Check out this track from this French band, teaming with deep grooves and raw energy, mandelbro (Man Del Bro?, who knows). Looks like they formed right around 2020 (if you go by their Instagram), and you gotta love the way they incorporate raw funk with some of the modern keyboard tones and techniques, in addition to provocative lyrics that push against the grain. Let’s check out the track!

Love the intro, reminds me of junk rock, very loose feel with a beautiful progression. Love those extensions in the piano voicings. You can feel the tension and pressure building as they drop in some great percussion and chimes over a silky and punchy bass line. Smooooooth.

As the chorus begins to take shape, the drummer pulls a great Copeland move and double times the sidesticks to build up the intensity. Its accentuated by some great harmony parts. Taking a page from Mic Fleetwood, he switches it up for the start of the second verse and drives the whole thing with just a kick and you can tell that something big is coming - a system change, perhaps. And that comes with the back half of what I would call the second verse. At this point, it’s pure energy and a great fricking vibe. One of the things I love the most about this track is how it breathes against the beat. If they snapped it to the gird (and I don’t think they did), you can’t tell. It pushes, it slacks, it sounds like a real fucking recording - full live band shit, and that’s what gets me going.

Vocally, I love the presentation. You can tell that English is not his first language, but that helps sell it. His pronunciation is solid. His passion is evident. And when you hear the universal message that he’s singing about, it all comes together perfectly.

About 3:00 in, we get a nice breakdown in the vibe to help reinforce the story. As they build it back up again with the chorus, the full band explodes with vibes that are synonymous with Cold Play, punk bands and West Coast surf music. It’s hard to pick a favorite tone in all of this, but I think I have to go with the raw drum tones as the winner.

Looking back over this arrangement, and listening to some of their other tracks, you can tell there’s a considerable amount of non-conformative thought process that goes into their arrangements. “Lead Me on Read” has some beautiful jazz voicings and their trademark syncopated hits. “Far Away” has a beautiful raw feel to the production, and the hooks reminded me of “Us the Duo.” “Gets You Down” highlights some of their finer arrangement and performance skills.

Excellent travail, les garçons ! J'espère vous voir bientôt jouer votre musique à Nashville !

Check it out on Wavlake and send them some #Sats!

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