Good and almost unnoticed bands of the 21st century

L.A.'s Bitter: Sweet

Their music is a combination of jazz, electronic and trip-top. Their melodies differ in influences from one song to another, while the lyrics are mostly realistically related to relationships. They experiment with different tones and sounds from musical instruments to the nature, playing with them until they reach the perfect musical combination, which ends up into creating a very enjoyable music


By ROXANA CIUPARIU
from Bucharest, ROMANIA


In the past couple of years, especially with the beginning of the 21st century, the music scene seems more like a fashion show, when one designer comes, presents, sets certain trends only to be followed by another one whom does, more or less, the same. On the musical arena, one witnessed the end of pop, the culmination of hip-hop, a revitalization of rock, fresh British music and, of course, actors turned singers.

With the all this fuzz, one comes and goes as fast, and most songs are here to stay only for as long as the artist is still in the spotlight. People get confused and they know not what to actually like or not. It is hard to even say what we actually witness, if we witness a revival of a genre or the birth of a new one.

Here comes on the scene a new band, with a name which says you can expect the unexpected from them, Bitter: Sweet. Based in the City of Angels, L.A., this duo was formed in a more original way than expected: through an ad. Shana Halligan answered an ad posted by Kiran Shahani, who was searching for a vocalist to collaborate with. They met in 2005 and they released their first album, called The Mating Game in April 2006. They have been considered a band since then and they have released their second album, Drama, in 2008. The duo seems quite relaxed in their musical career, no pressure on them to release two or three albums a year to keep on top.

Experiment to reach the perfect musical combination

Their music is a combination of jazz, electronic and trip-top. Their melodies differ in influences from one song to another, while the lyrics are mostly realistically related to relationships. Shahani is the composer, although Halligan contributed to several songs, but her main contribution relates to her singer qualities. Their style has not suffered major changes from one album to another. They experiment with different tones and sounds from musical instruments to the nature, playing with them until they reach the perfect musical combination, which ends up into creating a very enjoyable music.

Artist like Corinne Bailey Rae and Jem grew closer to the style of the Bitter:Sweet, but the voice of the singer and the usage of unusual tonality that sets the scene, as well as simple, barely noticeable sounds that have a slight connection to the theme of the songs (like the frog sound at the beginning of the song "Sugar Mamma"), composes their originality and makes them noticed to the public.

Their music is not something to be heard in clubs, but more at certain parties with a certain ambience that makes one, more or less fall into a state close to meditation, a mesmerized person. The originality of their style leaves the impression that one needs to hear more to understand the persons behind the music and to fully get in contact to the message of the song. The music captures the audience and directs them in an ambience where words might lose their meaning and become silent for a while. To fully understand a song, more than one listening is required; this happens because the first listening captures the melody, with the second one witnesses "funny", but strangely correlated choice of instruments or sounds that normally would not be there, while only when listening for the third time the lyrics get to you and make some sense.

Known as a trip-top band

Although surrounded by enough success for a band whose genre can be considered too soft or even strange as compared to other genres, Bitter:Sweet still seems to struggle for a certain official recognition in the States. One rarely hears that the duo has been invited to a certain concert, nor do they actually receive as much recognition as bands of other genres. This can happen also because of their combination of styles which passes unknown to many people; nevertheless, the main aim was to catch the best of three types of music and bring the best into a combination to the audience. In the past two years, they have mostly been known as a trip-top band.

Sufficient to say that few in Europe have heard of this band, which means fans on this continent will have to wait a little longer before actually seeing their idols invited to a concert or even to important musical events such as the European Music Awards.

They enjoy performing live, but they are not big enthusiast on being too much into the spotlight, like most of the bands and singers nowadays. However, the duo still managed to catch some good deals, by featuring on the soundtrack of certain TV shows, such as Grey's Anatomy, Moonlight, generic sound for Lipstick Jungle (song: "The Bomb"), as well as the well-acclaimed 2006 film, The Devil Wears Prada, staring Merryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. The success of the movie gave a boost to the musical career of the trip-top duo and brought in more collaboration for different TV Shows and movies.

For those who know nothing about this band, songs that become famous are "Mating Game", "Dirty Laundry" and the "The Bomb". Listening to them pretty much says everything about their style of this band.

For more details on the band, the official site: www.bittersweetmusic.com


(Published: 20.06.2009.)