A personalized and numbered 1000-copy limited edition mini album ! 9 original spontaneous tracks to follow the excellent 12-track Steps to Whatever ! Calc is definitely gob smacking. Not satisfied with gathering general praise by the press with Twelve Steps To Whatever, here they come less than 5 months later with surprising Real to Reel. Exit Goodbye to studio luxury and the comfort it allows for arranging, Julien Pras, only commander in chief this time, delivers a rough, simple but clever and humble piece of work.
Real to Reel is a succession of surprises, may you be familiar or not with Calc's universe. A new facet of the songwriter appears in this new opus : total personal exposure. Everywhere, the perfect arrangements and production quality of Twelve Steps To Whatever were acclaimed. Here, Calc surprise everybody with these 9 lo-fi jewels, for most of them recorded on 4-track. A direction that may put the band in danger but gets closer to the heart. It all sounds so real that you can actually feel you are in Julien's room while he is composing. Straightaway, Calc breaks the habits, beginning with Saddle Creek, both profound and freshening instrumental track. Then naturally come the simplest acoustic tracks and more noisy pop.
To conclude, the sublime Dress and Pack is impressive of majesty. As if Julien managed to free all his demons in less than 4 minutes. This track on its own is a trip through the darkest corners of his soul : everything slips away and fades into some kind of ambient beauty, a dreamlike universe magnifying his melancholy. Then after such an emotional load, geographical notions become blurred but who cares. Who would still dare to blame them (as they were for too long a time) for being French ! As if being born of the banks of river Garonne forbade you to use English ... and condemned any hope for a great career. Ridiculous. In some way, this record sums up the road taken by this Bordeaux based five-piece band : from rough beginnings, 10 years ago, to a more delicate and well-crafted pop, flowing with the composer's states of mind, his eternal inspiration. Finally, knowing that these nine jewels are contained in a unique limited edition object make Real to Reel a collector's piece made to embellish the record library of 1000 lucky ones... not more.
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