A week ago I received the second and possibly last album by Electrophönvintage. After listening to it a couple of times on my cd player, the one I carry around in my backpack all the time, I realized two things. First this can’t be the last album by the London band. Second, this album is brilliant.

I’ve been a fan of the band for many years now. I even have asked them many times for songs for a possible 7″ release. This never happened. What did happen was that I managed to see them live once, joined them at a band practice, and bought their first 7″ from Stephen Pastel. But I guess I should start from the beginning, as it’s not a short story.

It’s 1999, and Remi Parson starts this band as a solo project in France. Indiepop child prodigy. He is very very young. The next year, in 2000, he releases his first ever record, a 7″ with Plastic Pancake Records. Four songs, “I Don’t Want to Stay”, “Etap Hotel”, “The Passage” and “Shops” color the twelfth release of this French label. A label that eventually would move to London, the same way that years later Electrophönvintage would follow.

Plastic Pancake was an important influence, and player, for the early days of the band. Since 1997 this label released many classic indiepop acts like Marine Time Keepers, Picture Center or Les Poisson Solubles. It was definitely no surprise Remi found a good home here, and also a very good friend in Pierre, who ran the label. As the label grew in releases, Electrophönvintage stagnated. Remi had joined a post rock band, The Bright Period, where he plays guitar, and eventually releases an album “A Place for Parks” on Unique Records (catalog UR 02).

There’s a break. A couple of years. Until 2003. Then Electrophönvintage comes back, I guess because there’s an indiepop heart in Remi, and even though he does love Migala and some post-rock, he needed to let loose his pop sensibility. By now Delphine Bost has joined the band to what will become a fantastic partnership. Also Sebastien Linares, who Remi worked with in A Place for Parks, joins them on bass. With this new lineup they will release their first album “We Sang A Yéyé Song” with the Unique Records label (UR 03). It’s told that this record only took 1 day to be recorded. It was recorded that year at studio ATL by Pat, and it also counted with the help of Anicet Rohée (from A Place for Parks) on drums. Electrophönvintage is no more a solo project, but a full band. This album is a beautiful collection of smart songwriting, of songs written during a long time period, the newer ones written while being a student in Grenoble, and the older ones rediscovered from old tapes sitting in a cupboard. It’s a beautiful debut album, it’s classic indiepop, and as the Facebook page of the band nicely puts it, “short wooden pop songs”. For a taster, definitely head to Youtube and check the video for “Where You’re Not“. Delphine stars, and Remi’s trademark drawn-self appears too.

Upon re-listening the album it’s impressive the change between that first album and the second. But before we fast forward lets stop in 2006. This year the band contributes three songs, “Rescue”, “The Former President”  and “Where You’re Not”, to the Unique Records compilation “Just Close To You (A Five-Year Compilation Of Unique Records)” (catalog UR 13 from this French label). This is not their only compilation appearance though. In 2009 they will appear on a WeePop compilation called “Starting Anew” with the song “Don’t Wake Me Up”.

I believe it was in 2006 that Remi and Delphine relocated to London. Perhaps earlier. It was in 2006 when I first heard of the band. It was through their other project, at that time, just a side project, The Sunny Street. With The Sunny Street I have so many stories, that I hold very dear, but that’s for another time (though I’m pretty sure there’s a writeup of the first gig I ever saw by them in Hamburg 2010). With The Sunny Street I ended up working on a 3″, and an ill-fated album on Plastilina Records (thanks to the terrible work ethic of my partner in the label during that time). Ill-fated because it took more 6 months than the announced release date to appear in people’s mailboxes. It was a shame. I felt cheated. And I’m sure a lot of people out there did too. Those who ordered the album. Gladly this taught him a lesson and the Plastilina label seems to be much more reliable these days. Shame though it happened with one of the bands I loved the most, to a group of friends that I cared for. Shit happens they say. Things weren’t the same since then. Anyhow, back to Electrophönvintage.

As a side project, Electrophönvintage, didn’t live up to The Sunny Street fame. Musically they were two different creatures. Influence-wise you could say the same. The funny thing was that it was the same people playing. Remi had recruited Ian Cowen on bass (from Pocketbooks and now in The Understudies), and Christos Kalyvas on second guitar. A band with Christos let me tell you is a winner. No one sports better indiepop t-shirts than him, all made by himself mind you! This was The Sunny Street lineup. But when it was Electrophönvintage, Johnny from Pocketbooks would join on drums.

