Paris Texas: Mid Air review – a blast of fresh air

Less inspired by the Wim Wenders film than the idea of juxtaposing disparate elements, Paris Texas are a mysterious, niche-y duo from LA who combine hip-hop with guitars. Rap-rock is, of course, best left to Rage Against the Machine, but today’s post-genre climate means that anything goes, providing it goes right. And Louie Pastel and Felix – no surname provided – have hit on a taut, freeform sound that combines rapped vocals with left-field sonics and punk-adjacent brio.

The result is a full-length debut that is acerbic, vulnerable and swaggering all at the same time. Odd Future are a viable reference point, as are Death Grips, Clipping and King Krule, but Paris Texas still sound like a blast of fresh air. “There’s people tryna kill me, other than me,” notes a song called Everybody’s Safe Until…, to a bass throb and a popping guitar line. A track called Lana Del Rey recalls the Stooges, with icy synths and yelped punchlines (LDR, of course, has a song called Paris, Texas). The opening track leans on the 80s; the two gripping closing tracks, meanwhile, cleave to indie rock, but delivered by men whose odd-kid-out aesthetics didn’t make them immune to the traumas of growing up Black in the US, or to heartbreak.