The album that the singer Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas gave us – several months ago already – was an example of style, good taste and elegance when it comes to mixing current sounds with esthetics closer to the eighties. It was an album full of hits, with silky songs that were at the same time highly danceable. A perfect example of this is this single from the very same album and that became the title track. “Past Lives” has a pristine, transparent, luminous voice, with clear and catchy choruses, solid and intimate bases, and a perfect dynamic that helps that strange incarnation between music and body that some songs manage to achieve.

That magical harmony is perfectly captured in the video that was made for the occasion by Jon Alcaide (who has collaborated on so many audiovisual projects, from the short horror film “Bury My Soul” that he directed in 2017, to several fashion films for the clothing designer Victor Von Schwarz in 2020. He was also in charge of art direction in LA CASA AZUL’s “El Colapso Gravitacional” video). Playing with the most evocative textures from the movies of their beloved Darío Argento, but at the same time introducing the sophistication of Lana Del Rey, the video shows the dancer Jaume Luque (who dances with the Danish companies Black Box Dance Company and IT Dansa) making his body and making the light from Josh Fenoy’s camera the key elements of the [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Holding Back The Tears  02 Best Laid Plans  03 No Tag Backs  04 Diva  05 Higher

06 Thirsty  07 Solo  08 Sugar Daddy  09 Faded Love  10 Past Lives

The way that RUSH WEEK’s music, with its filter of elegance, melancholy, and class, can work as a reflection of what music made today could be, is absolutely incredible to us. But yes, the work that Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas have done has a good part of the ingredients that many of the musicians on the sales lists try to combine: diverse bases, good production, recycled influences from the eighties, clear and pristine choruses, the focus always on the dance floor, touches of Latin. “Past Lives,” their new work, makes clear the inspiration and hard work they put into such a complicated and at the same time exciting task.

To really break down and investigate these affirmations, it is important to dive carefully into each of the songs. Let’s get into it. To start things off, “Holding Back The Tears” has the melancholic tone of tropical air of “Slave To Love” by Bryan Ferry and the energy of Leona Lewis. “Best Laid Plans” has that sinuous bassline from the best of Michael Jackson, the chorus of a luminous Lorde and the white soul spirit of TEARS FOR FEARS. “No Tag Backs” is one of those ultra-radiable hits, with that base of Latin echoes, with the melody set on artists like Ad [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Diva

RUSH WEEK is back with “Past Lives”, a new album that mixes nostalgia with the here and now and that will be released in purple colour LP, numbered-limited edition of 500 copies.

And like advance they present us “Diva”. A recording that goes straight for the eighties, an ultra-pop song, that is clearly in debt to SOFT CELL, but that also clearly enjoys a martial bass a la ELECTRIC YOUTH and that is tied to RUSH WEEK’s discourse with the best of the groups remodeling eighties music, like CHROMATICS and TWIN SHADOW.

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Two years after that fantastic debut album that was “Feels”, Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas are back with new songs, advancing what will be their imminent new album, “Past Lives”. On these songs, they continue to update the Nu-disco and R&B sound through elegant harmonies, with a certain melancholic pose, but full of vitality. As proof, we have this exquisite “No Tag Backs” (an expression that refers to unreturned sexual favors), with a powerful chorus, open production, that moves in multiple directions (we could be talking about Sia, Lorde or a sophisticated Dua Lipa, or think of the harmonies of ROXY MUSIC). Deep bass but without it overwhelming the music, a very direct eye toward the dance floor, and those melodies that rise up and penetrate your entire being.

Verse, pre-chorus, chorus. Simple, solid, magic. These three friends who are experiencing an unforgettable, inimitable summer day, filmed by Santi Capuz for the video, perfectly represent that mix of euphoria, vitality and melancholy that we were talking about.

And as a gift, on the B side of this Digital Single they give us this absolutely surprising version of the enormous classic that is “Just Like Heaven” by THE CURE. Very far from the original parameters, they revisit that powerful melody with a flirtatious and absolutely charming attitude.

An exquisite sound and an unquestionable savoir-faire make RUSH WEEK one of those bands that are [ Read more ]

Many people have fallen in love with the nocturnal magic of “Stranger Danger”, one of the songs from “Feels”, the first album by RUSH WEEK, the duo from Philadelphia formed by Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas. “Stranger Danger” is included in the soundtrack of the fourth episode of the Netflix hit show “Élite” (their first single, “Feelings” was also chosen for the second episode). Today we are releasing the video for the song that highlights its fascinating nocturnal characteristics. It’s a journey through the lights and shadows of the night, led by the Argentine director living in Madrid, Santi Capuz. The thing is, “Stranger Danger” plays at being a dazzling mystery, blinding, with a seductive and addictive chorus. Super melodic but slippery electronic pop, with a hopeful THE XX, or as if St. Vincent were going to do a cover of TALK TALK, trying to find the pop formula of the future. Enjoy.

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It’s always exciting, and equally difficult, to introduce a new group to the general public. How do you figure out in words what their music is and express it to receptive ears in a way that doesn’t demystify it or seeming grandiloquentí But we enjoy exploring new, different worlds, like the one RUSH WEEK offers. The duo from Philadelphia was formed in 2016 by Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas, who update the NU Disco, Soul and R&B sounds from the end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties. Their first album, “Feels”, sounds like the elegance and melancholy of ROXY MUSIC and TALK TALK, modernized with ST. VICENT, Étienne de Crécy and JUSTICE, with an irresistible pop filter that brings it closer to TENNIS’ more recent songs, and that also feeds the dance floor.

To start things off, “Feelings” breathes life into the New Jack Swing, and gives it a sense of mystery and of emotional strength, like a version of THE XX full of light. It’s just enough to express an abstract, intangible, but powerful feeling. “Stranger Danger” talks about the mysteries of the night, of fear and danger, but with sweetness and an addictive chorus, and a melody that brings us back to Cindy Lauper at her most enchanting. On “Crush”, we can see RUSH WEEK’s disco vocation more clearly, on a song that would play non-stop on the MASTERS AT WORK’s stereo, and that Kylie M [ Read more ]

It’s always exciting, and equally difficult, to introduce a new group to the general public. How do you figure out in words what their music is and express it to receptive ears in a way that doesn’t demystify it or seeming grandiloquentí But we enjoy exploring new, different worlds, like the one RUSH WEEK offers. The duo from Philadelphia was formed in 2016 by Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas, who update the NU Disco, Soul and R&B sounds from the end of the seventies and beginning of the eighties. Their first album, “Feels”, sounds like the elegance and melancholy of ROXY MUSIC and TALK TALK, modernized with ST. VICENT, Étienne de Crécy and JUSTICE, with an irresistible pop filter that brings it closer to TENNIS’ more recent songs, and that also feeds the dance floor.   To start things off, “Feelings” breathes life into the New Jack Swing, and gives it a sense of mystery and of emotional strength, like a version of THE XX full of light. It’s just enough to express an abstract, intangible, but powerful feeling.

About the Video-Clip:“Feelings’ idea right from the start took me straight to American indie films from the 90s with Gus Van Sant and Larry Clark, and also to the latter’s photography, whose “Tulsa” series has always been a reference for me, but in this case I didn’t want the characters to end badly, they’re just lost, b [ Read more ]