If we provided this music discovery service purely for other music bloggers, then there would probably not be much point in recommending this band. Although other music bloggers do indeed make up a significant chunk of all music blog traffic (still tiny compared to the rest), and we openly admit to adoring our online brethren, we actually write this instead for the insatiably hungry public. Whoever you are, if you haven’t heard of Mitzi yet, then you are sure going to thank us.
Mitzi are a Brisbane quartet that are all set to spread beyond their native shores. They’ve been around for a while – they even have a Myspace! Remember when bands had those!? – but their long journey to the debut album finally ended earlier this week with the release on Future Classic of the ten-track long player, Truly Alive. Considering this is a band that seem to take one more step closer to our tastes with every new song it’s probably wise that we reserved judgement until we had heard the full album. They began as a fluffier version of Trophy Wife, with all the wafer-thin, camp, light-footed disco grooves, but as time’s gone on they’ve discovered their edge, causing more favourable comparisons with LCD Soundsystem.
Take the album’s title track, Truly Alive, and you couldn’t get more LCD if you tried. And lots of people have indeed tried – and failed – to encapsulate James Murphy, but these guys seem to really snare the fluent NYC pop. It’s a tune that seems evolved from their earlier All I Heard EP, which also came out on Future Classic – perhaps Australia’s hottest record label at the moment – back in 2011. That earlier EP delivered a more camp sound, with admirable-but-inoffensive disco themes throughout. Again the EP’s title song attracts us the most, with a punchy momentum, a slapped bass and their deadpan vocals. Simple house piano riffs camp it up, but it never gets too pink or fluffy. It’s when the band are at their more serious that they drive their pop to more interesting destinations.
It’s all perfect Triple-J radio fodder, proving equally as alternative as it is broadly appealing. It won’t take more than one listen to know if you like them or not. This is the natural succession to a string of other Australian bands, from The Presets or Cut Copy and particularly from Midnight Juggernauts. It shares a lot of the same genetics, perhaps too many, so we confess to getting slightly more excited about the direction that Aussie producer Flume takes his electronic bass music. So Mitzi aren’t an evolution, they sound more reflective than futuristic, but show them a dance floor and they’ll fill it.
The album came out on Tuesday 19th February in the UK, so is available now. It’s well produced, backed by a good label, is perfectly radio-friendly, and fuses electronics with a band so positively that it could well infect 2013. With the hype built over recent months and the platform set, it will be interesting to watch whether they totally smash the competition this year. Do the public want something that looks backwards rather than forwards? Does a broad appeal end in no appeal? Does anyone care when the music is this care-free? All tough questions, but in the ten songs that this debut album offers, we believe there’s plenty for the waiting public to adopt.
MITZI – TRULY ALIVE
MITZI – ALL I HEARD
MITZI – WHO WILL LOVE YOU NOW
