Another Mellow Spring
(Cyber Octave)
Marrying the best technology from the disparate analog and digital worlds, the modish Parisian trio Mellow offers up some unabashedly groovy synth-flavored pop on their debut disc, Another Mellow Spring. Ah, the wheels are already turning in your head; you’re thinking, “French electronica? Why, Mellow must be a mere facsimile of my beloved Air!”
Yes, Mellow does borrow liberally from the Air cookbook whilst whipping up their frog-pop pastiche, but they also offer the listener a tad more energy, a little lush guitar picking, and some sweet Ringo Starr-esque drumming. In fact, it’s the live drums that set Mellow apart from most electronic bands that you’ll hear on Astralwerks these days—let’s see some more of this!
At any rate, this band lives up to its name. The soft, lilting melodies of “Instant Love,” complete with Magical Mystery Tour horns will lull you down sweetly. “Mellow (Part One)” is an exploration in percussion and keyboard textures, while “Mellow (Organic Version)” grooves along to a bouncing Moog line, a few apropos R2-D2 sounding squeals, and some tasteful stereo panning.
“Paris Sous La Neige,” like vintage, Parklife era Blur (but minus the guitar cacophony) will have you and your friends head-bobbin’ with abandon in your car. It also showcases Patrick Woodcock’s understated, pseudo-lounge vocal handiwork, which suffers on other tracks when digitally processed beyond recognition.
Top it all off with a few pages of far out, psychedelic artwork in the liner notes and you’ve got a very promising debut album, to say the least.
By Casey Lombardo
Long Beach Union
Originally printed 3.26.01
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