Review: Art d’Ecco - Day Fevers

Often the most exciting music created in these retro-obsessed times is that which doesn’t feel like a carbon copy of some classic album, but an amalgam of styles and influences that feel wholly original, yet contain familiar sentiments throughout. 

Art d’Ecco’s inspired debut Day Fevers is a dark journey through glam, new wave and early grunge, pulling references without feeling derivative. It begins with “Sunrise” an ode to Ennio Morricone, glorious chants against a sun cracked landscape, but the sun sets shortly after with “The Deal”. “Lights Out and Then You’re Done”, Art snarls over a dark pool of echoes and handclaps. “She So Hot,” Art’s first single, sounds like Bryan Ferry and Jarvis Cocker cruising for damaged goods. Art suddenly shifts to Trompe Le Monde-era Pixies with the uptempo “Rita Mitsouko”. This is followed by the dark synth splashed come-ons of “I’ll Never Give You Up” and “Let’s Go Home Together”, a reinterpretation of Real Live’s “Send Me an Angel”, though instead a cry for help from above the request is a little more forward, a little more base and little more honest from the one that sees you standing at the back of the nightclub “Cold as Fuck”. Day Fevers finishes with one part T. Rex and two parts Neu!, held together by layers of synths, fuzzed out bass lines and echoes.

And yet these references only act to serve the idea that Art’s vision can shift gears, styles and genres suddenly, but still feel honest and appropriate to the intention of the song. A strong debut from Art d’Ecco that implies only the surface has been scratched of this dark creative well.