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Puppy
[One Little Indian]
Fluke is one of these bands who gets better with times, the triple compilation, "Progressive History XXX", released last year and which gathered early stuff, novelties and best-of, is here to prove it. Since their begining made of soulful mild house, Fluke has reached some far away world which is only accessible to a happy few, such as the former great Underworld. While the cerebral techno gets short-breathed, leaving its famous victims on the side of the road (Underworld or Chemical Brothers, with their very disappointing last albums), Fluke takes its time and releases its best record to this day. It was difficult to do better than "Risotto", and yet, they did it: to appreciate it even more, "Puppy" is to be listened at in one go, one track after the other. Better than Temesta and Prozac put together, the great escape is guaranteed. The sound is fluid, the rhythmic is biting, the voice is harsh, dark, lost in infinite echoes; like on a wave, "Puppy" carries us under pink and purple skies in a place inhabited by strange creatures, where we can dance with closed eyes without thinking about anything. "Puppy" is a wholesome trance, the result of the best of techno since its invention, the perfect osmosis between body's and mind's music. Welcome to the 21st century.
Frédéric Thébault |
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O.S. Bandwidth
[Intracraneal Possession / Audio Globe]
To all the disappointed fans of synthpop, to all the people who can't take the melodic choruses of Hocico and co anymore, to all the nostalgics of the mid-90s who listen again and again to "Hard Wired" and "Plasticity" of Front Line Assembly or "Church of Acid" of Velvet Acid Christ: you will finally have something good to listen to! Logically following the very good "MMBO", this Allied Vision's third album is an excellent vintage and will remind you of the best years of this genre. On the usual deluge of heavy and cold rhythmics, industrial, cybernetic and technoid sounds, Oscar Storm doesn't sing, he literaly knock you down with his voice on which the effects are light but where the rage and the power are tremendous. Don't look for the verses/choruses' structure here, the tracks are long, winding, progressive, a bit like Velvet Acid Christ's in more brutal. And don't expect neither any lulls or respites, none of the nine tracks of the album (which maybe sound a bit too alike) will yield. As you understood, Allied Vision's electro doesn't compromise and is way above the current German productions. Basically, if you want strong emotions and powerful electro, this record is for you.
Renaud Martin |
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With a Million Tear-Stained Memories (Highlights, 1986-2003)
[Projekt]
"With a Million Tear-Stained Memories" is a compilation of Black Tape for a Blue Girl 17 year career. What is amazing in their music, it's that it seems out of any fashion and therefore out-of-time. A bit like if time had stopped after the band entrusted their sounds to Sam Rosenthal. In this parallel world, all seems still, and yet a momentum settles. The so peculiar and ageless tone of Oscar Herrera's voice which balances between male and female, reminds of the variable geometry of the band. Indeed, if their universe is dim, it's also draped in warm colours where the voices' breath warm up all the rest. The first CD proposes classics with heavenly voices, One Last Breath and The Flow of our Spirit, where the characters seem to walk in darkness with a candle. What a pleasure to (re)-discover this new version of Overwhelmed, Beneath Me and to feel our skin getting goose-flesh on With my Sorrows. As for the instrumental CD (the second), it goes from worrying to new-age tracks (among which a remix of Kinski by Steve Roach, a master of the genre) and it could be the soundtrack to your own imaginary world. Close your eyes and listen to The Green Box: there you are. Amazingly, this double-CD succeeds where other compilations fail: its perfect cohesion could make you think that it could have been recorded last year or ten years ago. Because, 17 years in the Black Tape for a Blue Girl's universe, it's an eternity and almost nothing at the same time. An absolutely necessary record.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Empty the Bones of You
[Warp]
Chris Clark is with the label Warp and we could be tempted to say that his second album is a perfect medley of the best of this famous label. But it would be too easy and simplist, while the merit of this 23 years-old Englishman is well beyond the fact that he has perfectly assimilated the work of his peers. Indeed, we can find on Holiday as Brutality a synthesizer that sounds like Boards of Canada, on Early Mass a rough groove reminding Aphex Twin in their begining and the influence of Autechre on the excellent Gob Coitus. But the mix of hip-hop beats, of ambient passages (see the hollow eponymous interlude or the end of the magnificent Indigo Optimos) and of distorted jazz is always opportune. The generally very melodic ambiences, although they're darker than on "Clarence Park" released in 2001, are all bafflingly subtle. For once, we won't say that's plagiarism, but we'll greet the clever tribute and the complex but accessible personality coming out of this rich and bewitching "Empty the Bones of You".
