Dutch Experts was born out of the Covid Pandemic amidst the crumbling of societal infrastructure. This destruction mirrored singer/songwriter Hannah Hoffman’s own experiences during lockdown. Turning one of her lowest and most challenging points into a revisitation of her approach to sound, Hoffman began experimenting with layering synths and electronic drum beats in Garageband, creating a sonic landscape that bore the fruits of Dutch Experts and the creation of a debut EP, ‘Bound by This’. Inspired by her personal challenges, the gothic landscape of The Cure, and melodic choices informed by Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins, Hoffman locked into a sound that became uniquely modern yet captured an 80s sonic sensibility: synth pop with a darkwave edge. Recorded, mixed & mastered by Mikey Allred (All Them Witches, Inter Arma), Dutch Experts’ debut EP, ‘Bound By This’ released on February 24, 2023, available both digitally and on vinyl. Holy Wire is the project of Alain Paradis. Towards the end of the pandemic, Paradis relocated from Brooklyn to Austin, going through a break-up and giving up drinking within the first month. Alone and sober without friends, family, or community, in an unfamiliar city barely beginning to emerge from lockdown, Paradis’ songwriting turned towards reflection, spurred by the process of grieving a life he left behind. At its least auto-biographical, The Ending Of An Age‘s titular track describes fear fantasies of love during a planetary crisis, where the era of human dominion comes to a close. But elsewhere, in tracks like Other Lives and Twenty Six, it’s a farewell to the golden age of youth and all its faded potential. In songs like Worse For Wear and A War I Never Win, it’s a rumination on love in the past, and an acceptance of its lasting imprint on the present. The production is high-energy, relying on propulsive drum machines and swaggering post-punk basslines to cut through the tide of melancholy. Frenetic sequencers weave throughout, recalling Vince Clarke-via-LCD Soundsystem. Lyrically, The Ending Of An Age favors earnest sentiment over irony, but delivers a wink and a nod by pitting its somber lyrics against danceable synth-pop.
