Los Angeles duo Neil Frances (Jordan Feller and Marc Gilfry) share their long-awaited debut album, There Is No Neil Frances, a 14-track body of work whose concept follows the dreams of an insect looking for its true purpose in a utopian dreamscape. As weird as it sounds, the songs are stylishly threaded by a cohesive narrative that progresses with each tune and weaves an engaging experimental soundscape that listeners can appreciate. The band explains, “Our new album is about self-realization and becoming the person that you dream of. The concept is that we are insects on earth who ascend into outer space to become divas at a galactic ball."
The project starts off with "Little heartbeat," which slowly builds from a literal heartbeat into a cosmic funk-pop number ripe with cinematic textures, vocoders, and a warm bassline to boot. This is followed by "on a dark night," which ramps up the funk with its Marvin Gaye-inspired groove and slick guitar plucks but it's the sultry melodic runs that take the cake. On the guitar-driven "be free." Jordan and Marc are not afraid to open up their inhibitions and feel the natural energy that binds them to true love. The party continues on the hypnotic plucky basslines on "It's like a dream," which plays into its title with the sultry entrancing melodic runs and layered harmonies. The duo switches things up on tracks like "Dancing" and "in the starlight," as they opt for an experimental, trip-hop, and soulful vibe. The former has an ethereal texture peppered by airy vocals while the latter resides in the future R&b funk department with its excellent vocal manipulations, sampling, and hypnotic groove.
Overall the project slowly builds and moves listeners in different places as it moves forward showing the duo's versatility as genre-bending producers.
Get There Is No Neil Frances here.
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