DUBAI is a new group formed by Anna Barie, former frontwoman for These Are Powers (and Impose contributor, but come on, who isn't these days), and her husband Johannes Buff of Le Knell, who live in Lyon, France. “We submitted our application to become a married band that records at home, like Peaking Lights and Moon Duo,” says Barie. They are making music of a dense, sickly type, very different from the bursting rhythmics of These Are Powers. Anna's voice is low on her register and monotoned, building to a palpable tension above a more relaxed bass line and a mid-level buzz. When Buff joins in with a melody, the mood has been set.
“Unsaid” is their “Hello, World!” and the video below was created by Brooklyn collagist grosssymmetric. It features handheld views of “brutalist architecture”, a term I was unfamiliar with but now I recognize completely as the shape of all federal buildings from the '70s. Here, the slightly shaky camera adds humanity to what would otherwise seem like a tour de depressing drab.
DUBAI is releasing their first song on the AM Discs A'M' 2012 compilation coming out next week, and SHAMS is remixing something soon, so keep an eye open.
