Everyone wants to go to Berlin, and has for years. I can’t hear this sentence anymore, because what has become of Berlin since the wall fell? Yes, there were a few really great, wild years, but after that, the city became more and more commercialized. Like a self-service store, everyone grabbed what they could, big real estate funds, wealthy people, and tourists. Everyone wanted to feel and own that "Berlin feeling."
And us Berliners? We wanted to preserve it, because how much more free, wild culture was there just 10-20 years ago?
However, Berlin still has the reputation it has. Is it already mystification?
Well, five men from Byron Bay, over 15,000 kilometers away, have also followed the call of the capital. These five men founded the band PARCELS in 2014, seven years ago. To be precise, they first formed the band and then decided to move to Berlin the following year. What’s remarkable about this? The Australians from the small town in New South Wales seem not only to feel at home here but have also shaped their band into something special.
For me, Berlin is always fast, hard, edgy, grumpy, but with a mouth, right!
PARCELS apparently have not been influenced by this. Their new work, which will be released on November 5, 2021, is a counterpoint, if one wants to relate it to Berlin, at least to the city within the S-Bahn ring.
The 19 (!) songs that make up a double album, one half “Day” and the other “Night,” have a total playing time of over 80 minutes. It is indeed a work that is opulent just in its length.
As I mentioned, the music is a counterpoint to the city center of Berlin.
The music is very gentle, atmospheric, dreamy, hypnotic.
The production gives the music and the voices a lot of space. A space that is audible; especially on a good sound system, you can notice what has been created here. A music that is hard to escape from. Stylistically, it is a mix of jazz, easy listening, elevator music (I don’t mean that in a negative sense), lounge pop, disco, soft rock, folk, and time and again, soul.
A sound that usually doesn’t appeal to me at all. To be honest, it’s music I rarely engage with.
So why am I writing about PARCELS?
I write about PARCELS because the band has captivated me with their sound. They touched and awakened something in me. The band hasn’t let me go. Is it the music that comes across as so charming and fluffy? Is it the band itself, whose members seem so out of time that I wondered if they were playing a joke and rummaging through their parents’ costume closet? Is it the great production of the album? Is it the gentle voices of the vocal parts that can sweep you away like in the good old disco days?
Whatever it is, “Day / Night” by PARCELS has deeply impressed me. These multi-layered, interesting, dreamy, sometimes even sad songs have captivated me.
