When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire by UTO
Release date: April 12, 2024Label: Infine Music
Quite a few people would argue that inventiveness has been in the background within electro-pop these days.
The problem with that though may lie in the expectations – do you expect big revolutionary swoops or ‘just’ tangible, audible moves that actually bring something new within what has already been done before?
If the latter process is good enough for you (and in many cases, it should be), then the latest (second album from the French duo UTO, When all you want to do is be the fire part of fire should be quite enough (and more).
The fact that UTO (Neysa May Barnett and Emile Larroche) picked the title for their new album from Bill Callahan’s lyric line already indicates that they will not take the usual and well-readed paths electro-pop takes these days.
Actually, it is a path they already started on their initial offering Touch The Lock in 2022, and is something they continue even further here.
The duo seems to have such an easy touch to find and squeeze in as many as possible left-field electro sounds and beats and throw in acoustic instruments wherever they see fit, without losing their thread or concept or sacrificing melody elements along the way.
They seem to have sussed all the key sounds of the nineties and early 21st century, both electro or non-electro, from Primal Scream and The Chemical Brothers to all those shoegazers (without the guitar effects), threw them in their musical blender and then carefully sifted the results into something their own.
One of the better electro-pop albums of this year so far.
