Numbers-obsessed duo with Young Marble Giant seal of approval
Who They?
Two Sevens make 14, right? Top marks, but in this context they’re a South London duo of Matthew Davis and Sonya Frances, and they make sublime electronic pop music. Davis is a songwriter, forms part of Three And Me and holds down a parallel career as a communications consultant. Singer Frances also has a day job – she’s an accomplished dancer and actor with credits across stage, TV and film.
Why Two Sevens?
Their self-titled mini album is a reverential collection of seven tracks with lyrics concerned with introspection, political disappointment and the kind of wistful widescreen romantic imagery that belongs in a hip indie film. Frances cites Blondie as an influence, but her vocal style falls somewhere between 90s indie, Jenny Lewis and criminally overlooked pop trio Peach’s Lisa Lamb. While it’s tempting to suggest that the Casio VL-Tone preset beats and monophonic melodies of songs such as ‘Time After Time’ and ‘Show’ mean that Davis is entirely in thrall to 80s electronic pop music (and, let’s be honest, we’d pat him on the back for that here at Electronic Sound) he still manages to extract a new warmth and quirkiness out of something comfortingly familiar.
Tell Us More
The mini-LP includes a track co-written with Young Marble Giants’ Stuart Moxham. ‘207’ (numbers are evidently a big deal to these guys) plays down the synths and instead goes for a sound not unlike a Parisian pavement café jazz quartet covering The Smiths, weary melodrama and all.
‘Two Sevens’ is out on Ditto Music