With this lineup they played a bunch of gigs, mostly in London. They did play one Indietracks gig in 2012. At the chapel. Those were happy days for me. 2012 was a good year just before Indietracks, then things went a bit downhill for me. But during Indietracks, sitting next to Alex, on the coldest summer I’ve experienced, rainy, visiting cows and donkeys, a week in Wales, a happy heart and dreams of a future by the coast of Skåne or in a wooden cabin in Unalaska, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful indiepop gigs of the year. I have the setlist still, dedicated to me, an illustration of a man open mouthed, all colored, and in that open mouth the songs to be played: “Siq”, “Where You’re Not”, “You Met a Girl”, “Football Teams”, “Shops”, “The Former President”, “Orphée”, “That Loving April”, “Michel”, and my favourite “Burgundy”. I’ve never seen so much effort put on making a such a neat setlist. You can tell aesthetics were important for them, and they cared very much for their band. Details like this speak for themselves.

Let’s rewind a bit, the previous year, 2011, I went to Indietracks too. Before that I went as sort of a roadie with Very Truly Yours to a couple of cities in the UK. One of those cities was Glasgow. Upon arriving our friend Krister was there waiting for us to give us a bit of a tour. Before that we had some food of course. I had haggis and beer. Krister tried the Arbroath Smokies. So adventurous we were. We headed then to Mono, the store Stephen Pastel runs. We were lucky that that day he was around. Krister introduced me to Stephen, and I as thrilled that he knew about Cloudberry. We took a photo, though not as cool as the one Daniel So Tough has. Anyhow, I went through the store and found Electrophönvintage’s debut 7″. Didn’t think twice to buy it, even though I already had it. You can call me nuts. But it had to be done.

If I rewind a bit more, to 2010, but earlier. February 2010. London Popfest. By now it’s over. But I’m still hanging around. I’m invited by Remi to join Electrophönvintage for their band practice. I had never seen them live, so I said yes. I would love to. I carried some instruments around. I think the practice space was around Oxford Street, but I might be wrong. We took the bus. We sat on the second floor. Ah! The double decker buses. I miss them, sitting on the front of the second floor just like Jennifer taught me. Until next July probably huh? Anyways, Johnny didn’t come to practice. So there was no Electrophönvintange practice anymore. Resourceful Remi decided then that it would be a Sunny Street practice instead. My luck then was that I would never see them playing live. I would have never imagined that two years later I would end up seeing them. Funny fact: I recorded the ‘video’ for “Insull” of The Sunny Street during this would-be Electrophönvintage practice.

Fast forward again. 2013. “Play Harp in Your Hair” is released. This is their second album. From what it says on bandcamp, these recording are not new. They are from 2006. These are the credits stated there:
released 23 June 2013
Recorded by Pat at Atl Studios. France. Summer 2006.
Personnel: Delphine Bost, Rémi Parson and Sébastien Llinares.
All songs by Electrophönvintage.
Big thanks to Pierre-Antoine, Alexis, Anicet, Bart, Bruno, Camila, Christos, Gérald, Ian, Jean-Louis, Jonny, Martin, Pat… + Everyone we forgot (thousands).

I ordered the album and arrived promptly. 5 pounds plus postage for a nicely packaged CDR. Hand-made. Handwritten. Assembled with scissors and glue. Released by  Remi’s classic imprint “Phonic Kidnapping Records” (home of Remi’s solo CDR, Cocoanut Groove first 7″ and more), and only limited to 50 copies (run for your copy). 8 songs. Short and sweet. If it’s fair enough, to say for a 2006 album, this is one of the best albums of 2013 for me. I keep playing it again and again. Songs like “Burgundy” and “Football Teams” are classics in my book. I love how Delphine sings in “Putefix” too. My favourite in the album is “Carrots Code”. The melodies are smart. There is a warmth that you don’t find often in songs anymore. It’s all simply done. There’s no tricks, no cheating. It’s what it is. It’s heartfelt music. It’s like opening up Electrophönvintage’s members souls and pouring it into a blender, and getting these 8 songs. Without artifices. Honest. Sincere. Transparent. You feel this is a band you want to be friends with. Spend a night with them listening to their favourite songs, and hearing their anecdotes about growing up, while drinking beer around a bonfire. You can tell these songs are made by people like me or you, people that love pop, that breathe pop, that dream pop.

Within the envelope there’s a note with Remi’s handwriting, a nice cursive, one you don’t see much anymore. He hopes I’ll like the album, he asks me to let him know what I think. I hope this post answers the question. To the other question on the message, how is NYC treating me? Well, it treats me pretty well Remi. Today is pretty cold, 2 degrees Celsius. Your record accompanied me once more on the subway ride from home to work. There’s something very autumnal about your album, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. It’s an orange and sepia album, leaves falling, and nostalgia. Why? I can’t say. They are wooden pop songs. But most importantly, they are eternally hopeful songs. That’s something I like about your music in general, it feels that whatever happens, the outcome will be good.

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Listen
Electrophönvintage – Football Teams