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Paper Monsters
[Mute/Labels]
A few years ago, we all wondered whether Alan Wilder's departure would allow Depeche Mode to reach a safe 21 century. But since then, the combined energy of Martin Gore's melodies and Dave Gahan's voice allowed the band to release two critically acclaimed LPs for their maturity, "Ultra" in 1997 and "Exciter" in 2001. Everything seemed well, and then Martin Gore released a solo album of cover-songs this year, closely followed by Dave Gahan with a completely original album. Is all this a personal challenge or a mere marketing stunt? Could it simply be the real demise of one of the most worshipped band of the world of the last 20 years? At a time where the band's members' statements are ambiguous, to say the least, and after the warm welcome granted to Martin Gore's "Counterfeit 2", applauded for its honesty and absence of compromises, Dave Gahan, who's never been an exceptionally knowledgeable songwriter, delivers ten tracks which, for most of them, could have been found on the album "Songs of Faith and Devotion" a decade ago. Because the rock side of the album is obvious, like Bottle Living for example which will inevitably remind you of I Feel You and even of Personal Jesus. This album evokes the heat, guitars, harmonicas, road-movies and bars in the middle of deserts. Electro pop junkies can pass their way... Fortunately, Dave Gahan's voice has never been so elaborate and varied through each track ambiences, like on the very progressive Black and Blue Again or the moving and minimal Stay. On the superb Hidden House -maybe the track which will delight most of the Depeche Mode fans with its dancing synthetic side- Gahan almost thinks he's Bono. As for Bitter Apple, it's almost all violins and cellos. Baffling. So what should we conclude of such a "first album"? "Paper Monsters" certainly wouldn't have its place in Depeche Mode's top 5, but considered as the solo project it is, the challenge is rather successful and the bet is almost won. There aren't real bad tastes, neither is there a lot of novelties, but the fans of the gorgeous Dave should be contented... waiting for a new album of the band.
Stéphane Colombet |
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| All Tomorrow's Parties 3.0 | |
Compilation
[ATP Recordings]
Our eldest readers are probably still moved to tear when evoking the mix tape's era. A blessed epoch when the digital tape totally changed the way people listened to music, like MP3 today. The magnetic tape allowed the appearance of parallel musical scenes, just as singular the ones from the others. From the industrial, to hip-hop and post-rock, we discreetly swapped bootlegs recordings of our favourite bands. Some magazines were even created with the benefits of this bootlegs' illegal trade. For four years, the All Tomorrow's Parties' festival has been the embodiment of an ultimate mix tape, the ideal compilation which organizers change on each edition. This year, ATP was under the artistic direction of Autechre. Sean Booth and Rob Brown are devoted to the tape and to musical styles which spread like viruses thanks to this cheap support. During three days, geeks came to Autechre's invitation and gave their interpretation of the sound design. Ironically, the synthesis of this event, is materialized on a double CD compilation of 19 new tracks. A panorama very faithful to the idea we have of the duo's tastes; a heterogeneous mix of old-school hip-hop, Detroit's techno and mechanical electronica. So, beside the legendary Disjecta, we find Baby Ford, a noisy, annoying bunch of people and new comers of the lame electro scene. We could have done without Public Enemy's mouldy track. But it's Autechre's pride and it takes all kinds to make a mix tape.
Anthony Augendre |
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Spacebox
[Ici d'Ailleurs]
On a grid of acoustic background, "Spacebox", Bed's second album, reveals a series of intimist tracks carried by Benoit Burello's smooth voice. This singer, composer, instrumentist (piano, acoustic guitar), surrounded by his stage musicians, offers an introspective music influenced by jazz. Bed is one of those bands who dares going against the flow and delivering a sound which isn't necessarily in the standards of the moment. The refined chords and the slow tempo are adorned by the instrumentation (electric guitar, drums, double-bass). The clear and limpid music added to the melancholy of the vocal acts like a lullaby, giving a deep feeling of serenity. With a seeming easiness, the band excels in the art of building tracks from a few notes, few chords and with introducing silences which are entirely part of the composition, giving the track its whole dimension. Bed's style dwells in the interpretation's restraint and the modesty pushed to its paroxysm. If the album lacks a bit of diversity and depth, the aesthetics of the compositions and the work on sound spaces and silences are remarkable.
