I first heard Gabriel Rios whilst in Paris in 2004 on a late night French music channel. The video was for ‘Broad Daylight‘, a catchy song I would be humming for weeks, yet it would be years before I knew who the artist was.
A few years a later a skinny Scotsman in just pants, played the song to me again whilst blowing weed smoke in my face in a dingy East London flat, and I have been a fan ever since.
His debut effort ‘Ghostboy‘ produced by Jo Bogaert was on constant rotation on my stereo for a year, with it’s minimalist latin pop mixed with European sense of melody, and electronic over tones.
Since then Gabriel has teamed up with two very talented musicians to write this years ‘The Dangerous Return’. The first being the hugely talented jazz pianist Jeff Neve. The other is Kobe Proesmans, a greatly intuitive drummer and percussionist who has toured with Rios from the beginning.
The first single from this wonderfully creative effort is ‘Dauphine’. Belonging neatly in a Michel Gondry movie, the track is tremendously surreal, wrapped inside an achingly pretty and busy piano part, and showered with Rios’ beautifully crafted melodies.
The use of space for words is what makes this a really neat and strong single. Lyrics that are poetic but honest, springing lines such as ‘Snakes will sing to horses, and the horses back to men’. What this means I have no idea, but I’m always happy to be lost in Gabriel Rios’ weird and wonderful world.
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Post by Thom the explorer.
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