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100th Window
[Delabel]
As a strange omen, just like twelve years ago in "Blue Lines", Massive Attack's new album is released at a time where another war against Irak seems unavoidable. The first conflict brought the band to shorten its name to a simple Massive, and while the preparation of the second is on the way, the band takes the lead of the anti-war group, an action which unfortunately seems useless. As the show must go on, let's listen to this new album with wide opened ears, since it's not as accessible as its predecessor. A record of death, "100th Window" once again pushes the limits of this outstanding band's genius. Trip-hop is over, soul is no more, hip-hop is dead and buried (gone with Mushroom and Daddy G). Sole survivor Robert "3D" Del Naja found in his deepest nightmares the ideas to compose one of the darkest record in history. Though musically reminiscent of "Mezzanine", the basses seem heavier, the rhythms slower and deeper, the arrangements terribly complex. But the more confusing in "100th Window" is the treatment of voices. After Liz Fraser, it's now Sinead O'Connor's turn, accompanied by the faithful Horace Andy and 3D himself. If the music in itself chills the blood, it's nothing compared to these three voices. Unrecognizable, Horace Andy sings, or rather groans like never before. Almost feminine on Name Taken, his voice yet doesn't warm one of the darkest track of the album. As to Sinead O'Connor, she discovered restraint for the occaion and her singing brings the most melodic part of the album, due allowance being made. As for 3D, nobody else, except a non-singer, could have brought so much gloom on tracks like Antistar or Small Time Shot Away. Much more than nine connected songs, "100th Window" is a block gradually roughed out with each listening that lets its treasures appeared as time goes by. Could it be the third band's masterpiece after "Blue Lines" and "Mezzanine"? Undoubteldy, even if it doesn't surrender as easily as the others and is only tamed after several listenings. In all cases, this might be the first Massive Attack album upon which opinions may differ: a quick forward zapping for hurried people, an extreme bliss in the end for the real courageous ones. To spice the whole up, the album ends on a ten minute long hallucinating electronic loop that will drive the keener listener crazy. "100th Window", a trial.
Eric Semenzin |
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Inner Pale Sun
[Cold Meat Industry]
Back from a three years break devoted to his side-project Sophia, Peter Pettersson is now back to revive Arcana again. Announced, as usual, by the release of a maxi single (the beautiful "Body Of Sin"), the fourth album of Dead Can Dance's most gifted heir soon reveals the baroque magnificence which has been the band's trademark since the seminal "Dark Age Of Reason"(1996). Much more inspired than its predecessor, "The Last Embrace", "Inner Pale Sun" reunites with the angelic lights of a universe which goes from sacred music to medieval soundtrack. Much more instrumental than vocal (the presence of new singer Ann-Mari Thim is much too rare), this new masterpiece mostly surrenders to classic elements (keyboards, piano, kettledrums), though a few new sounds (guitars, dulcimer) come to enlarge Arcana's dream-like spectrum a bit further. In a time where heavenly voices are declining and cheap middle-age dark seems to rule, Peter Pettersson's gothic enlightenments appear to be the only ones able to describe with so many nuances the voluptuous forms of a Paradise farther and farther away from terrestrial realities.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Life
[Green Records]
Okihide Sawaki is a dissident member of Tanzmuzik. Totally unknown to Westerners, Tranzmuzik is part of this Japanese generation of electronicians heir to the post-Yellow Magic Orchestra trend. Alike his elders (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiriro Takahashi), Sawaki nurses a preference for Kraftwerk's rigour and mixes his compositions with Zen spirit, in the noblest meaning of the word. On top of a vigorous leitmotiv, one feels a typically Japanese approach of ambient. That is to say an abstract painting of natural elements, only revealing the fluent thought of a lotus (a sentence to be read with eyes half closed to obtain optimum "spoken words of a monk" effect). Tranzmuzik only produced three albums ("Senekaï" in English edition at Rising High and Japonese at Sony's, "Version Citie Hi Lights" at Sublime's) but each one has left a strong marks on memories. In the middle of the techno trance hype, Okihide changed the genre's codes to develop its own refined version. He's now back with Bambi Synapse, a different identity and above all a more traditional formation taking lots of elements from pop music. The sour voices of the singer Michiyo Watanabe and the abrupt electro of Okihide show a striking contrast, an experience bearing no obvious analogy. Only in some passages will one recognize the misty moments of Lassigue Bendthaus in the "Automatif"'s period but flavoured with Asiatic spices. Don't look for this gem in French record shops, it's only distributed in Japan. Who said we were snobs?
