gullbuy music review

Princess Him

title

More Equal Than Others

label

Klein Records

format
CD

Princess Him CD coverPrincess Him is a Viennese electronic italo-disco styled duo composed of Andreas Pils on vocals (under the name Lizer M. Pils), and Czech native Barca Baxant on synths and beats.

The music sounds like The Hacker, and the vocals sound like Chrissie Hynde in The Pretenders.

Klein makes the point of saying they are not Electroclash in the artist section of the Klein Web site, but the overall feel of this record is very close to the French band Trash Palace.

There are three instrumentals and eight vocal songs. I like all three of the instrumentals a lot. they are Not Rock, Be My Guest, and Funkstar. Each have nice synth work and steady clipped beats.

The standout vocal track is Underwater Kissing. It has all the good things about Princess Him in one place without any of the bad parts. As for the bad parts, Sophie Ellis-Baxter made a career out of sounding like Chrissie Hynde inThe Audience, but Princess Him are way more underground than that.

Some people may not mind the sound of her voice, while others may find it to be troublesome. The dramatic over-emoted singing (for me) ruins tracks like the last cut Single Action.

The most Hynde-voiced track is C'mon, which makes it all come together and is a decent song.

Another artist that Princess Him makes me think of is the Mitek Record's Sophie Rimheden. Sophie's work is a bit more experimental and noisy than this, but the feeling is close nonetheless. I also am reminded of the French artist Kiko a little, especially Barca's music.

I have followed Klein Records closely since I discovered Sofa Surfers. Princess Him isn't an essential purchase, but it is a decent disc that I am glad to have heard.

---Carl, April 6, 2004