I gotta say that it seems Prince George Records is doing something right.
I knew of the DC label as the backer for dance duo Pleasure Curses, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Prince George has more artists in its roster, and one in particular which could prove a breakout act in the next year.
Enter Furniteur, who opened for Frenchman David Grellier performing under his bandname College at DC9 last Wednesday. With the recent electronic release of a four-track EP, Furniteur have been playing several small shows around DC in places like The Dunes and Comet Ping-Pong. They are well worth catching at your earliest opportunity.
Furniteur’s frontwoman is local chanteuse Brittany Sims, who studied art in New York City and decided to form a band back home in DC after graduating. She’s recruited Kevin Bayly and Mike Toohey of Brett (formerly the Dance Party) and presented Furniteur as a smoldering synth-driven trio.
“Drawing equal inspiration from neoteric art, early electronic music, thrift store disco, and the visual aesthetic of glamour icons from bygone eras, Furniteur began as a concept while Brittany was studying fine arts at the New York Studio School in Greenwich Village,” according to Prince George Records.
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Miss Sims sings with a breathy lilt that recalls Debbie Harry and along dreamy heights that smack of Nico. Her vocals drift over unhurried electronic beats from her bandmates. Furniteur recently remixed a track by the Chromatics, and that Portland, Ore.-based quartet isn’t a bad starting point for benchmarking Furniteur’s own music. They share a pleasantly romantic taste in spacy italo disco.
In performance, Furniteur play the four tracks on the self-titled EP, including “Modern Love,” “Secret Plans,” “Out of Love” and “Kaleidoscopic.” The tracks are performed as if the audience have been invited into a reverie about missing loves and self-reliance, infused with a Lana Del Rey-esque sense of longing and loneliness. Furniteur go afield to add a cover of “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails to their set, and the lurid industrial creeper transforms into a provocative dreampop thumper.
With the upcoming holidays, Furniteur do not have a scheduled show at the moment, but pay attention to the Prince George Records website to discover when they will play next. Then go see them!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94ragCkocE]
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