Catherine Fagnot |
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Qumran
[Prikosnovénie]
Francesco Banchini goes on his mystic musical quest and offers us "Qumran", the fourth part of a venture started in 2000. The sound research isn't a novelty in the life of this prolific 29 years-old man from Naples, who, as soon as 1997 started to work on miedeval and ethnic sounds, offering his talents of multi-instrumentalist to Ataraxia and Jack Or Jive. But here, he's the M.C. taking the name of GOR, only accompanied by a female vocal at some moments which will remind you of "Aion" of Dead Can Dance. But, the comparison stops here because if the mythical formation denied all religious reference, Francesco Banchini delivers a clear message in the inside book of "Qumran" (which is the region where the Dead Sea's scrolls were found) and through Hebraic and Christian biblical texts chanted on this album: the need of reciprocal respect between people. Anyway, respect is the key-word of this ostensibly inhabited, intimate and universal at the same time album.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Morning Sci-Fi
[Distinctive]
With "Morning Sci-Fi", Hybrid uses all the elements which already made the strength of their first album "Wide Angle". A prestigious and cleverly dosed mix of electronic with a dance music's rhythmic and strings (the orchestration is entrusted to the Hermitage String Orchestra of St Petersburg). A strange harmony accompanied by a voice we could have imagined more at ease in a britpop environment. We're reminded of Rob Dougan (responsible for the irresistible Clubbed to Death) because the whole is perfect, arranged and produced very precisely, showing the undeniable talent of the three DJs leading Hybrid. The second track of the album, True to Form, is the most successful example of the mastered work of this combo coming from Southern Wales. We'll remind to those of you who still ignore it (but is it possible?) that Peter Hook is responsible for the unimitable bass line of this track (as well as on Higher Than a Skyscraper). The mix of all these genres is baffling, "Morning Sci-Fi" is the real good surprise of this Autumn, and if it stayed unnoticed until now, it's got everything to stay on the stereo until the end of Winter.
Christophe Labussière |
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Un Monde sans moi
[Anorak/Capitol]
How could we explain that only one audition of this album will give you so much pleasure? It could be justified by this amazing and particularly opportune J'ai si peur des Américains, a French remake of... I'm Afraid of Americans (written by Bowie and Eno) which arrests all our attention. Or, even better, this so peculiar and sometimes rough atmosphere, that we could compare to Diabologum with these articulated and declaimed French lyrics. Unless it would be the ambiences which, when they're softer (on Le Frisson or Jh cherche professeur de danse), remind another excellent Belgian band, La Variété. Or maybe again, this faculty to mix acoustic guitar and violins to an always discreet electronic, a combination which can sometimes reminds of the Canadian Jérôme Minière. But, it's all that and much more that give its valour to Jeronimo's "Un Monde sans moi". Because, once you've passed these unavoidable references, we quickly fall under the spell of these engaging compositions with their amazing and sensible lyrics. Behind this curious album hides a Belgian, Jérôme Mardaga, and its Eternel petit groupe won't stay "little" for too long.
Christophe Labussière |
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WWIII
[Sanctuary]
KMFDM goes to war against the whole world and promises that, this time, nobody will be spared, and there'll be blood on the walls! The tone is set and the missiles are launched from the first track (which is a real war declaration) called: WWIII. After an intro which destroys all the American clichés (the rocking-chair, the banjo), the light artillery is out on From Here on Out sung by a fighting fit Lucia. The main elements here are the imparable bass line and some synthesizers' sequences which are scarcer on this album which Sascha Konietzko's commando wanted more "rock and live" than usual. Blackball is powerful, the chorus sounds like Front Line Assembly in their "Live Wired" period. The fire-shell increases (with Jihad, Stars and Stripes) and Last Things, could teach a lesson or two to Garbage on how to go one step beyond, and Lucia has nothing to begrudge to Shirley. As for the winding Pity for the Pious, it crawls like a soldier in a mines' field. We're reminded, here and there, to Ministry, but also to KMFDM, so much their trademark is recognizable, shouting "Jawohl!" at the end of Intro, which ends the album. What else could be said, except that they'll come to France next Spring, for a certainly muscled and committed concert, like this album is.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Misty Morning
[Memento Materia]
What a nice surprise. The first album of the three Swedes of Neverwood is as discreet as it is successful. "Misty Morning" is a subtle digest of the best ingredients of Northern trip-hop to which they added, here and there, some touches of synthetic pop and jazz (with a perfectly adapted, although new use of the saxophone in this genre). The result is a marvellous musical journey, with snowy mountains' tops, carried by a crystal female voice and sweet and conforting harmonies. It reminds us of Bel Canto, of Hooverphonic, and also the intelligence and skills of the little known newcomers, Somegirl. But "Neverwood" has a real personality that the twelve tracks only highlight with different musical angles. There is no flaws, even after several listenings, this album becomes even quite attractive, like an eternal musical and magical companion. It's the perfect way to start the Winter season by the fireside. This is a future reference we should follow the progress of.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Babylon Deluxe
[Accession Records]
The Darrin Huss / Remi Szyszka pair seems quite at ease and well-inspired on Psyche's new album, where successful and even mythical titles like Angel Lies Sleeping (on the album "Daydream Avenue" in 1991) are numerous. Darrin's voice is always right on these modern arrangements like on Gods and Monsters or Final Destination with choruses so obvious that they immediately become magical and inseparable. Nobody Superstar allows Darrin to remind us that passion is at the origin of his work and that he doesn't respect much the make-believe superstars on TV that a certain public, who doesn't care much about quality, is content with. A nice creed. The very simple X-Rated is influenced by the new trash scene with synthesizers in bonus, while the rhythm of Sacrament seems to be directly taken out from Nine Inch Nails’Deep. This time, Psyche plays with current references like if they wanted to get rid of its, yet glorious, past. Equinoxe could be the music illustrating a documentary about a city destroyed in the near-future or in a long forgotten past. Fortunately, the sweetness of the voice on Snow Garden, mixed with a martial and futuristic orchestration, allow the duo to describe in their own way the next millennium, with the hope of those who dare to think that the future isn't necessarily as apocalyptic as shown in cinema. Darrin sings "Keep Me Alive" before forsaking us, breathless on the instrumental ending this clever and stirring album. Why, oh why, isn't this record a double CD?
