Steve French

Amsterdam-based band Steve French writes ragged, nonchalant indie rock anthems around the thoughts of singer/guitarist and band founder Cees Paris. After the incendiary debut album Lightning Tiger Running, the dust seems to have settled somewhat on the upcoming long player Dogs .

The songs feel vulnerable, and yet somehow strange, like a series of misty photos from a disposable camera. This time there is more room for playful experimentation: the dreamy melancholy of opener Absolute Beginnings and the dark European Heaven playfully wrestle between that early feeling of a demo and the more thought-out arrangements.

That passion and impulsiveness – like a lightning bolt raging through the tight Amsterdam DIY scene of which Steve French is also a part – no longer comes so easily from the cuff. More effort leads to a more erratic, more in-depth sound. Everything's easy / everything else is easy after all this trying to think of a word to sing out of key” sings Paris at one point on Country Blues Dilettante .

That sense of letting go is something Steve French thrives on, because the band is ready for a deeper musical voyage of discovery: the wildly exciting, shape-shifting Fruit Machines combines jangle pop, noise and kraut in an intriguing way. The chillingly beautiful Letters From Mom (partly inspired by Jim O' Rourke's album Eureka) tests the waters of slowcore and baroque pop. Solid Days is a raging noise punk splinter bomb that puts you through the wringer as if you were experiencing a normal workday in time-lapse speed.

On Dogs, Steve French's great adventure turns more inward in that respect, to an eclectic collection of musical miniatures. The soul shows a little more wear and tear, takes a little more of the gas off to marvel more thoroughly at the unfinished, the unfathomable and the futile along the way. "I can't keep myself on the bandwagon," Paris sings with a shrug on Low Hanging Fruit . So, uphill towards the finish line, on his own strength.

FFO: Silver Jews, Sparklehorse, Smog, Pavement, Nap Eyes.


Steve French is:

Cees Paris - guitar, vocals

Kilian Kayser - drums, percussion

Ruben van Weegberg - bass

Abel Tuinstra - keys, guitar, trombone, flute

Willem Smit - guitar