Introducing: Hanoi Janes
June 10, 2010, 0 comments
I’m a little embarrassed. How could this happen? The baroque royal residence of Dresden is a mere two hour drive south of Berlin, but it took the efforts of our relentlessly revered Brooklyn label Captured Tracks to sign him and thereafter a warm reception by the folks at Pitchfork to put that certain Dresden citizen named Oliver Scharf on my radar. Hm.
Anyway, as Hanoi Janes, Scharf creates unashamedly blissful and optimistic lo-fi tunes that’ll make your day wherever you are, on the beach, in the park, or in the office, and you’ll sure see me dancing and whistling to this all summer long. Scharf’s one-man artistic endeavour was recorded on an 8-track machine, ending up with songs that rarely exceed the two minute mark while heavily leaning on Phil Spector-infused fuzzy jangle brilliance. Frankly, this is seriously perfect pop music. Infectious.
Even more bodacious, Hanoi Janes will support his label mate and our admired dream pop darling Jack Tatum aka Wild Nothing at his premiere Berlin show on August 9. The concert will be staged at Bang Bang Club and is once more presented by Let’s kiss and make up, as usual when it comes to bringing perfect pop into town.
Below, listen to two of Year of Panic‘s tracks. Sag Sag Sag is the only one sung in German, I think, but it’s more or less as audible as Dee Dee’s murmuring in Dum Dum Girls‘ attempt Oh Mein M.
