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Election Day fallout has now carried on for a few days, and music websites from here to Anchorage have been plotting a steady dose of “distraction” content, the type of stuff to get your mind off the ballot counting, social unrest, and all the other drama Tuesday’s Biden-Trump showdown has spewed across our once-great land. It’s good to get your mind off things, and it’s good to forget, momentarily, that the country is on fire from the inside and out.
But The Dossier are offering no such distraction. They want you to look deep inside our ongoing calamity, and stare into the abyss so long, the abyss has no choice to stare back at you. It’s been a trashy hot minute since we last caught up with New York City electronic-pop survivalists, but this week Peter Riley and Michael Parkin — who we’ve raised many a glass to since their aughts days as Saintface — return with a blistering, fist-focused new synth-pop banger called “Out Of My Way.”
And no, we can’t look away.
“A battle hymn, a protest song — and more than anything, a spit of contempt and disgust. History repeats,” The Dossier say about the track.
Its striking visual, available for full absorption below before the song hits Bandcamp this Friday (November 6), was directed, photographed, and edited by William Murray, and positions the boys front and center over a barrage of the types of evil that men do. Drop a beat on 2020, and never lose that focus.
Michael Marotta
New York electro/rock act The Dossier has broken a long silence with the release of a new music video for the song “Out of My Way.” The single marks the first new material from The Dossier since the 2014 Strange Arrangements album, with the song serving as a “a battle hymn, a protest song, and more than anything, a spit of contempt and disgust.” Directed, photographed, and edited by William Murray, the frenetic visuals serve to accentuate the song’s address of the current state of affairs in the world and particularly the United States.
“Out of My Way” will be released as a digital single on Bandcamp this Friday, November 6. Since the Strange Arrangements record, the band has been writing new material, with Riley also collaborating with and creating remixes for Trade Secrets.
Ilker Yucel
The United States in general and the New York region in particular is absolutely bursting with interesting electronic acts right now. The latest addition is The Dossier who are fronted by songwriter and producer Peter Riley – who when his previous indie project came to an end a few years ago realized one thing: he was tired of guitars. Or rather – he was tired of the side effects that often come with guitarbased music and its limited sound palette.
All said and done he hooked up with former band colleague Michael Parkin and featuring now is the duo’s debut album “Strange Arrangements” that features ten fairly tasteful (rock)spiced electronic pop songs with a sound that could be located somewhere in the borderland between Erasure and Hurts.
It should be mentioned that Peter Riley is not exactly a newcomer when it comes to synths and drum machines. As a teenager he served as part of electropop-act Joy Machine, whose basement recorded tapes many years later have found their way into various forums on the internet.
It’s very hard not to get carried away in the strong melodies and the grip-friendly choruses offered on here. The North American touch is ever-present in the often dense sound where guitars and powerful, epic drum arrangements are wrapped carefully in a blanket of analog bass lines, sleek synths, and an original and consistently strong vocal performance.
The second track, the wistful “Another Night, Another Day” and also the third track “Tramps Like Us” gives me vibes of the Stockholm trio Lowe‘s later material. A well written electro ballad, “Dying Horses” , is also found in the middle where the other half then gives another couple of strong uptempo hits like “Give Me Your Name” and the catchy “Hotblooded”.
Aside from a couple of iterations, I’m having a hard time finding many weaknesses on “Strange Arrangements”, which is an unusually strong debut album from a duo whose development is definitely worth following in the future.
Jens Attertrand
VANYALAND.COM
We’ve been a fan of Peter Riley’s lyrical brilliance ever since his New York City modern rock band Saintface dropped “Hudson & Day” back in the hungover mid-2000s. These days, he’s shed his guitars for synthesizers alongside fellow Saintfacer Michael Parkin (keyboards), and in The Dossier, creates the type of swirling synth-pop that smears lipstick with strobe lights and lights lips with disco sticks.
The Dossier, who we believe last performed live in Boston back at the pill’s 12th anniversary party in 2009, have a new record, Strange Arrangements, ready for release this fall. And the lead track off of that is “Give Me Your Name,” a new wave rollercoaster that has all the necessary Riley-isms, making us long for the days when Saintface’s Apartment Stories CD was permanently entrenched in our iPod playlists. In fact, the Strange Arrangements title is pulled right from a lyric off “Give Me Your Name.”
The music video, which premiered this week and is posted above, shows Riley and Parkin both on stage and running around a nearly abandoned New York City…which, to us, is the best kind of New York City. In “Give Me Your Name,” we’re also getting the best kind of Riley.
Michael Marotta
Singer Peter Riley first appeared to be enthralled with David Gahan’s deep croon in electro-pop act Joy Machine—a Depeche Mode bootleg even mistakenly included their song “Separate Ways” as an Exciter demo track called “Turning Away”—but adopted a Mozzy warble for his next group Saintface. His current group, The Dossier, marries the sounds of his two previous projects into something altogether more interesting.
Adam Brent Houghtaling
ALTERNATIVE M3 MEDICATION
(on the Dying Horses Minutiae Mix)
What we know about The Dossier is their ability to pack punches pound for pound, but can they strip it down to the bare bones and still give us the thrills?
Indeedy yes! With Erasure cracking open yet more remix packages to their back catalogue I am in the mood to be fired up with vocals that ring ma bell like Andy's and Peter Riley doesn't disappoint on that account. Add into the equation a heavily squelchy electro backdrop reminiscent of my fave Ultravox track "Vienna" topped off by pianomanic flourishes and I'd say that was pretty much an accurate description of what you'll be treating yourself to if you choose to snap it up.
Mandy Rogers
BILLY SUEDE
Truth time. This post is truly from the heart. This is a band you must listen to now. I mean, right now. As in, five minutes ago, right now. This is The Dossier. They are the deep seedy underground of New York City. They are the freedom and exasperation that comes over you when “that song” comes on the dancefloor at the night’s apex. They simply are another example of why we get that lump in our throat when we talk about a song that made us cringe, laugh, cry and simply feel.
Peter Riley and Michael Parkin emerged after the dissolution of one of NYC’s underappreciated treasures, Saintface. A pop band that wore its influences on its sleeves and was gushing with poptastic sounds to spare. Thankfully, the two friends who were the engine and heart of Saintface did not rest for long. They turned to the synthesizers and became proof that classic songwriting knows no instrumentation! To be honest, I could go all day extolling the virtues of The Dossier. Listen to “Sunrise” from their forthcoming debut Strange Arrangements, which will be a classic, I predict, and I defy you to leave this blog thinking this band isn't onto something. Only in New York...
EQ.COM
I've got a hot one for you today EQs.
Say hello to The Dossier. They are a New York based electronica band who is a bit (well, more than a bit) reminiscent of Erasure and Depeche Mode. I mean, my goodness just look at them - it's like the two bands morphed together. This is what Erasure and Depeche Mode might sound and look like if the two collaborated together. It's an obvious comparison, but I don't think the boys will mind one bit.
Take a listen to their hot track "Another Night, Another Day" and I think you'll agree that these are some serious electronica beats to be reckoned with. I am absolutely in love with the gorgeousness that is "Dying Horses" as well. The Dossier are the type of band that makes me swoon with delight and I hope you'll all feel the same way about them as I do.
Make sure you stop by the boys page and leave them loads of nice comments - they deserve it and you can bet I'll be watching them rather closely.
Raj Rudolph