Riviera F

Last night I was supposed to go see a production of Grease at Tacoma Musical Playhouse. However, due to a ticket mix-up, that didn't happen and the musical will be seen today instead. After briefly debating if a trip to the wine bar was in order, it was decided that spending some time at home sounded more enjoyable. What happened then was another potentially great musical discovery: Riviera F.

After stumbling upon their myspace page, the song 'International Lover' grabbed me right away. It has an early '80s feel to it with obvious influences from Duran Duran's eponymous debut and Rio albums. Given that both of those records are New Wave classics, to hear hints of them on 'International Lover' was quite a joy. After sampling a few more of Riviera F's songs, it was 'International Lover' that received the most spins and head bopping.

Unable to get Riviera F out of my head, research on them continued this morning - a visit to their official website was in order. To offer a brief history, the band was formed when Russian born singer Alexa Marlen and Dutch guitarist Kairo Sin met at a London art college. Initially they recorded demo tracks using a casio keyboard and a simple drum machine. Over time their sound developed - Logan Sky was added to the lineup of the band and more instruments were brought into the mix.

Now here is the interesting part: after a chance meeting with Duran Duran keyboard player Nick Rhodes, (there seems to be a lot of those 'chance meetings' in the world of music, doesn't there?) Rhodes signed as on as producer of Riviera F's debut release which just happens to be 'International Lover'. As it turns out, all those connections between their music and Duran Duran's music are there for a very good reason, indeed!

As far we here at Computer Love can tell, the girls are busy promoting their latest release, the brilliant 'Now we've got Europe' which you can hear on their myspace page. However, we've decided to post the video for the song that was our first glimpse into the world of Riviera F - International Lover.