Retour sur la sortie très remarquée de l'album "Soleil Orange" en 2023 (TELERAMA « TTT », L'OBS « 4 * », ROCK & FOLK)
DALTON is a Parisian power trio who say they play post-punk (but we could also talk about "weird pop"). They are influenced by punk and new wave bands from the end of the 70’s and beginning of the 80’s (Television, Wire, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, B’52s, Gang of Four). And also by French singers like Daniel Darc, Nino Ferrer, Jacques Dutronc or Les Olivensteins. They offer a mix of sharp guitars and French lyrics with an absurd and poetic humor. The singer-guitarist, Patrick Williams, deploys his spoken-sung style with elegance (remember Serge Gainsbourg ?) on the nervous and precise rhythms of JB Kiwiboy (bass, synth) and Constant Popot (drums, machines).
Their last album, “Soleil Orange”, was released in May 2023 on the label LVP Records. It was well received by the French media. Some of their songs have been played on radio. Fetishist of small details ("Pull sans manches"), sociologist of the beautiful losers ("Station Total", "Abandonne"), obsessed by road trips and Audi A3 ("160", "Des Eblouissements"), Patrick Williams has a fondness for disturbing and strange lyrics, where catastrophe is never far away, but sung in a dry lyricism. Breaking stereotypes, DALTON pours in our ears a youthful freedom of tone for this new trio, but whose roots go back far.
The first version of this band, under the name Les Daltons, goes back to the 80’s. At the time, those overexcited fans of the Velvet Underground sang in English. But the band disbanded quickly, despite their success in the Parisian underground. And it was only in the years 2010 that Williams reformed the group (he’s now the only remaining member). That’s another surprise with DALTON : that a band with such a long history could totally reinvent itself and produce a sound that’s modern and new. Laurent Clay