Label: Platform 23 Records – PLA036 Format: Vinyl, 12", EP, Reissue Country: UK Released: 2019 Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: Experimental, House, Electro, Downtempo, No Wave, Darkwave
2019 RP of Canadian proto-obscurity (NM)
Self-released provincial proto-club / new-wave obscurity from Canadian one-offs Vini Vidi Vici and Princess Demeny.
It’s always super interesting when records act as a marker in time, bridging styles of the then present with emergent sounds. Out with the old, in with the new? Kinda. Montreal artists Vini Vidi Vici was a hot-potch duo that came from very different backgrounds, Paul Klopstock a classically trained Pianist and Mario Langlois as a DJ, self-taught musician and radio producer. This contributes to a particular off-kilter feeling throughout the record, an unusual lopsided, regional take on the New Wave tropes of the time. Singer, painter and poet Princess Demeny also contributes vocals and her original version of ‘New York Grief’. The trio would often travel down to NYC to soak up the madness, energy and embryonic house sounds of the Big Apple, before returning to their Montreal studio to make sense of it all. Here, ‘Club Song’ with its sparse Roland-707 production and surging bass line sounds like an obvious homage to Jeanette Thomas’ Chicago anthem Shake Your Body, whilst ‘Pleasure Garden’ and the title track Vini Vidi Vici seem tracked in a cross-section of genres and studio experimentation. Demeny’s nocturnal anthem ‘New York Grief’ captures that same middle-distance stare found in Planet Ha Ha’s early 80s oddball Home, instilled with that wide-eyed amazing of falling in love with the big city for the first time then travelling home inspired and gorging on the experience.
Tracklist Side A A1 Club Stuff A2 Vini Vidi Vici Côté B B1 Où Sommes Nous ? B2 AA HHH
