Review Summary: Believing in your friends and embracing that belief by forgiving failure....these feelings have vanished from our hearts.
Igos du Ikana
Hante is a musical outlet for prolific French musician Helene De Thoury who's spent time in other quality darkwave influenced bands like Phosphor and Minuit Machine. Today I'll be reviewing her second EP under the Hante moniker which is called No Hard Feelings. From start to finish the EP flows like the horribly awry alternate version of the second half of The Breakfast Club that never happened. It's a brooding affair throughout the twenty two minute duration yet through the gloominess of the recording Hante's music always sounds so sweet and affecting. An air of optimism through the darkness. Like Link walking into the foreboding halls of the Ikana kingdom before thoroughly defeating Captain Keeta, Igos du ikana and his minions before restoring light to their kingdom. At least that's what i feel anways.
The opening track Living in a French Movie is the EP's single with a artsy music video to back it up. Although not in love with the video I am in love with the song, especially with the dominant melody that sounds straight out of Scarface. It's a danceable track with a great buildup and a driving sense of urgency that makes great use of the drum machine and Hante's rather deep voice. The next track A Contrecoeur cranks the melancholy factor up a notch while still still sounding fresh. The final three tracks offer more of the same. The formula of No Hard Feelings is a simple one but an effective one. Be dark but still get the body moving. The songwriting is consistently engaging thanks to it's inspired synthesizers and the subtle beauty of Hante's voice.
Hante isn't reinventing the darkwave wheel by any means but if you love gloriously bombastic synthesizers with a overcast sheen, emotional and detached but not quite emotionally detached female vocals and a somber yet strangely uplifting atmosphere then this is for you. My only complaint is that this is an EP and not a full-length. This is one of the stronger modern releases in the wave scene.
