "Fifteen Steps" (heard in an episode of MTV's The Osbournes) is a vivacious, carnivalesque Creole stomp about getting drunk and eloping to Las Vegas (which de Gaillande did in his youth). Featured on "Fifteen Steps" are the baritone sax stylings of Australia's Paula Henderson (formerly of Gogol Bordello, currently of all-female instrumental group Moisturizer and Reverend Vince Anderson). Henderson often sits in when the group performs their songs live.
"We've been getting amazing responses," says de Gaillande, of the band's recent shows, despite the decided Strokes-ian leanings of today's music-club crowds. "You don't go to a Melomane show to watch a bunch of people jump around. You go because you want to hear something different." - Alison Rosen
Reviewer: babysue.com
Melomane is led by a Paris-born San Diego-raised gentleman named Pierre de Gaillande. Gaillande and company present a thoroughly mature and compelling batch of progressive pop tunes on Resolvo. The tunes feature wonderfully winding melodies...and Gaillande's utterly fantastic vocals carry the music to a heavenly level. This fellow's tunes are difficult to describe...and we can think of few comparisons to adequately explain what it sounds like. We played this CD over and over and over and over...and it just keeps getting BETTER with each and every listen. That is the mark of a truly credible collection of tunes...repeatability. The band incorporates guitars, synthesizers, keyboards, and more into a cool progressive soft pop sound that is almost impossible to dislike. Particular favorites include "Fireflies," "All the Northern Birds," "Lazy Southern Song," and the unbelievable beautiful "Stay Awake." This is a truly satisfying album. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. (Rating: 5+++)
Reviewer: Village Voice
Fans of pop served with a heavy skewering of experimental quirk should line up for this one. Melomane, a six-piece "chamber-pop" band featuring orchestral instrumentation infuse their stylized music with a heart and substance too often lacking in the genre.
Sugar Ray rewrote Men at Work's great insomnia-and-masturbation-and-ghosts-appearing-and-fading-away ballad "Overkill" a few years ago into a hit called "Someday"; these coed local art-popsters skip the middleman and just plain cover the damn thing. Their ofttimes Latin-lilted and Wurlitzer/trumpet/cello-spiked originals, located somewhere near the wispy four-way intersection of 10cc, Duran Duran, Joe Jackson and Wings, (will) impress many a quirk fan.- Chuck Eddy
Reviewer: allmusic.com
This is a nice surprise of eclectic quirkiness. Melomane are all over the place with a jump from new wave to cocktail to the quirky "Bone Machine"-era of Tom Waits, to a relaxed feel of power pop to Latin, etc. Additional incorporations of a theremin, trumpet leads, cello, and a toy xylophone make Resolvo one of the more interesting releases of 2001; experimental but not avant-garde enough to make this unlistenable. Fans of Beck and Stereolab should be on the lookout for this. -- Mike DaRonco
Reviewer: listen.com
It's not difficult to love Melomane. You'll love songs that feature on the vibes live-from-the-tiki-lounge chord progressions played at slinky tempos. You'll love tracks that are arranged deliberately, yet played with an amiable looseness and allowed to amble forward like Lou Barlow singing a Tindersticks song. You'll love the male/female vocals, the emotionally charged cello parts, the honey-toned, minimal guitar figures and lyrics such as, "You fell asleep with a beautiful smile on your face / Under weeping vines on a pauper's grave." But the Melomane are at their best when most tender and relaxed; the six musicians play lovely, understated, articulate melody/harmony lines. This sort of spaciousness keeps the mix from sounding crowded and protects important song elements from becoming overshadowed by trigger-happy players.
Reviewer: punkrockacademy.com (Resolvo was one of the website's top 10 albums of 2000) One line sums up why I like these songs so much: "I'm just a modern day Dean and Gene Ween on the rock and roll trail." And that accurately summarizes (this recording.) ... These songs search for deeper transcendental meaning in music - the kind of meaning that Pavement and Yo La Tengo, among other bands, have tried to find in the wilds of three chords and red guitars - and stamp out stylistic chalk lines with their feet along the way. - Stephen Puckett
Here are some recent reviews of MELOMANE songs from listeners at garageband.com:
AT THE END OF A LONG LONG DAY "Layer upon layer of really nicely executed, understated musicianship. Not a dull moment." "Smart-ass simplicity and over-learned precociousness. You've done your homework and it shows."
LAZY SOUTHERN SONG "This song is f***in' great. it is just so professional and fresh." "I wanna be in this band! This is the first really good tune I've heard on this thing! Loved it!"
JUST BECAUSE (MAIS J'ACCORDE) "Very nice song. Makes me think of Pizzicato Five and Badly Drawn Boy. An easy listening song that works very well. Extra Credit: Melody " "Bossa nova baby! Good beat, can dance to it, different than mainstream without being pretentious. I like it. Special Award: Grooviest Rhythm"
ALL THE NORTHERN BIRDS "Modern classic. I love the beginning of this song. It has a very Sixties feel to it... from the guitar sound, to the drumming, to the organ and the strings, to the vocals... very well crafted, and well produced. The vocals are excellent, especially the harmony vocals (at times Beach Boys sounding). The chorus is very catchy, and the musicianship is superb. I really like this song!" "Sounds like Paradise. This song makes me want to jump in slow motion as I run through a sun-drenched wheat field on my way to fetch water from the river and pick berries for jam and then buy the world a Coke. I don't know what influence this band draws from, but they are incredibly cool! This is flower power without the shaggy psychedelia. A real treat!"
STAY AWAKE "Drift away to the music. Beautiful tune, love the cello and the vocal harmonies. Subtly supported by the guitar playing and drumming - lyrical text is first rate. Can't wait to hear more from this band. Special Award: Most Bitter Breakup Song." "A very sad and beautiful song. I listened to it while watching the sun go down in my backyard and it seemed to fit the moment. Very lovely indeed! All the best to you, whoever you are? Special Award: Coolest Chill-Out Track"
FIREFLIES "Sixties saloon on a year 3k space station. Groovy Morricone/meets sixties lounge pop/crashes into psychedelia feel here. Great energy and mix; love all the instrumentation and the space-filled sound. Catchy lyrics and really nice bass intro. Very interesting all the way through." "Hooray. Something new. Very nice. Definitely going into new territory. Thanks for not putting out the same old boring shit that so many people do."