Belleruche arrived at Rocking the Daisies as a dynamic trio that nobody could put their finger on. The genre-less three-piece came all the way from the UK and included us in their tour. Fashioned out of leading lady, vocalist Kathrin deBoer, guitarist Ricky Fabulous accompanied by DJ Modest, Belleruche are a successful encapsulation of a variety of music styles that really works well.
Kathrin, who is a proper lady, all eyelashes and shimmy-hips, breathes rich, smooth vocals into an arrangement that incorporates soul, trip-hop elements and a lustrous exotica sound. What’s so great for me about these three is how they’ve gone down a slightly dark alleyway with their tone. There are areas which have managed to take the slippery airs and graces of a traditional soul sound juxtaposed on electronica and bring the whole thing to a dank and crunchy composition.
When I met with Ricky and Kathrin after the show backstage I got the feeling straight away that these musicians aren’t charmed with the idea of being compared to other artists past and present, “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about us!” exclaims Kathrin when I remark that they are a genre-less act if ever there was one. What I can put to them as merely a likeness so as to illustrate their vibe, is a nice underground 90’s feel that weirdly enough reminds me of the aesthetic Tricky and Portishead sometimes indulge. Their opinion of us is also pretty good as they slug Black Label, singing the beer’s praises.
Belleruche is about to wrap up their new album, 270 Stories which I am lucky enough to have a listen to later on Ricky’s iPod. Leading up to this point, the three have been through a lot of open minded trawling and tethering of mixed ideas to reach this incredibly broad sound they are putting out. DJ Modest and Ricky met in college and were always mucking about, sampling different bits and pieces of anything that took their fancy and seeing if it could wind up together. When they met Kathrin it all seemed to go down well and the next thing they knew, they had an album. When questioned about how they put it all together, Ricky answers, “Music is music and if it’s good it’s good. Saying we’re genre-less is a compliment. I’ll be listening to punk, walk past Kathrin’s room and she’s listening to Nina Simone and it’s that kind of weird comparison that just sounds good.”
Kathrin agrees how they all have to make compromises in order to write songs together as between her, Modest and Ricky, they have a huge range of tastes going on. She bats her huge Betty Boop eyes and tsks, “You know when you get something that you really feel for, I’ll leave it with these two to listen to and then I’ll come back and anything that was there is completely gone!” she gasps. “Yet the way that I write, I work really closely with the melody and when I leave something with the boys in the studio and they put in an amazing bass line under it or something like that, I just love it. I really love it.” Ricky laughs and rolls his eyes as they go on to bicker about ‘mood’ and ‘tone’ over what they consider a happy song and what another would sum up as a heartbreak anthem. “We’re dark! Not happy! Things will not end well!” growls Ricky and Kathrin giggles along which really compliments what they’re saying about their ambiguous creations.
They’re a couple of truly lovely people and it’s awesome to see how an artistic project can take older media, rework it and create something relevant and nostalgic at the same time.
A band well worth checking out and what goes down as one of the top acts at Rocking The Daisies this year in my opinion.
For more go to www.belleruche.com
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