SONG OF THE DAY (#204)

'as we fight,' by alsace lorraine

named for a notoriously disputed territory between france and germany (the history of which i let you research on your own), alsace lorraine began as the brainchild of hewson chen from vitesse and paul francke. their output has been sporadic at best, but what they have done is so great that you hardly mind the six year hiatus between their debut, 'through small windows,' and their newest, 'the dark one,' that came out earlier this year.

caitlin brice handled vocal duties on the debut, but isol, the fantastic [former?] lead singer of the argentine indietronic band, entre rios [and an incredible illustrator and children's book author], took the mic for six tracks on 'the dark one.' and as you might suspect, the album is an exercise is perfect pop, highlighted by isol's endearing english-as-a-second-language vocals. 'as we fight' is but one of many gems sprinkled throughout the album.

isol and paul (now a duo) are currently in the studio working on their third album with ian catt [the unofficial fourth member of saint etienne-my all-time faves-so you can imagine i'm pretty stoked about the implications of such a union] and all signs point to a stellar third l.p.

you can also check out isol's blog, and her incredible dibujitos, here. [it'll help if you speak ye olde espanol, but if you don't, you can still appreciate her great illustrations]. what a talent. enjoy...

→ alsace-lorraine: as we fight [from 'the dark one,' 2007)
→ alsace-lorraine: swing low, constellation [from 'through small windows,' 2001]
→ entre rios: odisea [from 'onda,' 2005]