AFFAIRE Do The INTERNal Swing
Throbbing drum computers, a battery of synths, convulsing vocals and a driving guitar fusing into a hybrid of squirming energy and overheated nervousness: these are the ingredients with which Michiel Ritzen and Nick Caers, together Affaire, serve up their offbeat electronic rock.
The two gentlemen met in their teens as drummers. Much jamming later, Caers bit into higher studies of that same instrument, while Ritzen took up bass, guitar and vocals while studying psychology. After playing in various formations and groups for several years, the two friends ended up post-covid in the black hole of drum computers, synthesisers and effects boxes. So although Nick and Michiel have been behind the drums for most of their lives, they temporarily swapped their devices for this project to imagine themselves scientists behind the controls. In doing so, Affaire brings a sound that is at the crossroads of what Suicide did in the 80s, the angularity of Talking Heads and the adventurousness of LCD Soundsystem and Soulwax, but mostly goes its own way.
The EP Internal Swing will be released early next year, on which six songs balance in a spectrum of twisted electro and abrasive guitar rock with lyrics like a relentless stream of thoughts. From introspection and empathy, psychologist Ritzen light-heartedly debates escapism, love, delusion, doubts and pleasure. Thus, single Thoughts and Pleasure is an exploration of identity in dubio in which Ritzen, over a firmly pumping beat, wishes to reconcile an inner Mark E. Smith with his own person. Second single Mountain Energy, an ode and declaration of love to escape in the Austrian mountains, then again sounds more undulating and peaceful, without leaving the necessary injection of spice here and there. Finally, third single Keep Calling involves a comically dramatic narrative of a neurotic therapist and his lack of fulfilment of expectations. Accompanied by honest, simple instrumentation, this song, and consequently the entire EP, eventually leads gently to pleasant explosions.
Ritzen and Caers recorded most of the songs themselves in their home studio and at Het Depot in Leuven during a residency. For the finishing touches, they worked intensively with Rob Driessen of De Muziekgieterij in Maastricht, where Affaire is Artist in Residence.
