Meager Benefits: “Crawling” – CD, digital Solange endormie Records – OUT NOW

It’s January 2018, between the four walls of a one roomed, east facing apartment, on the banks of the Saone river, in Vieux-Lyon. Night has fallen on town and seems to be never ending. The sun has been hidden for weeks. All is grey, dull and flavourless. In the evening, the river cruise ships pass alongside the windows. Their green and blue neon lights reflect off the water and brighten up the atmosphere. The room is lit by candles pressed into the necks of dusty wine bottles, emitting an orange glow on the walls. An old amp bought at a bargain price, a guitar offered from a distant Christmas, a bass guitar generously lent, a synthesizer generously given, a broken microphone and a cheap sound card fill the room amidst the minimum required in furniture. All elements are here. The result is intense cold- wave music with hypnotic, half recognisable riffs and loops. The main influences are familiar. Occasionally we can hear Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Bauhaus or YTPo, all mixed up with inwardness and a bedroom lo- fi impression. It’s like waking from a coma after 36 years.

Meager Benefits is a one man band, created by Theo Parlier. Theo composes and records each and every part by himself, most often in a one shot process – from nothing, to a finished song in a single day whilst chasing from his mind the fiends that live inside him. A first mini-album, humbly entitled “album “, was released in digital in June 2018, under the name “My Best Fiend”, then, on cassette at the end of August. Due to the fact that the name “My Best Fiend” was already taken, it was changed to “Meager Benefits”, incorporating the initials MBF. The second opus “Destructive Cycle”, was released in November 2018 on cassette, via Hidden Bay records. A third album, entitled “Crawling” will be released in June 2019, on cd, via Solange Endormie records.