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Chain Gang of Love
[Columbia]
Less than one year after an exciting eight titles, characterized by a noisy guitar, a slouching bass and bubble-gum melodies, the Raveonettes release "Chain Gang of Love", their first album. If the dark side of "Whip it On" disappeared in favour of an extremely sober rock and roll, the challenge of making tracks of less than three minutes with three chords, that the Danish duo imposed themselves on the first EP is still present. The only twist to the rule: there are two newcomers on drums and on guitar. What about the rest, could you ask, well except a flat change, everything is the same: the "Brando-ish" images with the double vocals, the too recently assimilated influences (Jesus & Mary Chain and Cramps) with post-adolescent lyrics. One doesn't change a winning team. Except that, in the manner of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on their second album, the Raveonettes don't put into gear but put us to sleep by dint of purring like... Except on some tracks like That Great Love Sound and Little Animal, a little gem of nasty noisy-rock, "Chain Gang of Love" is rather uneven. We look for the inventive gimmicks of "Whip it On" and the equivalent of the great Attack of the Ghost Riders which let us hope the best for this duo.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Silence Is Easy
[EMI]
With such a title, the more vicious of us certainly thought that the quartet, Starsailor re-invented themselves on this new album, and took advantage of it to incorporate some deafening sound to their light and crystal-like music. Could it be that these Englishmen make a crafty reference to "Silence Is Sexy" of Einstürzende Neubauten? Be reassured, that's not the case. Not at all. Were you already imagining them with a chainsaw in their hands? Maybe a next time. Starsailor sold one million copies of their first album, "Love Is Here", and decided to do it again with their second LP, "Silence Is Easy". This time round, the recipe is known and this new vintage is full of "smart" arrangements with violins and all kind of strings; will the fans follow them? Music Was Saved opens the record on a fast tempo with a little something of Supergrass here and there. Then some dispensable tracks follow before the rather well-done Silence Is Easy, which is easily noticed in this anecdotal album, done and drown in the current hype mass production. We could have thought Bring my Love was inspired by the repeated audition of "Evergreen" by Echo and the Bunnymen and its omnipresent violins, but James Walsh's voice is much too irritating for that. The fans will probably absentmindedly listen to these compositions and will appreciate them, but they'll wake up on the over-produced and probable next single Four to the Floor. The others will go and have a nap somewhere else.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Peace Is Tough
[!K7]
Terranova is an exciting and fascinating band! After their discreet begining ("DJ Kicks" in 1997 and "Close the Door" in 1999), the clattering "Hitchiking Non Stop With No Particular Destination" was released less than one year ago. Today, "Peace is Tough" does it again and confirms that the German trio is among the best. Great DIYers, Mastermind Fetisch, Meister and Shapemod, helped by big names like Cath Coffey of the Stereo MC's or Ari Up of the mythical Slits, handle samples like no-one, even re-using their own tracks (When in Rome, Rockmongril, Runnig Away, Voodoo Beach Party). Their cerebral and dancing techno is in turns, hypnotical, fondling, it brushes against reggae, flirt with metal, taking here and there the best of rock. Could Terranova (new lands?) be the explorers of a new world, of a 21st century rock, based on permanent recycling, calling in question again and again and again? Whatever that is, this "Peace Is Tough" is going to haunt our CD players while we're realising that the previous album was still number one as "the most listen at album since its release".
Frédéric Thébault |
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