Listen: Van Gogh — Pr0files

Other than a brief, sadly one-off, cover of Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World, LA pair Pr0files haven’t graced BlackPlastic.co.uk since their debut album, Jurassic Technologie, was released in 2016. Indeed, it has been some time since the pair last really worked together:

“After a long break from collaborating (almost five years), we finally decided to exchange song ideas that we had been working on. We were inspired by how much our lives had changed since we last made music together, and these lyrics and emotion reflect that feeling; looking back at a past life.”

The result is Van Gogh, a song that very much picks up where Pr0files left off, despite the extended interlude. Emotive lyrics belted out atop cinematic synths, the chorus’ layered effects creating a feeling of infectious determinism. It is, nonetheless, a restrained returned… Less overtly pop than their power-ballad-meets-Drive song Forgive, which made my top 20 favourite songs of the year on release back in 2014. The overall sound is more sophisticated as a result, and I’m excited to hear where Pr0files go from here.

Listen: Everybody Wants To Rule The World — Pr0files

Hands down, one of my favourite acts of the 80s is Tears For Fears. Songs From The Big Chair is one of those albums I just always go back to. A lot of 80s music appeals specifically because of the age and period it exudes. In the case of Tears For Fears, and in particular Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love, the music doesn’t show its age in the same way as most of their contemporaries.

Take a listen to the big chords of The Working Hour, ticking back and forth like a clock before they are embellished by that luxurious saxophone. Or the sparse opening of Woman In Chains, a song that is both full of space and full of detail. These are songs that don’t feel old — instead they evoke a feeling of “they don’t make ‘em like this any more”. These are songs that feel expensive.

But it’s 2021 now. I haven’t featured LA duo Pr0files since their début album, Jurassic Technologie, came out in early 2016. The world has literally changed pretty much in those intervening years, but it feels a little like Lauren Pardini and Danny Sternbaum never went away.

Back with a cover of Tears For Fears’ career-defining Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Pr0files draw on the feelings of luxury that the song evokes. In contrast to the feeling of an ostentatious getaway retreat that the original conveys, the technical and mechanical feeling conveyed through the duo’s use of synths and drums gives this a more urbane aesthetic. It’s less “on a yacht” and more “at a beach bar”. Or at the very least, “on the underground, dreaming of being on a yacht”. But hey, it’s a pandemic — right now being on the underground seems less accessible than a yacht. So maybe the underground IS luxury.

Pr0files: welcome back, what took you so long?

Album Review: Jurassic Technologie - Pr0files

Pr0files have been on my radar since LA duo Lauren Pardini and Danny Sternbaum unleashed their single Forgive, a track that channels Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive to create an infectious throbbing electro ballad.

Forgive was back in October 2014, wind on a little over a year and off the back of a slew of individual singles we now have the band's first full length album, Jurassic Technologie. And it very much takes the sound we know and applies it to an album format - what we have here is a collection of songs in the trademark Pr0files sound, albeit with two additional interluds. These include the breathless Missing You Tonight, which repeats the song's title as its single vocal refrain over a slow moving electronic melody that sounds like a off-time heartbeat, and the instrumental title track. 

Aside from the shorter interludes Jurassic Technologie consists of nine tracks that could all as easily be singles, and many of them will be known to anyone who has followed the band's drip feed release of new material. There is no real concept here to tie this together, but for a band's first release that is perhaps understandable - instead we simply have a collection of storming electronic ballads, and they are all at least good, and several of them are great... The only catch being that there is a good chance you have already heard this album's highlights - Forgive and Get It Up.

Jurassic Technologie is a solid intro to Pr0files, it just doesn't add as much new material as it could have. At eleven tracks, including those interludes, it's a brief but enjoyable affair. Where Pardini and Sternbaum go from here is entirely their call...

Pr0files' Jurassic Technologie is out now and currently available to stream in full via Soundcloud below:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/6882935/pr0files-jurassic-technologie-album-premiere www.facebook.com/Pr0files twitter.com/Pr0files instagram.com/pr0files www.pr0fil.es www.straightarecords.com Written & Recorded by Pr0files Mastered by Jared Hirshland at Elysian Masters www.elysianmasters.com/

Stream: Empty Hands - Pr0files

LA duo Pr0files are back and Empty Hands is another slowly sensual slice of electric dream pop and probably their best track since last year's infectious Forgive, the track which first introduced me to the band and made it into my top-20 favourite songs of the year list. 

On Empty Hands Lauren Pardini's vocals tell a tale of betrayal, friendship and love against the trademark chugging synth melodies Pr0files have already made their trademark.

Alongside this new track, the band have today announced their forthcoming debut album Jurassic Technologie, due in February 2016. It's sure to be one to look out for!

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/pr0files-empty-hands-premiere www.facebook.com/Pr0files twitter.com/Pr0files instagram.com/pr0files www.pr0filestheband.com www.straightarecords.com

Stream: Get It Up - Pr0files

Pr0files managed to make a late bid to become one of my favourite acts of last year with their killer electro ballad Forgive, which sounded like it came straight out of the mind of Ryan Gosling's character in Drive.

The LA duo are back with their first new track of 2015, Get It Up, and it picks up pretty much where they left off. Having first collaborated seven years ago it feels like 2015 could be Lauren Pardini and Danny Sternbaum's best year yet.

Get It Up is the band's most disco moment yet - a bluesy celebratory declaration of a determination to rise above it all. The brassy electronic bass retains the sleek 80s influenced sound that made Forgive so great, but this track overall feels like the natural conclusion to the breakdown that record encapsulated. Where Forgive sounded like it was first sung into the mirror, Get It Up feels like it has been hurled at a dancefloor in defiance - the moment you really move on is the first point at which you stop looking back.

Released by STRAIGHT A RECORDS (February 17, 2015) www.facebook.com/Pr0files twitter.com/Pr0files instagram.com/pr0files www.pr0filestheband.com www.straightarecords.com