Archi Deep is a French duo formed in 2017 by singer-guitarist Arthur Di Piazza and drummer Julien Audigier. After a debut album in late 2019, the pandemic sent everyone home, leaving Archi Deep confined and contrite. These bad memories swept away, Arthur Di Piazza called for a new drummer (Richard Bertin, crossed in the France 2 show "N'Oubliez Pas Les Paroles") and decided to continue the adventure by releasing 4 EPs finally published in an album "The Lightning Concept".
The first track, 'Mr Government' is a real calling card, a sunny blues with its generous guitar in its soli, its lively and martial drums when it is necessary and its low voice slightly raging. Arthur Di Piazza is at ease with the guitar, even allowing himself to adopt a heavy sound very southern ('Paranoid', 'Baby Can't You See'). His particular voice can be tamed during the listening, thanks to its proximity with the listener.
If the blues constitutes the DNA of the duo, Archi Deep does not remain prisoner of the genre. Thus, from the second track, the band offers itself an escapade, the blues gets out of the way behind an introspective pop-folk ballad while 'Speak' sometimes approaches punk. These steps in foreign lands are by no means filler, proving particularly convincing as the majestic ballad 'Don't Hold Back' or 'The Unknown Fever' and its surprising piano. Nevertheless, the duration of the album (justified by its difficult gestation) is a bit long and some tracks can appear redundant. As a last surprise, the duo concludes the album on a good note with 'Let Me Hold Your Hand' and its intimate and slightly mysterious atmosphere which is grafted to a blues base.
Archi Deep is a duo that should now count in the French musical landscape. With its "Lightning Concept", the two companions make us travel on the arid but nevertheless hospitable lands of the blues while deviating from it sometimes with brilliance. In spite of some lengths, this album proves to be very promising.