Nantes have had one of those meteoric rises of which most pop bands dream. Their first recording, the opening track on this EP, ‘Fly’, was picked up by jjj’s Unearthed a few months after the band uploaded it and was, soon after, finding a degree of blanket saturation. At one stage, the song found itself near the top of the chart for most radio airplay across Australia for a song with independent distribution – this without actually having being released at the time. Of course, the reason being is that the song is catchy as hell and has one of those uplifting catchphrases which is just nebulous enough that all manner of folk can impose their own aspirations upon it. Such instant success can be a poisoned chalice, however, and so the band themselves have been relatively low key, avoiding any self manufactured hype. Now, ‘Fly’ finds itself as the lead track on a debut EP which has the task of living up to high expectations.
Whilst a new band, the members of Nantes have a reasonable pedigree. Most of the band have performed as part of Jonathan Boulet’s live band and those sounds are an obvious touchstone to begin with. The massed chanting in ‘Fly’, the glockenspiel across the four tracks, the grasp of pop melodies and the anthemic choruses all link clearly back to Boulet, though it’s probably more a matter of shared influences. In fact, influences are what I really find myself hearing as I listen to the four tracks. There are some very specific ones. ‘Fly’ itself pilfers the piano riff from LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All My Friends’ unabashedly (I once heard the two tracks played back to back on radio with the DJ back announcing them as ‘sharing the same piano part’). ‘Control’ sees the verses from U2’s ‘Vertigo’ mashed with The White Stripes’ ‘Hardest Button To Button’ for its chorus, while some of the drums in ‘Lost’s could well have been recorded by Martin Hannett during sessions for Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’, and lead singer/bass player, David Rogers, often veers towards Julian Casablancas in his vocal delivery.
Which may seem like the music is quite derivative, but the band does manage to transcend this. The above list can stand as pointers for the types of sounds you can expect to hear but the bottom line is that this does provide a fair diversity – ‘Charly”s summery swing is quite a contrast from ‘Control”s subterranean nervousness and ‘Lost”s brooding melancholia. The band plays around with what can be achieved by a four piece pop/rock band. Often, no 6-string guitars are present at all as the bass carries the string sections while electronics, synth washes and atmospherics take over, or cheery piano pushes the ideas forward. And the quality of the songwriting stands above sonic derivation. The choruses do what exactly what a pop chorus is supposed to do, drill into your brain and lodge there for a long time. And those melodies aren’t derivative.
This is a debut EP from a very young band. As can be expected, therefore, their influences are still well and truly on their sleeves. However, sound fashions come and go while, in this particular realm, songwriting needs to be strong to last. The Nantes EP provides enough evidence to convince that the band has, at their basis, foundations that are solid, as well as the willingness to play around with sounds, mixing and matching at will, that should see them develop their own voice before too long.
Adrian Elmer