Delphine Payrot |
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Le meilleur de Daniel Darc
[PIAS]
All the people who more or less know of Daniel Darc, wish him the recognition and success he so well deserved since the very first notes of Cherchez le garçon. If this eternal hit, which opens the compilation, is always as disturbing twenty years after, it unfortunately didn't help to make Daniel Darc's talent recognised for its worth. Poet, singer, rebel, loser, tortured soul... unfortunately, life always interfered with Daniel Darc's career. The 19 tracks of this compilation are a much too short panorama of his up and down journey with its pains and tragedies. Only four tracks come from the Taxi Girl's period (Cherchez le garçon, Aussi belle qu'une balle, Je suis déjà parti and the unavoidable Paris), the other fifteen offering a dignified insight on his exceptional career. He just didn't have the lucky strike that Mirwais, his ex-accomplice, received belatedly. Considering tracks like Nijinsky, Aimer à nouveau, Le seul garçon sur terre, Toutes les filles sont parties or Ce qu'il y a dans tes yeux... one is still convinced his day will come. And it could be with his next coming album recorded with Frédéric Lo which will be released at the end of the year. That's the best we can wish for him.
Christophe Labussière |
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Pellicule
[Active Suspension]
Contrary to appearances, the label Active Suspension's catalogue goes well beyond the electronica's borders. A choice in tune with the current tendencies which tends to put a more human touch in electronic by adding digital voices and sounds. Proving this, the album "Pellicule" offers us a series of intimist ballads. On this record, Davide Balula delicately places his voice on a melodic guitar base embellished with a few sound experimentations. This musician/artist samples sounds from home appliances to create a palette of sounds' statics which he sparingly mixes to his songs. With an economy of means, the voice-guitar mix gives the whole a rather soft, melancholic tone. If one recognizes here the musical aesthetic and the minimalism which are the trademarks of the Active Suspension label, one could nevertheless have expect a more original production. Let's however get carried away by Davide Balula's melody and fragile voice, like on Eburn (9V) or Um so Piolio. An artist one should definitely keep an eye upon.
Delphine Payrot |
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s/t
[Klangkrieg]
Blasé by the overwhelming technology that rules our daily life, Hotleg and Erstkommunion, alias Echokrank, decided one day to rebel by creating their own musical style. Yes, their music will be electronic indeed, but if they use this technology, it is all the better to hate it (sic); mastering the numerous softwares of a laptop won't interest them because they consider that the instrument isn't an end in itself, it's just here to transmit ideas. The Berlin duo totally takes responsibility upon the hazardous aspect of its compositions and doesn't try to make people believe that the hazard is maturely thought. Which is the reason why they deliver thirteen very short tracks that don't have any superfluous artifice and where each sound seems upsetting the other, clashing into each other, never really mixing together and giving to this record a rather charming old-fashioned aspect. Nevertheless, nothing is as hazardous, nor unique as one would like us to believe. We find in these strange and (un)willingly disorderly compositions, the juvenile fantasy of Felix Kubin, surely a not so distant cousin, but above all a craze common to Blevin Blectum and her colleague Kevin Blechdom seems taking over the two Germans. Echokrank are children at heart, that's for sure. And luckily, so are we.
Carole Jay |
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The Winter of our Discontent
[A Different Drum]
Who said that the Americans weren't a subtle nation? The male-female duo of The Echoing Green proves the contrary with this new album, their most achieved and varied one to this day. Ten electro pop tracks, sometimes light and aerial, sometimes heavy and down to earth, constitute this winter of resignation then of rebellion that the band describes with its music, more colourful than ever. We even engage in some melancholic dance steps with (The Story of our Lives, Apology, Heidi's Song and the magnificent cover-song of Simple Minds New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84)). As you've probably already understood, it smells like the 80s, without being outdated. We also find some well done, sometimes almost aggressive, pop-rock anthems (Fall Awake, Bittersweet and above all the threatening Blind which remind of the very promising begining of Nine Inch Nails). The whole, made of male vocals supported by some female vocals, is very successful because thanks to its heterogeneousness and cunningly avoids many of the technopop clichés. An ever-progressing band. Very encouraging indeed!
