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While a host of acts from the international sophisticated-pop
underground are smitten with romantic notions of Gallic Cool, German
duo Donna Regina are possibly the first to romanticize the sound of
Gallic Cold. All windswept winter mornings, Regina and Günther
Janssen make with the kind of craft that seems to come from the most
insular of living/working environs. It's as if their songs are born
in a bedroom as an artistic expression of that feeling felt when
huddled, cuddling under blankets, eyes gazing deep into the pall of
grey clouds shrouding an early morning's overcast skies. Hailing from
the electro hub of Cologne, the pair have in the past communed with
fellow resident fellows like Mathias Schaffäuser, Mouse on Mars,
and Decomposed Subsonic; they've even shared a cross-channel cup of
tea with everyone's favorite house politician Matthew Herbert. Now on
their sixth album, Donna Regina are growing more comfortable as they
grow into their softly lensed soft-beat soft-electro craft. Their
second longplayer for lecktro label Karaoke Kalk, Northern
Classic, follows in the same Saint-Etienne-lite-like snowcrusher
footsteps of their last romanticized paean to the winter wonderland
viewed through a foggy window: 1999's A Quiet Week in the
House. It's cold in here, for sure, but the sound itself almost
serves as some sort of blanket, comforting in the most charming way.
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