Out Lyon, France comes a band who is quite ambitious and is ready to take over the world of dark synthpop while offering a reimagination of a post-Joy Division world, and that band is LOBBY. LOBBY recently released their debut album entitled “Fragrance” via Solange endormie Records.
LOBBY is composed of Timothy Roze Des Ordons(singer), Tom Dejeans(bass), Lino Etchegaray(guitar), and Nab Boudareau(synths). They offer a nice mixture of dark synthpop, Cold Wave(think dark version of 80’s New Wave that was so famous), with touches of shoegaze in their music.
The album IMMEDIATELY grabbed our attention with a thick and groovy bassline with the title track of the album. Tom definitely carries that bassline as we will find he does in a lot of songs with the title track. We hear the synths interweaving with the guitarss and Timothy sounding kind of relaxed and somewhat nonchalant in his vocal stylings. The next song entitled “Collapse” practically lays on a punk/garage rock influenced bassline, and the synths sound more atmospheric and dare I say bouncy, as it intertwines nicely with the bass. The rhythm section bangs in the instrumental break in “Collapse”.
“Your Jail” takes into their influence of Joy Division meets the “Hot Fuzz” version of The Killers, the only thing I wish is that I would’ve held on to the synth notes in the instrumental break maybe a couple measures longer to provide more impact in the song.
If you’re in a smoke filled room or in a dark alleyway, “Fragrance” by LOBBY could be the soundtrack to that moment in time due to the ambiance and atmospheric elements that are offered throughout. The tracks are a nice combination of snappy and somewhat melancholic all in the same breath. I see LOBBY doing very well for themselves in the future as Madness To Creation gives this album a solid 7.5/10 stars. The album definitely did enough to where I’m more interested in this type of music. Here is the track listing below:
- Fragrance
- Collapse
- Your Jail
- Chimeras
- Heat
- Taking Down
- Violence In Your Eyes
- Somewhere
- 1881
- Upside Down
Check out the music video for “Violence In Your Eyes” below:
Fans can find LOBBY at the following locations:
www.soundcloud.com/lobby-contact
https://solangeendormierecords.bandcamp.com/album/fragrance
