In the plastic world in which we live, it is perhaps essential to our wellbeing that we track down the anachronisms, the rebels and the ones that simply do not fit and Secret Season, a cosmopolitan duo made up of Mark Moogalian and Isabelle Risacher, certainly don’t fit into any of the currently fashionable musical jelly moulds.
It is true that many of the songs on their album “The Answer” seem little more than completed demos but that is perhaps the point. The causal, almost lackadaisical, approach of this duo neatly skews them away from the pursuit of perfection towards that rolling on down the road groove so beloved of west coast psych-pop. With that said, the most focused and completely realised song on the album – the charmingly oblique “Dandelion Dragonfly” – turns out to be about as fine an example of said psych-pop as you are likely to hear this decade. The dream pop infused “You Owe Me Good” also works well with Ms Risacher’s vocals being suitable wistful. Similarly, when singing in her native French as she does in “Regard Electrique”, she transcends the deliberately awkward backing track and injects an unexpected enchantment into the lyrics.
Despite the obviously low recording budget, Secret Season manage to successfully present themselves as, for want of a better description, the hippies of today.