Band To Watch: Dominique Leone

For anyone who's enjoyed Dominique Leone's writing at Pitchfork over the years, it's pretty fascinating to listen to the San Francisco-based Texan's self-titled debut full-length, which follows his self-titled Feedelity EP. You can hear his beloved Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson in the harmonies (for Nilsson, think of "Without You" and check out the first section of "Blist," parts of "Claire," or gorgeous album closer "Conversational"), his prog, elecrtro, disco, ABBA fixations elsewhere. (We tried forcing in a Scott Walker mention because his review of the The Drift was so supreme, but no dice.)

The 11-track collection starts with "Kaine," which opens like an Animal Collective magic-wand explosion, before settling into a spacier overlap of plucked strings, audience claps, backward tones, and some death metal guitar growling, and then relocating to some sort of foreign soap opera dialog samples, etc. That's just part of it. No song follows an easy path, but earlier this week we posted the most straightforward piece, "Duyen," and its telephones, shakers, and walkie talkies. To get a broader sense of the album's ornate constructions, take a listen to the up-tempo, Beach Boys-and-the-kitchen-sink standout "Nous Tombons Dans Elle."

Dominique Leone - "Nous Tombons Dans Elle" (MP3)

Remember, dude loves the Boredoms, too. And laughing. The album's out at the end of May on Strømland, a label operated by Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Smalltown Supersound's Joakim Haugland. We're looking forward to seeing him pull these songs off live, alone with his keyboard and encyclopedic approach to composition. In case you missed this a few days ago:

Dominique Leone - "Duyen" (MP3)

Dominique Leone is out 5/20 on Strømland.

Posted at 3:08 PM in Band To Watch, MP3
Tags: Dominique Leone

7 Comments

Holy crap that is weird. My head asplode.

I dig it.

Posted by: wi_ngo at 04/10/08 4:08 PM | Reply
Score = 1

oh man she is a stone foxxx

Posted by: omar at 04/10/08 5:15 PM | Reply
Score = 3

I give it a 6.5

Posted by: comeuppance at 04/17/08 7:50 PM | Reply
Score = 1

I think Nous Tambons is my favorite track I've heard all year.

Posted by: thekyle at 04/19/08 12:56 PM | Reply
Score = 1

5.0 video game hell

Posted by: critic at 04/30/08 10:38 AM | Reply
Score = 2

1.6
Oh wow, who would of guessed a Pitchfork writer's music would try to rip-off... tahdah!! - The Beach Boys. It's bad enough we have to put up with their ratings, but now we have to be subjected to the music these turds actually make! These guys are castrating rock and roll one ball at a time.

Posted by: Qiot Grrl at 05/04/08 11:05 AM | Reply
Score = 0

This is appallingly bad. Totally reflective of the cutesy, self-indulgent bullshit pop that Pitchfork has sold out to.

Posted by: John B at 05/05/08 7:18 PM | Reply
Score = 0