Sydney synth-funker specialising in soulful vocals and quirky pop tunes
Hometown: Sydney, Australia.
The lineup: PJ Wolf
The background: There are two outfits called Thief doing the rounds at the moment. One is a band starring the son of Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp and Sadie Frost, who we have it on good authority are "rather good", and the other is an Australian electro-funker with a soulful voice called PJ Wolf. Fin Kemp's lot better be damn good, because this other Thief really knows his pop onions. His electro-pop-funk onions: file next to Hot Chip and Metronomy, those exponents of quirky dance music whose songs would probably be somewhat effective played on acoustic instruments but why bother when "electronic" is the best delivery system?
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These Australians are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Apparently, Thief could have been a conventional rock band, but at the 11th-hour Wolf swapped his guitars for synthesizers. We're saying 11th-hour for dramatic effect - it could have been weeks before. Anyway, his early songs - and we're hardly talking ancient history because he only started a couple of years ago - won various Aussie awards, and now the cocky kid is citing the likes of Frank Ocean and the Neptunes as contemporaries. You can see how he'd get ideas above his station, and we're not just referring to the fact that his press people in this country are the ones who look after Adele and Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Prince. No, his songs appear to have gone to his head, and we don't blame him. They've got a heady, intoxicating quality, sophisticated, superbly structured and expertly arranged as they are, with a lightness of touch that is very Pharrell. Closer, his first release over here, is blue-eyed electro-funk with a lyric that will test daytime radio programmers, although post-the Vamps' debut single ("I talk a lot of shit when I'm drinking") his declaration that he's "too tired of watching you fuck me over" could, with a bit of judicious editing, make the cut, as it were. Shame it's a bit late for Valentine's Day. "I can't be what you want me to - just look closer," he warns over nifty synth arpeggios. "This is over." Cold keeps things nice and nasty ("Why are you so cold?") and recalls those wannabe electro-pop boys from 2008-9 like Frankmusik, Erik Hassle and Tommy Sparks, with shades of Sam Sparro. It doesn't sound dated, though, more timeless now that early-'80s "boogie" is a proper, "authentic", relevantly retro genre. Don't Believe You is slow, dubby electro with a lyric so pertinent to Wolf and his aesthetic he lifted his name from it ("So take a lesson from a liar, take a lesson from a thief"). We moaned recently about the failure of today's generation to pick up where the latterday Britfunkers left off, but Broken Boy sounds like something ice-cool that the mighty Manc 52nd Street might have delivered in 1983, with vocals that veer between Hall & Oates harmonic and Bowie at his most mannered-fatigued. If he's a thief, he robs from all the right sources.
The buzz: "Soul-stuffed with sinister hooks and dark, ominous synths" - Neon Gold.
The truth: He'll steal your attention and keep it.
Most likely to: Captivate.
Least likely to: Go to jail.
What to buy: Debut UK single Closer is released on March 25.
File next to: Metronomy, Hot Chip, Tommy Sparks, Frankmusik.
Links: http://ift.tt/1nG0nso.
Tuesday's new band: Hockeysmith.
by Paul Lester via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
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