French Horn Rebellion
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
French Horn Rebellion, the latest electro-pop buzz band from Milwaukee, recently took the time to talk to BYT about O’Hare Airport, producing MGMT, french horns and hot jams. Said hot jams can be experienced via their self-released, self-titled, self-everythinged 2007 album.
- Brightest Young Things
“Brilliant tune” - Music Week
“Classy pop tinged disco” - DJ
“Pure Brooklyn gold… This Moment is a guaranteed party-starting indie banger” - The Drum (Australia)
Album Review-
Forget the fact their name sounds like a classical music experiment gone awry. Or that the tunes themselves - all giddy melodies and synthesized rhythms - sound like a K-Tel collection of ‘80s chart-toppers. French Horn Rebellion come across like a band that’s having a heck of a good time, especially since their fondness for electro-pop kingpins like Depeche Mode and Yazoo appears all too obvious.
Indeed, the group operates as if they’re in retro replay some twenty years removed, thanks to a reliance on perky tempos and washes of electronic effects verging on disco dalliance. It’s a sound that’s either infectious or irritating, depending on how far one’s able to tolerate such stylized posturing. Nevertheless, the album yields at least three exceptional highlights -- its sprawling signature song, “French Horn Rebellion”; a memorable “Showdown”; and “Up All Night,” a catchy, kinetic pop anthem that provides the album with an instantly engaging introduction.
It’s doubtful anyone will mistake French Horn Rebellion’s clever devices for actual pop profundity. Mostly their music comes across as surface sheen without a real pliable essence. However, as a guilty pleasure, it’s hard to find fault.
--Lee Zimmerman [March 28, 2008] - Amplifier Magazine
“More electronic layers than an onion genetically modified by Basement Jaxx” - Mixmag
“The Euphoric sound of 2010” - Les Inrockuptibles (France)
"Killer dance-pop" - The Guardian
“Irresistible, panting synth-pop, with fat new wave key tones and ecstatic vocals” - Pitchfork
“The next big thing on electro” - The New York Times
“One of our favorite albums of the year” - Out.com
“Vibrant electro-pop graced by beautiful yet extravagant arrangements… The most unconventional songs you’re bound to hear this year” - Tillate
“2010’s most effervescently upbeat album by miles… rich in layers of irony and cynicism but at the same time impossibly danceable, and overflowing with singalong vocal hooks… Dance-pop magic” (85%) - Hi-Fi News
“An album that conjures up feelings of limitless possibilities” - Notion
“Brooklyn brothers remind MGMT how to do it” - Uncut
"Serious musical literacy" - Word Magazine
“This debut represents a late contender for album of the year” - The Line of Best Fit
“Warp speed eclectic” - Time Out
“A roller-coaster ride of an album that is as uplifting as it is beguiling”
- Q Magazine
There is more press listed in our "Bio" section. - FHR
Link:
http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=72547705
Screenshot on Sonicbids homepage:
http://www.frenchhornrebellion.com/screenshots/sonicbids_spotlight.jpg
French Horn Rebellion are the champions of this week's Sonicbids Spotlight competition. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, duo, consisting of brothers Robert and David Polick Molinari, has caught nationwide attention with their 2007 self-titled debut. Recently, these retro-electro lads have been featured on MTVu's "Ahead Of The Curve" at SXSW, and were one of 10 finalists in CMJ's National Collegiate Music Competition. The band has a string of steady tour dates in the US through the fall.
-Kaitlyn Piccoli - CMJ
Ahead of the Curve-
http://www.mtvu.com/video/?id=1584681&vid=221482
The Freshmen-
http://freshmen.mtvu.com/freshmen_nominees/french_horn_rebellion
Sex Cred w/ Dr. Ruth (Appearing as the series' theme song)-
http://www.mtvu.com/on_mtvu/sexcred/ - MtvU
Link:
http://blog.limewire.com/posts/3321-MP3s-French-Horn-Rebellion
Screenshots:
http://www.frenchhornrebellion.com/screenshots/limewire.jpg
Back in July, I declared This Is Ivy League's "London Bridges" my 2008 summer jam -- light, cheerful and catchy. Thanks to the folks at TwentySeven Records, I was just sent a remix of the tune, produced by electronica newcomers, French Horn Rebellion. The remix synthesizes the original pop track into an '80s dance club beat, a style which defines these two brothers. After listening to a few of their original tracks (available above), it's clear these guys don't need the source material -- keep them on your radar. Tour dates under the cut.
