Chromeo
Words by Cosmo Soave-Smith
Chromeo are a bit like an electro-rap-funk Morecambe and Wise. Visually, they couldn’t be more antithetical; singer and guitarist Dave 1 is tall, skinny and immaculately dressed, while P-Thugg - the keyboard and drum-pad maestro -looks like a Middle Eastern rapper who’s been relocated to Queens. Put these poster-boys for cultural diversity together, however, and like the late great comedians, they just work, no matter how utterly ridiculous they may look.
If you’re not familiar with the music of Chromeo, it’s rather difficult to describe how they sound, so bear with us. In their own words, they make ‘smoothed-out, hook-heavy, unabashed lovers’ funk’. Still no closer to understanding? Then follow this recipe: Take a pinch of your everyday girl trouble and mix it with a large quantity of entirely electric instruments. Anything acoustic is strictly forbidden. Guitar: electric. Piano: electric. Drums: electric. You get the picture. Next, liberally sprinkle some offensively strong keyboard and guitar solos over the top. Finally, cook at an intense, sweaty heat and serve with men in brightly coloured suits with the sleeves rolled up, white sunglasses and a whole lotta sleaze. Basically like New York in the 80s just threw up on them. So, what this being 2009 and all, they’re being, like, ironic, right? Wrong. ‘There ain’t nothing “ironical” about this music’, they protest.
You can say what you want about their style, but musically there really is nothing quite like them out there at the moment. But as with so many great things, it could all so easily not have been, and a large dose of luck played a part in shaping their musical trajectory. ‘It was trial and error really, because we got a deal before we even knew what we were gonna do. We didn’t even know what electronic music was. We were hip-hop kids’, says Dave 1. ‘We started toying around with demos, and realized that we had a bunch of 80s records that we loved listening to, so we started drawing inspiration from that. Then P-Thugg started getting into the whole analogue synthesizer thing, and that’s how it kind of came together.’
Their first single, ‘Needy Girl’, was a cult success in 2006, sneaking its way into indie and electro clubs, an early precursor of electro’s more recent ascent into the mainstream. Since then their second album ‘Fancy Footwork’ (2008) has received near unanimous critical acclaim, with their appeal growing tangentially with retro electro as the genre finds itself journeying into more and more thankful pairs of ears bored with guitar-led indie bands. So is it not a little bit weird that Chromeo find themselves championing a musical era that climaxed at a time in which they wouldn’t have even been able to drink in a bar? ‘You know, I had to rediscover that music’ says P-Thugg. ‘That’s why I’m so into it, because I didn’t really live it when it first came out.’
So what next for Chromeo? ‘We have a couple of demos and song ideas, but we have to start putting everything together now. We can’t wait. We want to follow up quick.’ Should it all fall through, they’ll be stood in good stead, mind. With Dave 1 studying for his PhD in French Literature at Columbia University and P-Thugg trained as an accountant, they’ve got plenty to fall back on, but with an impressive arsenal of electro-rap hooks in their possession, we really can’t see them going back to the day jobs any time soon.
http://www.myspace.com/chromeo
Posted Fri, April 17, 2009
Comments on Chromeo
Hmm, I wonder if the fact that Dave’s brotha A-TRAK had anything to do with some “random hip hop kids” getting a deal before they had any work. Nepotism can be a gift and a curse (in this case, a gift, I would say). All their songs make me cream my panties.
Posted by: Gene Simmons | 20/04/2009 at 03:18