"The Harlequin" - Ink 19

July 30, 2008

La Scala front man Balthazar de Ley is a man with iron lungs and a husky baritone that eagerly plumbs the same depths as a Jarvis Cocker, for instance, over the straight rock thing mined in previous bands Menthol and Hum. He founded this outfit of gypsy Bad Seeds enthusiasts out of the wreckage and the aesthetic improvement is pretty fucking palpable. A lot of groups like to try on the "cabaret" and "exotica" (in this case, I'd put a pin in the map around Eastern Europe and maybe, geez, some island in the Mediterranean) tropes as a lark, like how a frat boy in a thrift store tries on a "wacky" seventies shirt and is just blown away by how kerr-azy it is. However, La Scala has a heartening commitment to their sound and vision. Now, you'd think with these compliments I'm throwing around I'd dig the first two numbers, right? Not so much. "Bon Vivant" and "Parallel Lives" are just dog average romps. (The disco timing on the second track does deserve an approving nod, as does the Bowie lyric swipe in the chorus.)

It's on the third number, "Harlequin," that this album EXPLODES into a red-wine as blood dripping down the mouth, poison rings being emptied into drinks, and cigarette holder kind of place. Over one of those pounding, thrusting, (shall we say "fucking") beats that the Jesus Lizard used to excel in and with noir-guitar riffery and noises, La Scala weaves a tale of Agatha Christie-meets-Scarlet Pimpernel mystery and intrigue. Check out the guitar solo that is just sex itself and listen closely to the lyric where the mysterious harlequin describes himself as "odd boots/ mod suit/ brown hair/ black mask" -- sounds like a winner to me. This is the song for me. "Draculina" (another awesome song title) is more in the right direction with that rudimentary surf beat (you know the one the Mary Chain uses), and it builds to an epic of reverb-ed exotic guitar, Spanish percussion flourishes and Balthazar??™s voice rising to a dramatic baritone cry of "Draculina revealed!" The final number "Love! Love! Love!" is nowhere near as strong as "Draculina" and "Harlequin" (which is an almost unfair standard), but it throws good angular shapes.

This release is packaged both as a record and a CD included. I know which one this posed and poised album was meant to be played on. The band looks sharp too, just putting it out there. Very grown-up and curious stuff; I like how the boundaries of their songs don't begin and end in Chicago's hipster bars.

"The Harlequin" - Delusions of Adequacy

May 15, 2008

It isn’t the fact these 4 gentlemen are from Chicago that amazes, it’s the fact they’re from North America. La Scala sounds as though they should be from the other side of the Atlantic; haunting Spanish taverns or busking on the streets of gay Paris. It’s rock music they perform, of course, not anything with accordions or violins. But it’s done with a certain flair, a panache, a je nais se qua that oozes mystery and suspense and well, something not very American.

The Harlequin EP is the result of the band being together for just over a year and spending time in such groups as Hum & The Dirty Things has helped to push the quality of the songs. Before you can sit down after pressing play the opening track, “Bon Vivant” is off like some sort of pissed off bee, the guitar line of Kirk McMahon darting all around your ears. You better sit down & listen after that cause singer Balthazar de Lay has a lot of words he’s going to be singing, spitting them out like a carnival barker. (“Bon Vivant?” Balthazar de Lay? See, I told you these guys didn’t seem too American.) By the chorus however you’ll be wanting to jump up and clap “ole!” at the end of each line. And you may as well keep standing since the second track, “Parallel Lives” has a real ass shaking groove to it in that sort of post punk glammed up Killers sort of way. Only it’s far sexier and less smug than the Killers. It’s a funky little number with an infectious pre-chorus. Girls are lying, boys are swinging, crimes have been happening, it’s all some sexy kinda fun going on.

All told the band, and de Lay’s story telling in particular, is adept in creating a swirling and nearly cinematic batch of songs. Perfect for an evening of bare-chested heroics, women with ample bosoms, and villains with thin pointed moustaches.

"The Harlequin" - Detour Magazine

April 6, 2008

This Chicago combo is new about town, but does include ex-Menthol and Hum member Balthazar de Ley as well as drummer Josh Lohr of the short-lived but impressive Dirty Things, so it isn’t too much of a surprise that the songs on The Harlequin, La Scala’s debut, come out of the box fully formed. The sound here is another take on the sweet spot between the Thin White Duke affectations of de Ley on lead vocal and the band’s tightly-wound, new wave and new-new wave-inspired instrumentation. There are probably 500 bands trying to figure out how to dethrone the Killers, but there’s no reason why La Scala shouldn’t, especially since there’s such a charming arrogance to tracks like “Bon Vivant” and the title cut. “Should I ask you sweetly or indiscreetly,” de Ley deadpans on “Harlequin,” and the guitar chimes in an amplified approximation of harpsichord music — you can just see him holding out a bejeweled hand to some velvet-bustied ice queen in the high concept video they’ve almost certainly storyboarded already. — Johnny Loftus