Anthony Augendre |
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Application
[U-Cover]
Texas may not evoke anything to electronic music fans. Some may vaguely remember the apocalyptic ravings of the Dassing brothers of Mentallo and the Fixer, or the magic of the Texas Instruments "Speak and Spell" Buddy. A fabulous tool endlessly sampled by many pre-techno musicians. The cliche of cow-boys clad in leather trousers drinking petroleum oil and living with cows is tenacious. Texas is really the last place in which one could imagine bands like The Buddy System creating a delicate electronica. Once the prejudice gone, one soon realizes with relish that the frequencies cuts, the duo's discrete melodies and rhythmic's structures have no reason to be jealous of the European formations such as Arovane and Gimmick. "Application" can be listened to in one go, as a "furniture record", a concept dear to Brian Eno, even if "Application" isn't a real ambient record. Not hypnotic enough, too conceptual to be appreciated by the brotherhood of psychotic lifts, the eight tracks of "Application" lounge at The Orb's sweet and sour themes' crossing and Richard D. James' electro-acoustic tracks. Beware, this album is part of a limited U-Cover's collection. There are only 655 copies.
Anthony Augendre |
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Televise
[Arena Rock]
Penetrating "Televise", the third album of the Brooklyn-based Texan trio, isn't easy. Unscrupulous listeners might be tempted to put this album in the same category as powerful sleeping pills. Or if they already knew the band, they might soon find it less personal or intimate than "Scavengers", the latter itself being less original than the band's eponymous debut album.
But persistence is a sine qua non condition here. For apart from Strangler, Customized (a superb dark pop folk track) and Televised, the album's three grooviest tracks, "Televise" is nothing but slowness and subtlety and as it unfolds, appears as a little masterpiece displaying a fragile and rather troubled beauty. Between Low and the Warlocks, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Godspeed You! Black Emperor (see the final crescendo in As Quick As It Comes/Carrera), Calla digs the priory drawn way going further in his falsely languid universe.
Just like Aurelio Valle's voice, which always seems to be on the brink of cracking to disappear forever, everything is whisper, groan and pain to expiate, the delicate melodies only increasing the icy rain coming from the pessimistic, often obscure lyrics. And one almost feels tempted to modestly closing the door that was inadvertently open on this man's despair. Although it would be like turning one's back to a sublime album.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Shockwave
[Out Of Line]
Decoded Feedback's European and Canadian origins (a mix that already proved to be very efficient!), geographical situation (Toronto), live performances and, above all, five albums, are dependent elements that quickly gave this duo a status of a sure value. A guarantee now concerning only but a limited number of formations, so limited in fact that they could be counted on the fingers of both hands. "Mechanical Horizon", the precedent album released three years ago, gave priority to melodies. The EP "Phoenix" (six versions of the eponymous track plus two original titles), let appear a maybe tougher orientation. The same Phoenix opens "Shockwave", which is quietly resumed with all the ingredients that made Decoded Feedback's trademark. So we're carried along in a travel where the constant brutality (The Fruits of Wisdom, Shockwave) is always counter balanced by infinitely charming sounds and melodies. They dress a brutal electro and each time allow a different listening of the tracks (Heaven, Organic). This exercise, even if there's nothing clever about it, has the credit to be once again brilliantly interpreted. An unlikely cross between Suicide Commando (to whom Decoded Feedback's sound is getting closer and closer), Leaether Strip and KMFDM, shrouded in guitars samples and saturations, constantly stay surrounded of always giddy melodies. The album ends with a surprising cover of Swans' Love Will Save You. Even if the recipe isn't all new, at least it's efficient. And in this domain, isn't it the only thing that matters?
Christophe Labussière |
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Summit
[M-Tronic]
If approaching the music of Dither without evoking Marc's metal background or other project, Dirge, was difficult so far, "Summit" doesn't really need such comparisons anymore. Indeed, with this fifth album, there's no point looking for unwanted references, or models that would only put them in the shades. As time went by, Marc managed to create his own universe, strong of a solid framework, its skeleton being precise and malleable at the same time. A clever paradox in which Marc evolves with disconcerting ease. Melodies, clicks, cracks and cuts are mixed with an appeasing nonchalance, creating a complex sensory universe. Marc plays with the space he's taking us into, creating a kind of three dimensional electronica with precise yet moving shapes. The construction of the album is a subtle work of precision, less dub than before and particularly rich. The Dither sound has evolved and even if it doesn't create anything new, it mixes melodies and ambiences with great ease.
