Anyone who bought the recent ‘Matinée Holiday Soirée’ EP (matinée 078) surely noticed a new (to Matinée) name among the featured artists— Copenhagen duo Champagne Riot. The band’s excellent contribution ‘Xmas Safari’, with its orchestral and hypnotic feel, provided a nice electronic contrast to the jingle and jangle of labelmates Bubblegum Lemonade, Math and Physics Club, Northern Portrait, and Strawberry Whiplash.
Champagne Riot began several years ago as a solo project of Caspar Bock Sørensen and released the superb ‘Paris and I’ EP with our pop comrades at Shelflife Records in 2008. The following year, Caspar joined Matinée hitmakers Northern Portrait as they were about to embark on their first set of live dates which brought Caspar to the US for a set of Champagne Riot performances in California. One of the many highlights of those early performances was a new song called ‘A Friend of a Friend’ which reminded us instantly of the fragile best of the Pet Shop Boys. Along the way, Champagne Riot became a duo with the addition of Anders Reuter and the two proceeded to experiment with new sounds and a bolder approach to pop music. Each new song recorded became their best and as 2010 came to a close we were corresponding regularly with them about a debut EP for Matinée.
The resulting ‘Moonstruck’ EP (matinée 079) is now nearly ready and we’re very excited to tell you about it! The title track is clearly their biggest and boldest statement to date and may take some of you by surprise. Over the years Matinée has established itself as a label of quality but also one that somehow evoked a ‘Matinée sound.’ While we have flirted on the edge of indie electronica occasionally (most notably with Simpático, Pipas, and The Snowdrops), most Matinée releases probably didn’t reveal our lifetime adoration of bands like New Order, Pet Shop Boys or Depeche Mode. Until now, that is…
‘Moonstruck’ is a popsong that has that sort of sweeping chorus that is both radio friendly and perfectly suited to the dancefloor. Have a listen to it on the Soundcloud player below and just try to resist. The EP features three more A-sides entitled ‘Goldrush’ and ‘Heart Stab’ and the aforementioned ‘A Friend of a Friend’ which were all briefly considered the lead track of the EP until ‘Moonstruck’ came along to claim that spot. The EP is officially released on February 15 but you can preorder a copy right now exclusively from the Matinée shop and we’ll ship it as soon as we have copies back from the pressing plant next week. We also have limited copies of the ‘Paris and I’ CDEP + 7” release on Shelflife available in the shop if you haven’t already picked that up. Watch for more Champagne Riot news over the next few weeks!