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"Ghost Carnival" is the new album of Hypnolove, produced by Ed Banger's Mickey Moonlight
Follow Hypnolove :
http://facebook.com/hypnolove
CD, vinyl, digital : http://hypnolove.bandcamp.com
With spring just round the corner, Record Makers – the label that brought you Sebastien Tellier and Kavinsky (amongst others) – proudly present the sophomore album from Hypnolove, the Toulouse-based trio that have just created the soundtrack to this year’s sunshine. Welcome to the Ghost Carnival…
Featuring the musical talent of Thierry (vocals/keys), Henning (vocals/chords/drums) and Nicolas (guitar/bass), Hypnolove is a group formed between friends that share a common dream, and above all, a passion for discovering and creating music that defies easy categorization. In the purest sense, ‘Ghost Carnival’ delivers a delightful moment of modern pop, although delve deeper and their more obscure influences shine bright – something that the producer, Ed Banger’s UK ambassador Mickey Moonlight, should also take great credit for.
Nicolas explains, “We needed to find a guideline for this album and although disco and pop built the frame that we worked from, our listening is much wider than that. Artists such as the Walker Brothers, Lucio Battisti, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Prince, Strafe, ZZ Top, Talking Heads… the list goes on, all of them deserve a salute!” Thierry continues, “We are always looking for new music to listen to and we are all LP lovers, so it was very important for us to make a cohesive album that worked from back to front. Working with Mike was fantastic, he knew all our reference points and was able to change our sound for the better without betraying the spirit of our songs”
There’s no doubt that the combination of Hypnolove’s song-writing with Mike’s production style has elevated the band’s sound and there’s a clear progression in ideas and song structures from their 2006 debut ‘Eurolove’. That album featured the cult hit ‘Mademoiselle’ and, like ‘Ghost Carnival’, was the embodiment of several years of work and that can only be put down to the group performing for pleasure before anything else. Like when they were teenagers, injected with electro-pop, New Order and the Pet Shop Boys, or years later, uncovering obscure bands and stranger more-cryptic oddities, their sound and musical connection is a natural evolution of experience and knowledge.
Lasting just over 30mins, ‘Ghost Carnival’ is as short as it is sweet, but it makes sure that not a moment is spared, with the warm feeling of a summer’s day shining down from the outset. The already released ‘Holiday Reverie’ follows the French-horned, Arthur Russell inspired intro ‘Simple Classic Beautiful’ that provides just enough skip to start your step. The glistening electro-pop of ‘Midnight Cruising’ and band-favourite ‘Come To My Empire’ fall neatly either side of ‘Winter In The Sun’ that features the brilliant vocal talent of British singer Findlay Brown. Two more friends then join the party, with Puro Instinct leader Piper Kaplan and the 9 years-old Freya Parry providing the female touch on both ‘Beyond Paradise’ and ‘Ghost Carnival’ to brilliant effect. There’s one last blast of Italo strings with the dance floor driven ‘Sleepwalker’, before ‘Goodnight Kiss’ provides the perfect, and memorable, goodbye the album so deserves.
It will have you clicking repeat, over and over. As Thierry invites us all to : “close your eyes and come to my empire”
- Genre
- GHOST CARNIVAL
Contains tracks
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