Canadian rockers, Rogue Proxy have just released their latest single, Paparazzi Sniper, and we’ve been taking a long listen here at the Send Me Your Ears studio.
Rogue Proxy describe themselves as a genre-defying, electro-grooving, high-energy rocking duo from Canada described as the illegitimate love child between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Daft Punk. Well that certainly got our attention!! We were excited to take a detailed listen!
Paparazzi Sniper starts strongly with some great stereo electric guitars. A confident full band feeling song which shows some superb musicianship of this talented childhood friends duo.
This song has some superb sections and differentiation between each section, you’re never in any doubt as to where you are in the song as the sondscape rises and falls with excitement.
Just before the main vocal section comes in, there’s a little section with instrumental and telephone style spoken words over the top – it reminded us very much of the great Dream Theater’s song As I Am and led very well into the main part of the song.
We like the changes on the effects on the vocals, as well as the multiple harmonies and layered vocals, especially in the choruses. The effects change on the vocals, sometimes for just one word to let the listener know they’re being led into a new section of the song. It’s all so smoothly done that you really can just sit back and go with the flow.
Paparazzi Sniper is a really catchy song, and by the time the chorus came round again, we were all kinda singing along! We also like how the breakdown sections repeat and add some extra class to the overall feel of the song.
The guitar solos in Paparazzi Sniper are really classy. There’s some real Hendrix moments in the style, tone and note choices (around 1m30s was a particularly Hendrix style moment). There’s also some fantastic use of Wah guitar that reminded us of Johnny Lang’s soloing style in, for example Lie To Me. This really is some expert musicianship and the fade out on the held guitar at the end reminded us just a touch of Foxy Lady!
There’s some lovely panning in the guitars, keeping them nicely separated and giving them plenty of space to shine. There’s also some lovely presence in the kick drum. Great stuff!
From a production perspective, we might suggest a little more compression on the vocals. There are times when they are crystal clear and up front (verses for example) but as more instrumentation and backing vocals are added, they just feel a little too far back in the mix.
Paparazzi Sniper feels like the whole track may have been high passed at around 80Hz which means that the thump of the kick drum and some warmth in the overall sound is missing (to our taste). There isn’t a great deal of information in the track in the bottom two octaves and this means it just lacks a little depth and “meat”.
This was the first we’d heard of Rogue Proxy today, but Paparazzi Sniper is really a rather awesome track that captivated our interest from start to finish. With a great classic rock feel to it, this is a song which will win them many many new fans. We’re excited to hear what they come up with next!