Depth Affect - Hero Crisis

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5...according to our Brian on Thu 05 Jun, 2008.

Now my computer has stopped being a git I can do this review of French avant pop-hopsters Depth Affect's newie 'Hero Crisis'. It's the 2nd long player from these guys and I'm inspired lots by the blend of emotive chords, playful rapping, sharp beats & catchy rhythms. It's a warm, glitchy odyssey through the eyes of some progressive heads who ditch urban politics in favour of gleaming hooks and cerebral, euphoric keyboards, keeping it light & textured throughout. Taken as a whole it's an immensely satisfying listen throughout, transcending easy pigeonholing. I can't pick an individual track out as it flows so well, keeping the mood fairly buoyant throughout. There's a real twinkly music box feel to this album with heavily processed samples lending an air of carefree magic to proceedings. If you like highly melodic European electronica & experimental hip-hop with lots of pop twists then I'm confident this CD will give much pleasure to those with a keen ear for audio escapism. I can't even draw any parallels with other artists as it's all really fresh sounding! Proper quality, CD only on Autres Directions in Music

The Depth Affect project was born in the new millennium in
the suburbs of Nantes, France. In David Bideau and Rémy
Charrier’s student rooms, keyboards and laptops
outnumbered Beach Boys and Autechre records. From then
on, they were set to start building the architecture of their
music.
A few years later, with a handful of songs in their pockets, a
few gigs and their duet being completed by a team composed
of a DJ and a VJ, their music found its own personal path and
their first album Arche-Lymb received critical acclaim. At that
time the band also offered free downloads of remixes of
Arche-Lymb tracks made by a wide cast of electronica
musicians. On top of that they worked on their live
performance and developed a new and original approach to
the stage which they had a chance of displaying live in
several glorious French venues and festivals.
In their new album Hero Crisis, the colours of melancholy
have taken over the naive beauty and bucolic joy of their first
record. In Hero Crisis, their songwriting has become more
direct, both harsher and colder, with catchy melodies
enhanced by an astonishing production. The twelve tracks of
Hero Crisis mix influences stemming from r’n’b, pop, hiphop,
ambient, click’n’cut and dubstep, thus creating a new
dreamy and feverish soundscape.