Stéphane Colombet |
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Praxis
[ITN Corporation]
Some record work like Marcel Proust's famous Madeleine, suddenly bringing old memories back to the surface... In a way, "Praxis" is one of them. Even with new melodies and new instruments, the Humberstone brothers remind us of the best hours of the neo-classic with tracks like L'Esprit or To the Faithfull and bring us back to our adolescence fifteen years ago. And then, reality inevitably catches you back: the formula hasn't aged a bit with the years... Mind you, in fifteen years, the film soundtracks mixing electronic and classic orchestrations have known an established success (from Philip Glass to Kronos Quartet, and from Hans Zimmer to Rob Dougan...). Then trip-hop appeared and Massive Attack, Portishead and other Hooverphonic exploited the formula with a skill that logically brought them the public and the critics' recognition. We could therefore almost let ourselves go and write that this new album of In The Nursery sounds like a Craig Armstrong's, and that beats all... Indeed, it states its ambiences one by one like in a travel-diary, offering as many instrumentals as sung tracks, always sung by Dolores (who will bring you to your knees with the sublime Vocopolis, the soothing Memento, the cinematographic Amer and the very sad Argent), also sung by the twins (which remind of the very martial begining of the band: Concept, Ethics of Belief, supported by the very hot drums of Q, a real trademark), and even by a guest-star (on the magnificent nocturnal ballad Outburn). All that for a music evoking pictures, classy and a bit decadent. It isn't nostalgic: doubtlessly, the result of many avant-garde years that In The Nursery discreetly and efficiently shows. This is the band's best album since "Anatomy of a Poet". Total respect.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Live Like Traitors, Die Like Traitors
[Cold Meat Industry]
This Institut's second album, with a title as aggressive as the sounds it develops, will give you shivers down your spine. Dirty, noisy, intense, hypnotic... some of these adjectives would make any ordinary music-lover shun, but here, they are a proof of quality and perfectly describe the universe of this record which will delight the most hardened ears. Dirty and noisy, here are the best compliment to make to any power electronics band and surely Johanna Rosenqvist and Lirim Cajani would readily accept it (he who always wanted to find "the most dirty possible sounds"). Let's mention that even if Johanna isn't part of Institut anymore since the end of the summer 2002, she nevertheless actively participated to this record, as noticed on the terrifying Dear Sir or Madame. Intense and hypnotic because the tracks, less rhythmed than on "Great Day to Get Even", are all the more powerful here. Institut is an impressive band on stage, tough we never quite find this power on their recordings. Yet, with his album, they seem to get closer to it.
Carole Jay |
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Further
[A Different Drum]
But where does Todd Durrant find all these synthetic-pop bands? We could almost think he clones them, considering the growing number of formations in this style since the creation of his label, a henceforth worldwide reference for all the nostalgics of the Talk Talk, Tears For Fears, Human League and the likes. The most amazing though is that as his team grows in number, it also improves in quality. The pupils might outdo the masters one day... In all cases, Intuition isn't scared of anybody and hit the target's bull's-eye almost all along its twelve tracks "Further". Mixing Pet Shop Boys-like rhythmics, Erasure-like digital sounds and sensual vocals (a bit too much on the "boys band" side maybe), the result would have been an international hit at the time (listen to Stargate, Two, Always Painting or I Want You Back and tell me what you think)... Now, let's hope the "electroclash" will soon be replaced by the "electroclass", and that the melodies will replace the vocoders... Then, Intuition could really score high. You've been warned. Thank you Todd, you are a retro-visionary!
Stéphane Colombet |
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The Mess We Made
[Domino]
More known under the moniker of Third Eye Foundation, the unclassifiable electronic project (somewhere between electro, ambient and drum'n'bass) with obscure and organic compositions, Matt Elliott is back after two years of silence and, for the first time, under his real name. And whether or not his recent relocation to France has anything to do with it, the man seems more appeased nowadays: the heavy and nightmarish ambiences of his previous works are over (indeed, the beats and rhythmcs have disappeared), making way for more humane atmospheres made of remote voices, ethereal chants, pianos, guitars and other wind instruments. But don't be mistaken: the surface serenity, the childish, fragile and delicate, melodies of "The Mess We Made"'s eight compositions are all but innocent, and quickly prove to be fascinating and unsettling by their very beauty and their strangeness. So much so that after several listenings, one realises that the Third Eye Foundation's shadow isn't that far away (for example, hiding under a few beats on tracks like Also Ran and The Mess We Made) and one inevitably remembers the nightmares one might have had while listening to "Ghosts" or "Lost Little Soul". A real little masterpiece of schizophrenia.
Renaud Martin |
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Nymphomatriarch
[Hymen]
Let's be honest, from the very first rumours surrounding the Nymphomatriarch concept, and despite the musical credibility of the two protagonists, Rachael Kozak (Hecate) and Aaron Funk (Venetian Snares), it already felt like déjà-vu. Indeed, the couple had decided, one year ago, to record their sexual frolics to make a CD out of it, which probably gave Venetian Snares the opportunity to be the first Hymen artist to be talked about in Playboy!
