Konkord 128
Touch Of Hubris
Defoe & Pronai
It was a little over eleven years ago that Jacques Defoe first staggered into Thomas Pronai's recording studio, tucked away amidst the rolling vineyards of Austria's eastern border. Defoe had spent half a lifetime wandering the aural wasteland some place between Brian and Tony Wilson, a Surfariad from Manchester to California, honing a virtuosity that most agreed was better left unheard. But Pronai, a veteran producer and a legend of the Austrian alternative music scene, did hear; and his quick ear knew that behind the howling and disparate strumming lay songs of a quite different order.
And so began a partnership, a steady honing of a sound, a style, an idea. idea. Defoe would bring a handful of melodies, lyrics and the occasional chord change; Pronai would shape them, layering sound upon sound, sculpting a lucid sonic vision from the hazy flashes played before him. The eight tracks of magnetic tape became the canvas for a touch of genius; or, at the very least, a touch of hubris.
Defoe began to contribute lyrics to Pronai's various projects, Bo Candy and The New Mourning, as the two melded musical styles, genres and tone: from Surf to Alt. Country, New Wave to Folk Rock. Session after session passed, and the sound began to gel: "It's the Surfaris meet the Velvet Underground", quipped Robin Wills, guitarist and songwriter of the fabled Barracudas on hearing the early takes. At long last the vaults could hold no more: some forty tracks yearning to be set upon the world.
Tantalising fragments saw light of day: “City til I Die” (2017) a limited edition charity single that honoured the cavernous speakers at Exeter's St James Park; and “The End of the World”, a contribution to Kool Kat Musik's Compilation for the Ukraine (2022).
And now the debut LP of Defoe & Pronai holds thirteen of the very best: songs that tell a story of a growing understanding, a merging of visions. Two musicians from quite different worlds present a record that is international and cosmopolitan, and yet so very local; spanning genre, mood and time, yet quite cohesive; cynical, but imbued with hope; philosophical and frivolous; trivial and transcendent. A touch of hubris indeed.