Cyber Octave
2001
Another Mellow Spring
About This Album
Springing from the same neo-psychedelic scene as their fellow Frenchmen in Air, Mellow is best known for frontman Patrick Woodcock, who co-wrote "Ce Matin La" on Air's breakthrough album, Moon Safari. The band's debut opens with "Shinda Shima," an acid-drenched head trip that marries spacy retro synths and vocoder-warped vocals with an anthemic hook that would surely get the arena crowd's lighters waving in full force. But while their music is rooted in the past, Mellow's sound is run through a techno-friendly filter, with danceable beats so infectious you'd think Paris was Manchester circa the Ecstasy boom of the early '90s. Like Oasis, at times the group wears its influences a bit too proudly on its shoulders: "Another Mellow Winter" is a great bit of dance-pop, but borrows so heavily from the Beatles' "Baby You're a Rich Man" -- from the main hook down to the horn-filled bridge -- that you wonder if Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney are getting a piece of the royalties. Still, with catchy numbers like the Nick Drake-influenced "Instant Love," trippy freak-outs like "Lovely Light," and hypnotic cuts like the ambient techno-funk of "Mellow (Organic Version)," there's enough promise here to suggest bright things to come in their future. ~ Bret Love, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4 and 5)

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