The number of musical projects resorting in these kind of samples must be counted of the fingers of a hundred hands, but the lack of originality didn't put the duo off. One has to say that the particularity of this album comes from the fact that all the sounds directly (!) "come from" two genius musicians, contrarily to the anonymous samples of the numerous projects which exploited this idea before, almost always resulting in a total impossibility to distinguish the origin of most of them. This is where the exercise really becomes interesting, because each sound has been altered to become a percussion, a whistle, a string... which could easily come from any of the compositions of our two breakcore heroes. Except for a few well-selected samples and some very evocative titles such as Pervs or Blood on the Rope, Playboy readers might be disappointed... Some tracks are 100% Venetian Snares-like, some other remind of Hecate's recent project with Lustmord and the atmosphere of the horror films Rachael Kozak likes so much, especially on the very long Hymen Tramp Choir. In short, "Nymphomatriarch" is set to become, at least in its conception, the hottest record of the year!
Carole Jay |
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Telegraphs in Negative / Mouths Trapped in Static
[Fatcat]
Like A Silver Mont Zion, Do Make Say Think or Fly Pan Am, to cite only the most known, Set Fire to Flames is part of the nebula formed by the Canadian label Constellation and its star band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Made up of thirteen members (some of them already belonging to the above mentioned formations), this group, coming from the Montréal underground, gives here a follow-up to its noticed first record "Sings Reign Rebuilder" (2001), with a classy designed double album, which was entirely recorded in an Ontario old and huge forsaken farm and in very peculiar confined conditions, under the effect of sleeplessness and drugs. Mixing compositions and improvisations, both these two bland records aren't really convincing. It is rather a feeling of boredom and irritation that wins over the one and a half hour long listening made of ghostly melodies, obviously very "Constellation"-like (with guitars, violins, cellos, trumpets) and some more ambient and abstract moments (conversations, whispers, grindings, crackings and other uninteresting purrings). This album is disappointing and will only interest the hare-core fans of this (now relatively) new Canadian post-rock scene.
Renaud Martin |
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Disinterred
[Bootleg]
On paper, the idea looked exciting. That is the re-formation of an English goth-rock band of the first generation (1982), which had achieved cult status after a short but faultless career (two albums, several singles and numerous noticed titles), and which featured the famous Anne-Marie Hurst as a singer, before she went to found Ghost Dance with Gary Marx (ex-Sisters of Mercy). Unfortunately, this resurrection of Skeletal Family is only, for the time being, just a wet cracker! Indeed, the live album reproducing the re-formation's concert at the Cockpit in Leeds soon turns out to be a bootleg recorded by a fan, because the band had problems regarding their own songs' copyright. And indeed, it really sounds like a bootleg: average quality, dull, no depth, reinforcing all of the musicians' faux pas... Moreover, after Anne-Marie withdrawal, Katrina Philips (who already replaced the singer in 1985 to record some singles) is in charge of the vocal. And that too is a faux pas! Katrina's voice is very different from Anne-Marie's (deeper, less powerful, almost soul-like!) and her vocal melodies often diverge from the original versions of the songs. The musicians' style is diligent but sometimes lacks in energy and the tracklisting is hardly exciting (with only three or four "hits"). If the disappointment is great in comparison with the expectation, let's not judge things too quickly and let's wait for a worthy live recording, the concert's DVD or the next album... or even Anne-Marie's return!
Christophe Lorentz |
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From the very first notes of "Blizzard", one can't help thinking about The Breeders. Why such a comparison? Not that Nina Brent's voice really reminds of Kim Deal's, nor that her guitar or Stephan Francès' (ex-Seven Hate) copy Tanya Donelly's, but simply because the energy and the melodies of these five too short compositions are just as efficient. Nina Brent and the Elementary Particles comes from Poitiers, and considering the quality of this first EP, there are chances we'll hear more of them, especially on stage where the band seems to spend most of its time! They will play at the Francofolies' festival in la Rochelle on July 11 (ninabrent.free.frBurden is a project from Montpellier gathering musicians with a very different background who compose electronic music together, and then asked a visual artist to create the aesthetic of the final album. In the end, the second album of this concept is a very good surprise. A kind of mutant trace, intense but particularly rich in its sounds and which carefully combine some more rock precepts and ambiences that could have been taken out of films' soundtracks. In all cases, this album is a delight for the ears and will surely convince all dancefloor afficionados (burdenproject.free.fr).
The French Violation fanzine, entirely dedicated to Depeche Mode (by Dekad, Brent or Prohom), accompanies Recoil and a rare remix of Only When I Lose Myself... Eleven tracks in whole to brilliantly accompany (except for Dip's track, totally out of place) the fanzine's seventh issue which, by its quality, reminds the late fanzine "Anomalie" (dedicated to The Cure). Included here are a study on the fonts used on Depeche Mode's covers, or the evolution of the ticket prices for the band's shows in Bercy! For more information: www.frenchviolation.com.
Christophe Labussière
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