Christophe Labussière |
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Other People’s Songs
[Mute/Labels]
It had to happen one day or another. The English electro pop duo had already, in the past, succeeded in the difficult exercise of cover songs, revisiting classic Abba or Blondie hits with old analogic synthesizers. Two years after "Loveboat", a falsely naive album, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke are back with a cover album. This time, the analogic synthesizers of Mister Clarke - which made the success of Depeche Mode's first big hits - are in full gear one again, led by Gareth Jones' perfect production. And Andy Bell's voice hasn't aged a bit. The first track, a cover of Peter Gabriel's classic Solsbury Hill, is a great success as it offers new perspectives to this worldwide hit. Same thing for the Buggles' unforgettable Video Killed the Radio Stars, totally revisited with vocoders. Nevertheless, more dancing titles were expected, especially with big names like Elvis Presley. The pair obviously meditates as much as it swings. "Other People's Songs" is a nice record for the band's fans but also for 80's nostalgics (we know they're a lot of them!).
Stéphane Colombet |
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Definition of Raw Moments from a Different Perspective
[Ad Noiseam]
Mago is the project of two members of Sanctum, Jan Carleklev and Hakan Paulsson, who also operate in Azure Skies. Despite the rather tough musical reference of these formations, the two Swedish deliver here a rather calm melodic album. The melancholic and very emotional ambience emanating from their music stays on the other hand the common point to all their productions, and one could even say that the duo excels at making their music appear attractive despite its emanating darkness. As for the musical style of this record, it evokes, with some tracks such as Like Sand Slips Through My Fingers, rather "rock" compositions. But contray to Magwheels' album (another recent release of the label) where the sound of guitars was almost unrecognizable, here one has the impression of hearing guitar strings several times while they're not used once! Electronic music, but not electronica, evoking childhood but never childish despite some of the songs' characteristic titles and the presence of a fluffy thing sadistically tied on the cover! One little detail though: it would be better if the saturated sound, typical of Sanctum, was a little less saturated here. The rather poetical atmosphere coming from this record, enriched by diverse and varied voices (male, female and even youthful) didn't necessarily deserve this treatment on the whole length of the album.
Carole Jay |
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Compilation
[Musik Aus Strom]
Musik Aus Strom, a label based in the very conservative Baviere region, is an idea launched by the Funkstörung duo. Michael Fakesch and Chris de Luca produce their musician friends and so federate a kind of international computer assisted creation. Indeed, the band's first breakbeat creations appear on the MAS label, wrapped in stinking recycled cardboards, a trademark design often cited as a reference of this genre. Here, the format is more conventional, it's a regular CD, but the approach keeps a certain singularity. Indeed "MAS Confusion" is a selection of the Dutch brothers Roel and Don Funcken of Funckarma. Both acquired a reputation as great sound engineers and when they don't work hard on their own respective productions, they switch to the artistic directors' role. This quality play-list includes names appreciated by indolent electronica fans such as Lee Anthony Norris of Metamatics (who also promotes his own structure, the famous Neo Ouija), Mr Projectile, a little joker, a fan of Plaid and an adept of hopping chants. The most appreciated is the participation of Adam Johnson, whose titles like Anex and Baquelch offer a preview of his first album which will be released by Merck. Evolving between ambiant and rhythmic breaks, "MAS Confusion" is an excellent panorama of a production more and more forsaking mathematics to the profit of emotion.
Anthony Augendre |
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Photography In Things
[Antonn / Pandaimonium]
Far from their gothic and death rock debut, Morthem Vlade Art's fourth album follows an electronic and simpler turn already started on the band's precedent CD "Antechamber". Simpler sounds, matured by the electronica influences and Gregg Anthe's voice, which inevitably remind us of David Bowie or David Sylvian, show the obvious characteristics of this French duo. A soft, sober electronic alchemy, which doesn't lack in coldness, not leaving out tracks with stirring beats. Let's also mention the band's visual universe, entirely part of the band's artistic package: from the photographs included in the booklet (by Kare Magnole) to allusions to paintings on Rooms For Tourists, a song inspired by an eponymous painting of Edward Hopper. Though "Photography In Things" displays nostalgic themes and the winter climate which followed out the band's evolution, the band is obviously more mature now.
