Van She - Van She

Wed 4th Jan, 2006 in Music Reviews

Van She may have only formed in early 2005, may only have just released their debut EP, but they already have the backing of the occasionally cooler-than-thou Modular records behind them. The Modular PR department is a force to be reckoned with, littering the Van She official biography with bizarre claims of the freshness displayed by the Van She sound. Apparently this Sydney four piece are ‘fresher than Flavor Flav, fresh like coriander, fresher than the Fresh Prince.’

Presumably this is meant to indicate that they are somewhat ‘fresher’ than the late eighties/early nineties – it’s hard to be sure. What is sure from actually playing the EP is that Van She find plenty of inspiration in music made many years before Flav hung a clock around his neck or Will Smith shook the room. Drawing on post punk, synth pop, dance and Krautrock they share ground with some giants of the ‘80s, New Order and Depeche Mode, even a little Duran Duran. So, while Modular frontrunners Wolfmother refresh Sabbath, Van She also offer an updating of an old sound.

Opening Mission shifts quickly into top gear, setting out the template for what’s to come – white funk bass lines, soaring synths and Nick Routledge’s vocal rising up on the chorus, away from the flatter delivery on the verses. The ‘80s feel is in full effect on Kelly providing a perfect fantasy backing for the pre-prom montage of any classic John Hughes movie.

Kelly was a young girl looking in the mirror
doing what young kids do

It opens with a bass line to make Peter Hook proud, but the soaring synth lines, and of course the lyrics, soon recall that other synth pop Kelly; the one who watched the stars, on Air’s Moon Safari album. While there’s a French connection Van She’s sunglasses-at-night posturing drags away from the sweet innocence offered by Air.

The seedy bass churn on Sex City anchors the darkness beneath the surface preening. The band coming on so decadent it sounds as if they are playing in crisp new white suits, their pockets lined with suspect rolled up hundred dollar bills. In that endearingly cocky polish there’s a connection with their Modular brethren, Cut Copy and The Presets. Though without quite the same intense rush of sweat that The Presets deliver. Closer Here With You drops all the uptight funkyness to drift affairs to a dreamy close. The sweet nothing vocals (sweating on your window, I’m not listening) blurred into the mix by whispering synth waves.

The Van She sound is finely polished by Pnau’s Nick Littlemore, who also shares writing credits on highlight tracks Kelly and Here With You, he keeps it all clean with just enough off kilter menace. If it’s not too sacrilegious imagine a reworking of side one of Bowie’s Low, by Let’s Dance-era Bowie or even Phil Collins. It’s also likely that fiction’s great Phil Collins fan, American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman, would find much to appreciate in the Van She sound – the heart of darkness tempered by a surface of professional slickness. Like American Psycho’s immaculately designed business card Van She are clean and uncluttered, yet with enough texture to hint at individual personality.

However the spectre of PR gone mad hangs over the group; the idea that the band met when all four members responded to a sham ad in Drum Media calling for a vocalist influenced by Sepultura, Entombed, Black Skull and Phil Collins is far fetched in classic PR style. Essentially these six tracks offer a sleek take on post punk, with all the sharp edges polished to a reflective sheen by synth waves and clean electronic production. With history repeating the sounds of the early eighties post-punk we are surely approaching a new New Wave and this EP treads a line between. For now Van She present a clean and confidently polished debut, but there is a great danger of polishing this sound and image ‘til it rubs away to nothing.