Hautewerk – Stop Start Again

Hautewerk? You might think the name sounds half German and half French, but it conceals a band from Orange County in Southern California, the place where the Europeans think it never rains. Their excellent debut “Stop Start Again” combines the best of both continents, mixing European and American songwriting traditions. The key track of the album, “The Edge of Space” brings together John Lennon and Tom Petty, with Del Amitri and Tim Buckley getting a look in too.

In popular music, the most unbearable songs are those which show off their complex structures but reveal an empty heart. Happily, the opposite applies to Hautewerk: The compositions appear simple, weave their way into your head and transcend the arrangements, just as Steely Dan did in their day. The tracks are structurally sophisticated, play with influences such as jazz, mingling art rock with melancholy Celtic folk music, but the combinations aren’t merely Art For Art’s Sake. Instead, they always serve the songs, which tend to sound like classics even on first hearing. Hautewerk create instant classics, rather in the manner of the internationally successful Snow Patrol.
The power pop sound of Hautewerk is related to that of Snow Patrol, bearing in mind that both bands use the most essential of all rock guitars, the Rickenbacker. The sound is raw and transparent, with Beatle-esque effects and choruses with the power of the Seventies but the production values of today.

The thoughtful lyrics tackle the eternal game of distance and proximity, embracing and releasing. Of particular quality is “Sad Girlfriend” with its seductive opening line, “Something about New Orleans made me want to fall in love.”
Even in the piano-heavy rock ballads the fundamental sound remains melancholy, but never monotonous. Hautewerk are masters of changing moods and dynamics, even in the vocals. One moment you are reminded of Radiohead’s falsetto, the next you are hearing Eagles-style vocal harmonies. But the fact is that there’s no need for comparisons and name-dropping, because Hautewerk sound like nobody but Hautewerk. More please!

Bänz Friedli is a freelance writer in Zurich and writes for, among others, Rolling Stone and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.