Laure Cornaire |
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Disco 3
[Parlophone / EMI]
Beware of the masterpiece! Rejoice you all, Pet Shop Boys fans, for this hardly awaited record, especially after "Release", an English pop almost acoustic album, is the band's best production since It's a Sin or Go West. Hits galore, electronic with a vengeance for ignited dancefloors. To the difference of the first two parts of the "Disco" concept (this concept consisting in releasing albums of remixes with some hit titles of precedent albums), "Disco 3" has got as many new titles as it has remixes. And the result is simply impressive because there are no mistakes. All of the new tracks, very futuristic in the instruments used and the manipulated voices, are gems: Time On My Hands which like a British tribute to Krafwerk's trademark repetitive mechanical slogans, Positive Role Model (already there on the "London"'s B-side, the precedent single) with its astounding art of sample that makes you like Barry White (yes, it is possible...), Try It (I'm In Love With a Married Man) or the art of making Giorgio Moroder's big times live again, Somebody Else's Business and its almost tribal rhythmics and If Looks Could Kill like a digest of all Pet Shop Boys' musical facets: never before had a guitar and a rhythm box worked as well together on a song. As for the remixes, they go perfectly well with the new tracks, and make one forget forever their original pop versions on "Release": London (in two versions), Here, Sexy Northener and Home and Dry are real bombs, between disco and euro dance, with an timeless sound, somewhere between Cerrone and Faithless. Urgent listening required!
Stéphane Colombet |
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I’ve Been Known to Be Completely Wrong
[A Different Drum]
Newcomers in the US technopop team of A Different Drum, Somegirl deliver a very promising first album in the likes of Delerium, Conjure One or Garbage. A female voice duo, electronic from head to toes, refined and plaintive, progressive and harmonious: to put it simply, a mature pair. Reminiscences of Kate Bush, Tori Amos or Aude come to mind as the - never digitalised - flights of lyricism brilliantly merge with the synthesizers and pianos. Among the album's fourteen tracks, all well structured, in-between Madonna-like pop (for the whispered verses) and Hoover's melancholy (the Barbie voice is almost cloned, also near to Portishead), the dreamy I Know This with its voice in the background as if to wrap the music better, the worrying Morning and its heading refrain, the magical and icy Orbit, the robotic Throne (but so different from Ladytron and Computergirl), the very trance duo Fast Enough which strangely reminds the futurist Germans X Marks The Pedwalk, and the sublime Adrian (I Lose Control) who could almost make Bel Canto sound like amateurs. An impressive first album. Don't judge a record on its titles: these guys got it right!
Stéphane Colombet |
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Soundtoy 2x12 [v.1]
[(Bip-Hop)]
At the origins of this record lies Paul Farrington's Soundtoy, a program, so he says, created to allow musicians to vary their working methods while exploring the sound/vision relationships. Indeed, in this very graphic program, each sound is pictured as a little coloured square to be put on a sequencer. The latter materialises under the form of simple lines on which a mobile cursor comes and goes and plays the sound(s) selected on its way. For this album, Tonne invited Hakan Lidbo, Scanner and Si-Cut.Db to use Sountoy in the purpose of creating (as he does) two tracks each with one constraint: only use twelve samples per composition. Each musician therefore creates their own very personal universe, even if on Hakan Lidbo's first track (an eclectic and prolific Swedish producer and musician), one could swear they're listening Ryoji Ikeda which is far from being the worst reference you could imagine. As to Scanner's title, Guide Me By Surprise, it speaks for itself... Thanks to the multimedia track included on the CD, you can also try this program (in Mac and PC version) to rebuild the tracks yourself as you wish since all the sounds used on the record are available. The interface is user-friendly, the possible combinations are all more numerous. Here's a very interesting concept which should be applied to all records, because who's never dreamed of remixing or totally recomposing a track? A Flash version of Soundtoy is already available via (Bip-Hop's site).
Carole Jay |
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You
[A Different Drum]
Almost one year after "Time To Speak", a clever but rather cliché first album, and several apparitions on electro pop compilations, Wave In Head is back with a second record produced by Jarkko Tuohimaa, Finnish leader of the brilliant Neuroactive project. This new album, made of twelve very dynamic tracks sung in English and German, is a nice digest spanning twenty years electro influences, with sounds and ambiences reminding of Belgian Electronic Body Music and Front 242 while the voices evoke the best hours of the German new wave, something between Alphaville and, more recently, Second Decay. Some of the tracks inevitably evoke Neuroactive, like the very "body" Zeitgefül and For A Long Time or the nicely enticing Hide My Mind (unquestionably the best track of the album). We can also find some new and rather unexpected choruses (If I Was You), bewitching harmonies (The Other Side) and - it's still possible - avant-garde sounds (With You). When the whole package comes with melodies only Martin Gore usually knows how to craft (Free to Leave) and with a particular gift for rhythm alternations (Emotional Machines), one can only but salute this new contribution to the now solid electronic music monument. Let's hope it'll last...
Stéphane Colombet |
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