Labels: Czar Of Crickets
Review by: Samuel Rogers
INEZ is the project of Ines Brodbeck, a singer-songwriter from Switzerland. She is joined here by a full band with plenty of strings, a synth, and a drumkit. The sound is a kind of stripped-back Americana, with poetic song-writing and restrained, world-weary vocals … like the European answer to Cat Power. INEZ never takes us all the way into country and western, but there are definite elements, including what sounds like a pedal steel guitar (or a good impression of one) on a few tracks (“Man from Far”). She also never quite kicks out the jams in a straight rock and roll style. What we get is often dreamy and ephemeral folk-pop. But some tracks cross into a more dark and brooding territory, like something heavier is about to begin (“Prophet”). On “Guajiro Negro”, INEZ channels the upbeat Latin American styles of her Cuban heritage, which seep through more subtly in the rest of the record. The synthesiser is used quite sparingly, but fits well and gives some of the tracks a contemporary edge. I found the whole album to be distinctive and enjoyable.