Since the release of Roller Coaster, their first EP for InFiné, it has taken the Spitzer brothers almost two years to produce their debut album. And not just any old two years; these have seen unrelenting winds of change blow like never before. The idea of their debut full-length, entitled The Call, perfectly captures the spirit of our movement-revering age.
 
As teenagers, Damien – on drums – and Matthieu – on guitar – were already using pop and punk compositions to release their angst, summoning an American vocalist from time to time to sound more legitimate. Slightly broke, the two siblings eventually decided to swap their instruments for digital production tools and turn their flat – located in the Guillotière district of Lyon – into a home studio; they then proceeded to seal their union for good under the Spitzer moniker, as a nod to Al Pacino’s favourite cocktail in Donnie Brasco (the Spritzer).
 
With the unfailing support of the Nuits Sonores festival team in Lyon, France, which they’d enjoyed right from the early days, they stayed true to their hometown roots and eventually ended up signing with the local purveyor of electronic music, InFiné. This led them to remix a track for Aufgang (“Sonar”) and release their debut EP in spring 2010 (the aforementioned Roller Coaster).
 
Although follow-up full-length The Call is well and truly an electronic music album, its all-embracing musical approach and its narrative process actually put it on a par with records from the prog-rock era of the 70s. Tracks like "Sergen", "Marsch" and "The Call" showcase an energy that is both disquieting and captivating. Reverberations of electronic feedback come crashing together against the cyclical and heavy synth mechanics, contorting themselves throughout this extensive, metallic and dark sound journey that keeps striving towards infinity. And yet this first album contains many other respirations, which provide the smoothest of transitions between the album’s various movements. This is when the Spitzer musical world takes on psychedelic hues, as on the intensely airy "Breaking the Waves", the mesmerising "Sir Chester" or the electronic nursery rhyme that is "Masbat".
 
With this first-class first chapter, the Spitzer revolution does appear to be under way. Even though the duo does not intend their music to have any political undertones, this "Call" – at once outraged and restrained – will resonate on many levels with its audience.
 
› spitzer.fr
 
Appearances:
› 2012 › ICAS SUITE BERLIN