Mr Simon Raymonde, the co-founder of Bella Union, once told us in an interview when asked about how he went about deciding which artists to sign: “I never had a particular plan as to which direction the label [Bella Union] would go. I still don’t. I just go on what I hear, like “Wow I just love that so much let’s try and sign it”. That’s the driving force; just being so excited by something that you can’t stop listening to it. Of course, you can’t sign everybody you think is amazing, it’s just physically not possible. The way I do it now? I wouldn’t sign anybody I wouldn’t want to have round for dinner and anybody that my dog would bark at!’”
His latest signing is duo Drab City and he’s clearly excited as he tweeted yesterday “In 22 yrs of Bella union, I have fallen in love with so many bands. It has filled my life with such a wild array of experiences. Today we will introduce Drab City to you. I KNOW how significant hearing their music for the 1st time was for me and at 2pm you too will know. Excited.”
The story is that Asia saw Chris met when they seventeen working at the same factory, he had a Charles Mingus record under his arm…there’s a jazz influence at play on the latter half of ‘Working for the Men’, a fusion of bygone-psych and trip-hop beats with a punkish attitude which no doubt feeds off the self-centred banality of much that is on offer today – they recently Tweeted “Watching old ‘90s Nardwuar interviews puts the present music scene in perspective. So many musicians back then seemed wild, unfiltered, & raw. Even today’s ‘wildest’ artists w face tats and multicolored hair are overly brand conscious, clean, faux-intense and sterile by comparison”…
On the new single, the press reveals “Working For the Men” is a degraded service worker’s revenge ballad, imagining male tormenters brought to a violent end. “Hand On My Pocket” tells of a destitute, wandering youth. One night she meets a stranger on a desert road, and is told of a nearby city where a soft, rich citizenry make easy targets. Class war is palpable. Other songs are more opaque, but seem to speak of being the black sheep of the family, or being weighed down by the dullness of hometown life. Yet the casual listener might not notice the violence as the music itself is far from abrasive. Dreamy and ethereal, a foundation of flute, vibraphone, and jazzy guitar chord melody can switch to drum machines or funk-inflected girl-group pop at a moment’s notice. It’s a flurry of 20th century references, combining and recombining at such a schizophrenic pace, the overall effect is something that could only be conjured in our frenzied present. At once catchy and unfamiliar, the melodic, welcoming soundscapes are a Trojan horse for the band’s antisocial outlook.
Their debut album “Good Songs For Bad People” out 12th June via Bella Union.