-Mike Frankel - Limewire Music Blog
Link:
http://www.thecultureofme.com/culture/2008/08/emerging-the-fr.html
Screenshot:
http://www.frenchhornrebellion.com/the_culture_of_me.jpg
It's been threatening to rain like hell all day long in the city (a downpour already happened this morning) and we are growing restless and tired of iffy weather. Either rain or shut the fuck up and bring out the sun. Sorry for that, but we figured there was no better way to intro this duo from Milwaukee's feel good, sweeter than grapefruit music than by making it indirectly obvious that The French Horn Rebellion is the antithesis to a shitty day. There's simply no way to even conjure up negative thoughts while listening to these guys. Don't even try it. So get up off the couch, press play on this track, a remix of This Is Ivy League's "London Bridges", and give the finger to the nearest dark cloud. That'll teach them. - The Culture of Me
http://docs.google.com/gview?pid=gmail&thid=124520084abe9deb&attid=0.3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3Df2b0e49ea2%26view%3Datt%26th%3D124520084abe9deb%26attid%3D0.3%26disp%3Dattd%26zw&docid=0bace194db44b6d07fa6c853645411cf%7Ce35d69b69510ae159a9e5e86d6af7dcd&a=bi&pagenumber=1&w=800 - Les Inrocks- France
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=f2b0e49ea2&view=att&th=124520084abe9deb&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw - Artworker
Discography
EP:
Up All Night - EP (2009)
Beaches and Friends - EP (2009)
This Moment (2010)
What I Want (November 2011)
Album:
The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion (April 2011)
Photos
Bio
FRENCH HORN REBELLION
SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE… HOLY HELL WHAT IS THAT????
OK, we were on the dance floor a second ago, now we are in SPACE and SOME OF US ARE NAKED! Some of us are UPSIDE DOWN and naked, which is not a good look for us! What’s going on? What in the name of all that’s decent and right is going on? Wah! I’m a giant baby looking at the earth like in that flick! Wahhh!
OK, calm down. French Horn Rebellion is going on is what’s going on.
A few moments ago, you made the decision to listen to ‘The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion’. You took the red pill. In doing so you quite innocently agreed to venture into the unknown with brothers Robert and David Perlick-Molinari and their gleaming French Horn, and now you have to live with that decision. By the way, I’m sorry I had to slap you there.
So. You took the red pill, and may God have mercy on your soul. May God have mercy on all our souls.
Who’d a thunk these two unassuming brothers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who have only released two singles since 2009, yet have been tipped by everyone from NME, MixMag, and Artrocker to The Guardian, Time Out and French music bible Les Inrockuptibles, could have brought us out this far? Yes, they’ve had a Record of the Week on BBC Radio 1. Of course, an opening slot on the influential Kitsuné Maison compilation series is a big deal. And You know what it means a live performance at Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s Paris fashion week catwalk show. (It means they, at the very least, saw some hot models).
But still, you weren’t prepared for this! You didn’t know you were getting into this!
Another mystery: How have they found the time to do this to us? Live shows on both sides of the Atlantic alongside Hot Chip, Leftfield, Sleigh Bells, The Drums, Cut Copy and SebastiAn (to name a few) gives you some idea of the last 12 months in the lives of Robert and David. And yet they still found time to go into the studio and create this glitterball-shaped starship.
Initially forced to take up the French horn at 8 years old, Robert developed an affinity for the instrument when he discovered that it was actually awesome. He went on to earn a degree in French horn performance at Northwestern University (in Evanston, IL) and became an associate member of the Chicago civic orchestra. However, as his classical career progressed, so did his dissatisfaction with it; awesome though it is, The French Horn cannot do everything. And Robert wanted to do everything.
With this new sense of musical purpose, French Horn Rebellion was born, and Robert turned to his producer brother David.
David was coming to his own creative crossroads. As a budding music producer in New York, he was frustrated with clients who spent too much time wondering about what people could ‘take’—that is, until he produced MGMT's indie release, ‘Time to Pretend EP.’ “They (MGMT) would never pander to people’s expectations; instead they were always playing with them. It inspired me to follow my nose a bit more.” David immediately recognized a shared desire in Robert with French Horn Rebellion, and so their partnership began.
‘The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion’ is the result of this fated collaboration. There is a story to the album. The story has a hero and it takes you to places, some of which you have heard of and all of which you know. There are encounters and there are decisions and there is reflection and there is enlightenment. “It’s about the Universe. We’re pretty clear on what the story is, but what you take away from it may be entirely different,” says David. Whatever the hell else it is, the album is quite clearly a vibrant and adventurous collection of songs, and you are upside down in space.
Wahhh! WAHHHHHHH!
That is French Horn Rebellion is what that is!
Graham Linehan
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