Byron Bay, AU (Berlin) · disco-funk · pop

Parcels

3 upcoming festivals ↓

Daft Punk-approved Aussie disco — immaculate grooves, live-band tightness, five-part harmonies over four-on-the-floor, played tight enough to pass a studio audit.

The five members of Parcels, Louie Swain, Patrick Hetherington, Noah Hill, Anatole Serret and Jules Crommelin, grew up together in Byron Bay, Australia, several of them attending the same Steiner school. From the age of thirteen they moved between local bands playing funk, folk, metal and bluegrass before settling on the Parcels lineup in their final year of school in 2014.

The band took its name from an old train sign found at one member's parents' house. Later that year they relocated to Berlin, an idea partly sparked by footage of the group the Whitest Boy Alive playing to a street crowd outside a shop in the city's Mitte district.

Signed to the French label Kitsuné, Parcels write and play disco, boogie and soft-rock live rather than programmed, stacking layered vocal harmonies over steady four-on-the-floor rhythms and clean guitar and keyboard parts. The arrangements are meticulous, and the records tend to favour groove and texture over hooks alone.

Early on, the band worked with Daft Punk on the single "Overnight," released in 2017, which brought them a wider audience. Their self-titled debut album followed in 2018, carried by the singles "Tieduprightnow," "Bemyself," "Lightenup" and "Withorwithout."

Later records have expanded into longer, more orchestral pieces while keeping the same rhythmic foundation, the band's own account of its sound landing somewhere between electropop and disco-soul.

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disco-funkpop