An Only Me Is A Lonely You

Funk rock folk with animating grooves from Berlin: Until the pandemic, Holler my Dear enjoyed a great deal of resonance and international stage success. The three albums by the well-traveled Berlin sextet also received much praise outside Germany.The band celebrated lavish parties at festivals (including X-Jazz, Reeperbahn, Jazz Open Stuttgart, Jazz & the City Salzburg, Mexico City, Penang, Cairo and Tehran) and in clubs. In June 2023, Holler my Dear released the EP Aftermath, with songs that, among other things, take stock of the (post)-Corona mood and explore a more electronic sound aesthetic. Now Holler my Dear is opening the next chapter.The song collection 'An Only Me Is A Lonely You' presents a return to the acoustic grandeur of jazzy trumpet and accordion, which has always been the band's trademark alongside Winkler's extremely variable vocals.On the other hand, the sextet has recently ventured into shrewd flirtations with raw funk, soul and rock in the style of the early seventies or in the spirit of the unforgotten Prince. Compared to its predecessor, the new production seems a little brighter, at times downright uplifting. This is due to the stronger grooves of the drums and electric bass, concise riffs and eruptive instrumental inserts as well as more humor in musical and lyrical details.Holler my Dear's highly praised dynamics and stage energy are captured on record more directly than ever before. The deliberately 'dirty' aesthetic has grown out of the style of the songs on the one hand, says Laura Winkler. On the other hand, producer Dennis Rux (Angels Of Libra, Hamburg Spinners, Tetrao Urogallus) has played a major part in this.The Hamburg native is a proven specialist for top-class vintage studio equipment, from microphones and preamps to tape echoes and other effects devices, which he has been collecting for decades. During the recordings, the band was mostly in the same room, which sparked the well-known live spirit.Subsequent corrections or even overdubs were largely dispensed with, which reinforces the direct impression. In keeping with this, Winkler's grave voice seems more agile than ever. In addition to catchy and almost hymn-like melodies, she focuses increasingly on rhythmic phrasing and even rap-like passages with a percussive character.