Slow Down

Description

For three years now, Rennes-based Madcaps have been touring France and its neighboring countries with their pearly Italo-Japanese guitars and old sequined drums. With 150 concerts under their belt, they have earned the "carte vermeille" of the French rock highway network, allowing them to make substantial savings to return to Kerwax Studio, the temple of analog recording in Western Brittany. There, they recorded "Slow Down," their third album, as a quartet live in the same room to capture the energy of six months of touring that shaped this record. While the previous two albums were essentially the work of Thomas Dahyot, "Slow Down" is more balanced, with Bastien Bruneau and newcomer Wenceslas Carrieu asserting themselves as singers and composers, co-writing five of the album's tracks. This brings a change in personnel and new musical directions; yet The Madcaps have never sounded more cohesive. They continue to carve out their rock'n'roll niche, but have put aside the adolescent garage sound of their early days. Pop melodies are still present, but the tracks are more refined, airier, making way for brass, pianos, organs, congas & acoustic guitars, giving the album a turn of rhythm & blues, glam, soul, western, or calypso accents.