When Hervé “RV” Salters, the man behind General Elektriks, released Cliquety Kliqk in 2005, the record was immediately lauded for its quirky ingenuity and the way it toyed between hip-hop and pop, long before artists like Gnarls Barkley and Santogold hit the airwaves. In thinking about his next album, Hervé decided he wanted to make a record that paid homage to the traditions of his idols before him, but he wasn’t interested in just another throwback. He wanted to continue to make progressive art-soul that said what he wanted it to say and defended the idea of not feeling tied down by rules, even at the risk of falling flat on your face.
Using this Young Americans-esque appoach, with Good City for Dreamers (out September 22), Salters has crafted a record that perfectly blends the hard-edged funk of the Meters with the contemplativeness of Caetano Veloso, a record that shows off enough of RV’s own style – those vintage keys, the perfectly situated pauses, the seamless intra-song transitions, the messily melodious distortion – that it’s able to explore a variety of genres without it ever sounding disjointed.
The songs are carefully formed and executed, pulling not only from Stevie Wonder and the Beatles and Sly Stone but also West Coast sunshine pop, film composers, 80s synth-pop, indie rock, and of course, hip-hop and soul. Still, Good City For Dreamers sounds and feels like it was created by a full band, even if it was just RV on his Clavinet, his drum machines, his acoustic piano; everything, in fact, but the strings and horns.
“Mirabelle Pockets,” written about his son Jules’ eagerness to pick the plums in their backyard, plays with Continental jazz and pop, and “Raid the Radio,” familiar even in its uniqueness, is classic General Elektriks: warm, quirky, and totally accessible. It’s no wonder why the French music magazine World Sound called him “one of the most brilliant French musicians and producers” and Vibrations said, upon hearing Good City For Dreamers, “Jamie Lidell better watch out.”
There’s a taste of anti-establishment on the record, manifested both unambiguously (“Raid the Radio,” for example, or “Take Back the Instant”) and more subtly (“Rebel Sun,” which is about the water war in Bolivia in 2000). Salters’s voice itself also plays a big role in this: instead of the dexterous vocals that generally accompany the kind of music he plays, he approached it from an indie-rock perspective, in which, as he explains it, “a less-schooled vocal can bring out different – and maybe more intimate – emotions.”
But while RV’s voice is more present here than it did on 2005’s Cliquety Kliqk, it is truly his keyboard work that stands out. It squelches along with the bass on “Take Back the Instant,” a song Salters originally thought would be a ballad until he played it on the Clavinet, stays sultry and jazzy on acoustic piano on “Rebel Sun,” pays tribute to the Eurythmics on “David Lynch Moments,” and even wails like a guitar on “You Don’t Listen.” He’s been playing the keys since he was a kid, and his passion for them and understanding of them are clear. They are what propel the album, what give it life, and ultimately, what make Good City for Dreamers such a compelling, entertaining release.
Live, General Elektriks – comprised of a five-piece band, led by Salters – consistently sells out shows across Europe. With plans to tour the US in the fall of 2009, North American fans will finally have he chance to see what La Blogotheque describes as “…the power to bring dead people back to life, to make walls tremble, and to make hips sway…Salters loses 3 liters of sweat per show and dances and jumps around without interruption… General Elektriks was here and turned the club upside down, and their music is an excitement without precedent,” and TRAX Magazine says “…the GE 5-piece makes the temperature rise and turns the spot into a Turkish bath…On top of being a talented musician, Salters also turns out to be an exceptional dancer, with legwork worthy of a boxer. A true keyboard hero, he is the Angus Young of the Clavinet.”
Cuting-edge French label Discograph (Coralie Clément, Dimitri From Paris) put out Good City for Dreamers in Europe and Japan in February 2009, and the album will be released by Quannum Projects in North America on September 22, 2009.
Listen to the mp3 for “Take Back The Instant” here
Watch the video "Take Back The Instant" here
http://www.myspace.com/generalelektriks
Using this Young Americans-esque appoach, with Good City for Dreamers (out September 22), Salters has crafted a record that perfectly blends the hard-edged funk of the Meters with the contemplativeness of Caetano Veloso, a record that shows off enough of RV’s own style – those vintage keys, the perfectly situated pauses, the seamless intra-song transitions, the messily melodious distortion – that it’s able to explore a variety of genres without it ever sounding disjointed.
The songs are carefully formed and executed, pulling not only from Stevie Wonder and the Beatles and Sly Stone but also West Coast sunshine pop, film composers, 80s synth-pop, indie rock, and of course, hip-hop and soul. Still, Good City For Dreamers sounds and feels like it was created by a full band, even if it was just RV on his Clavinet, his drum machines, his acoustic piano; everything, in fact, but the strings and horns.
“Mirabelle Pockets,” written about his son Jules’ eagerness to pick the plums in their backyard, plays with Continental jazz and pop, and “Raid the Radio,” familiar even in its uniqueness, is classic General Elektriks: warm, quirky, and totally accessible. It’s no wonder why the French music magazine World Sound called him “one of the most brilliant French musicians and producers” and Vibrations said, upon hearing Good City For Dreamers, “Jamie Lidell better watch out.”
There’s a taste of anti-establishment on the record, manifested both unambiguously (“Raid the Radio,” for example, or “Take Back the Instant”) and more subtly (“Rebel Sun,” which is about the water war in Bolivia in 2000). Salters’s voice itself also plays a big role in this: instead of the dexterous vocals that generally accompany the kind of music he plays, he approached it from an indie-rock perspective, in which, as he explains it, “a less-schooled vocal can bring out different – and maybe more intimate – emotions.”
But while RV’s voice is more present here than it did on 2005’s Cliquety Kliqk, it is truly his keyboard work that stands out. It squelches along with the bass on “Take Back the Instant,” a song Salters originally thought would be a ballad until he played it on the Clavinet, stays sultry and jazzy on acoustic piano on “Rebel Sun,” pays tribute to the Eurythmics on “David Lynch Moments,” and even wails like a guitar on “You Don’t Listen.” He’s been playing the keys since he was a kid, and his passion for them and understanding of them are clear. They are what propel the album, what give it life, and ultimately, what make Good City for Dreamers such a compelling, entertaining release.
Live, General Elektriks – comprised of a five-piece band, led by Salters – consistently sells out shows across Europe. With plans to tour the US in the fall of 2009, North American fans will finally have he chance to see what La Blogotheque describes as “…the power to bring dead people back to life, to make walls tremble, and to make hips sway…Salters loses 3 liters of sweat per show and dances and jumps around without interruption… General Elektriks was here and turned the club upside down, and their music is an excitement without precedent,” and TRAX Magazine says “…the GE 5-piece makes the temperature rise and turns the spot into a Turkish bath…On top of being a talented musician, Salters also turns out to be an exceptional dancer, with legwork worthy of a boxer. A true keyboard hero, he is the Angus Young of the Clavinet.”
Cuting-edge French label Discograph (Coralie Clément, Dimitri From Paris) put out Good City for Dreamers in Europe and Japan in February 2009, and the album will be released by Quannum Projects in North America on September 22, 2009.
Listen to the mp3 for “Take Back The Instant” here
Watch the video "Take Back The Instant" here
http://www.myspace.com/generalelektriks
