Parcels wants you to dance

This week I want to talk about Parcels, since for the last year I've been completely in love with their music, their live sessions and overall with the band and the genre. Before 2022 I already knew some of their songs but I wasn't really into this indie rock, disco, funk and electronic weird combination of sounds, which now I find so interesting and fun to listen to.

So let's talk about this band, their music and the magic around them.

Parcels is a band that was created in 2014 in Byron Bay, Australia composed of 5 members, Louie who plays the keyboard, Patrick who plays the guitar and the keyboard, Noah who plays the bass, Toto who plays the drums and Jules who plays the guitar. The members of this band know each other since they were pretty young, they explained that they've been playing together since they were approximately 13 years old. During all this years they have been experimenting with different genres in order to find their true sound, they started with their first band called "Lifeline" which was mostly about psychedelic rock, and from there, they just started dabbling between genres and bands until they got to Parcels.

The band explained they moved to Berlin to become Parcels, as the music scene in Australia is great but mostly local, they wanted to play in different cities, move around and explore the world while doing music, they heard that Berlin was a great city for musicians and artists, and they decided to move there in order to work on their music and get inspired. At this moment as they started doing music as Parcels, they where mainly producing and composing in DAW's (Digital audio workstations) inspired by the electronic music scene, creating their songs mostly on computers. But then they realised that they wanted more live sounds in their songs, so they started introducing live instruments in their first releases and EP's, and finding that "Parcels sound" which has been evolving for the past years.

This Berlin based band, has always had a strong connection to music, since the beginning they were used to play live, which explains the beauty of watching them play their songs, with that perfect connection between each member of the band, it's just amazing, pure enjoyment. They are signed in the french label "Because music" and have been releasing their songs along this label for many years now.

For me parcels is all about honest music, lyrics that have a deep meaning and are well thought, I perceive their music as a true expression of feelings, a true perspective of life, with high's but also low's, happy moments but also sad moments, while listening to their songs you can almost feel like you get to know the band and the stories they aim to tell, their songs instantly captivate your attention and for the 3rd time you'll hear them, you'll be singing them as if you were singing your own story, full of emotion, joy or sadness.

The inspirations that the band has had over the years are pretty clear in their songs, as you can hear many sounds that can throw us back in time, like disco and funky vibes that are really present in their music. I remember the first time I listened to a Parcels song I got some kind of Daft Punk vibes, which made me love the song, and this makes total sense, since Parcels coproduced a song with the french robots, for their single "Overnight" which was released 5 years ago.

The band music could be considered as funk-pop, which creates a mix between different sounds, like disco funk or contemporary electronic music, with the heavy use of synths on the keys, this combination of sounds it's what creates that "Parcels sound" the perfect mix between acoustic drums and drums samples, keys and synths, and those beautiful guitar's and basslines that are so funky and disco, that in a way take us back to kind of a Neil Rodger's track.

The band has released different EP's and singles, but today has 3 albums, two of this are originals and one of them is a live version of their first album "Parcels". Both of their albums are amazing but I have to say that my favourite is their first album which was released in 2018, but none of the less their last album "Day/Night" has many great songs too, and we can feel the evolution of their sound, which gets more authentic on every release.

The band songs have been remixed by many artists like: Folamour, L’imperatrice, Breakbot, Gaspard Augé and others, which gives us many alternative versions of their songs with the personal touch of each artist that works on a remix for them. But also Parcels have remixed other artists songs like: L'Impératrice — Séquences (Parcels remix)

Something I find amazing about Parcels is that they have helped in a way to get people too enjoy and explore different genres, since their sound is a mix of many influences, they can reach more people, synth lovers, guitar lovers or people that like more funky disco sounds. Their sounds are easily approachable by a general public but at the same time they have a very personal and unique sound that differentiates them from any other artist/band.

Some of my favourite songs from parcels are the following:

• Tieduprightnow, 2018
• Overnight, 2017
• Lightenup, 2018
• Gamesofluck, 2016
• Famous, 2021
• Somethinggreater, 2021

Also here is my favourite music video from Parcels, from the song Comingback, which I really love and puts a smile in my face every time I listen to:

I also highly recommend you to listen to their live volume 1 session on youtube or any live concert they've done, if you enjoy live music. It's just amazing to watch these guys vibe together and just improvise, creating beautiful transitions between each songs they play.

My goal for this articles is not especially to convince you to listen to this great band, is more of an appreciation letter for the music, and the great moments they made me live, I feel like I might be repeating myself right now but, I just love to listen to their music and I hope you will to, if you currently don't.

If you want to listen to some of their songs, here is their Spotify playlist: