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They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
[Blast First/Mute]
The Liars' first album largely contributed to fix the public's attention on the New York new scene. The album was excellent and original but it had been recorded before September 11. This one was recorded after. It's impossible to ignore this detail. So, let's say it, "They Were Wrong, so We Drowned" will be the album of the year 2004. From the start, we're left dumbfounded by some beyond the grave synths' notes. Less than thirty seconds later, a monolithic drum appears, disappears, comes back again accompanied by other, completely dissonant synths and a dry and harsh guitar. Then comes the vocal. Cold. Tired. All that come and go again, the drum becomes more and more violent, and then there's these incredible guitars, and this guy who endlessly screams "Blood, blood, blood" to the point of drawing tears of helplessness out of you. Do we need to say more? At the end of this first track, either you'll have ejected the CD, scared by what you just heard, or, and that's what we hope, you'll already have listened to it again with clenched teeth, before discovering with a morbid delight the rest of the album.
We could talk of no-wave like New York already produced twenty years ago, but one has to admit that the Liars go much further. Never since "Metal Box" (PIL-1980), "Pornography" (The Cure-1982), "A New Form of Beauty" (Virgin Prunes-1980) or "Confusion Is Sex" (Sonic Youth-1983), did we hear something as unhealthy and destructive... and as successful. A pressing album, and a band we should reckon on from now on.
Frédéric Thébault |
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Andy Partridge
& Peter Blegvad | |
Orpheus - The Lowdown
[Ape House Ltd]
This "Orpheus - The Lowdown" is a nice object, the result of 25 years of friendship and hard work between Andy Partridge, leader of XTC, and Peter Blegvad, guitarist of Slapp Happy, an avant-garde progressive rock band of the 70s, and an artist who collaborated to many projects (the most known of them being his first solo album in 1983, "The Naked Shakespeare", with Andy Partridge on production).
So, "Orpheus, The Lowdown", is a concept album, described by its authors like an initiation travel through tragedy, comedy, poetry and anguish. What is the best way to listen to it? To be dead, because this album "only contains sounds audible by the deads". What a program! But it's a short one for an album recorded on and off during thirteen years: it's only 32 minutes long... Twelve tracks, composed of spoken words on a purely experimental musical background, tripping but tense, with discreet noises, synths, all kind of sounds, with little rhythm, the whole constituting a strange universe, the ideal soundtrack for a road movie: that's what you should be ready for. This kind of work is hazardous because it's much too intellectual to be perceived as a rock record. The fans of the contemporary music, new music and other industrial-experimental of the 80s kind of music (see The Residents) will be a privileged public. Moreover, if you're not fluent in English, you won't understand the lyrics, the spoken words mentioned before, that is to say long, monotonous texts, which are probably very interesting and very poetic but hard to understand for foreigners... Then, there's the music, or rather, the musical background and all the interest dwells here: it hasn't been skimped to the lyrics' profit, it's even very pleasant to listen to, we glide through regions explored by Death In June or SPK. So, "Orpheus - The Lowdown" is what it looks like: a record you can do without but not an uninteresting one. For the fans or the bystanders who want to discover new musical horizons.
Frédéric Thébault |
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Humans
[Lowlight]
Tripsichord
It's been four years now since we last heard of Collapse, this project created by Amadou Sall (ex-bassist of Treponem Pal during their "Excess and Overdrive" period) and his mate Pierre Gutleben. Indeed, since the very interesting album of remixes "Link", the ethnic indus-rock duo devoted themselves to the creation of their new record which was almost released in 2002, but Amadou decided to do it all over again because he wasn't satisfied with the result. After a period when they call themselves in question, "Humans" is now released, and we understand why Collapse wanted to explore a new way. Nowadays, the tribal elements, such as didgeridoo, percussions or Tibetan ritual instruments are back in the closet. In the same time, the tracks' structure are more obvious, the melodies are more direct and the rhythms are jumpier. Tracks such as Tidal Wave (that could be a hit), Addiction, A.I. or Trapped in Lane are terribly efficient with their biting guitars, their obsessing choruses and their electronic sounds which are more forward than in the past. Of course, the hypnotic voice of Amadou still is an essential part of Collapse's music, it can goes from an uncanny psalmody to a throaty roar. Also, the sound of this album still is as compact and dark as before, the production is remarkably strong and precise. So, this is probably the best album of Collapse to this day, and it should give this band the public success it deserves.
Christophe Lorentz |
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Join the Dots
B-Sides & Rarities 1978>2001 The Fiction Years
[Fiction/Universal]
The older among us will remember with nostalgia their frentic quest for the priceless singles and the bootlegs of more or less good quality, and the younger ones will remember their relentless search for the impossible to find MP3... Robert Smith has found a clever parry to the MP3s' propagation on the P2P network by satisfying all his fans. 70 tracks on 4 CDs are in this box and they're accompanied with an imposing booklet full of informations and photographs. We can find there the B-sides and some rarities that were only available on their original compilations until now ("X Files", "Judge Dredd",...), the whole being scrupulously compiled and organised.
"Joint the Dots" (you know this game where you draw a picture by joining the dots one after the other) proposes us an original immersion in the universe of The Cure. We say "original", because this time we brought to it through the back door... These songs, out of the rather intimist context of the single, get there a new meaning and offer us an alternative and rather amazing view on the band. Nowadays, The Cure is with New Order, the only decent survivors of the 80s, and they're the inevitable reference of several artists' generations in all kind of styles, and we understand why by listening to these tracks. We can't fail to notice Robert Smith's amazing ease in writing, this is so obvious here with these songs which don't have the pressure inherent to an album.
It's a shame though that the (fascinating) booklet hasn't been translated in French, also that numerous tracks are already available on albums and that the whole is rather expensive. But beyond these fans' critics, we can only but, once again, appreciate the deep and constant respect that Robert Smith has for his public and his past.
Christophe Labussière |
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Crève Coeur
[Mercury/Universal]
Daniel Darc has always been rare, so the announcement of this new album done in collaboration with Frédéric Lo was highly expected. It took Daniel ten years to put away the rock'n'roll guitars of "Nijinsky", here the musical ambience is calmer than the one created by Georges Betzounis' guitars. But in the end, this isn't really good news. The album starts with a kind of trip-hop muzak (La Pluie qui tombe), and the compositions that follow aren't musically very inentive either. They just manage to create an ersatz of intimist atmosphere and Daniel Darc's voice is too often "forsaken". Because of that, we can enjoy more the lyrics of this genius author and his more than ever appeased voice, but that's the only positive point. The treatment is sometimes disappointing (like the ridiculous "clap-claps" of Mes amis (Tour à tour)). We don't find the imparable melodies of "Influence Divine" or "Parce que", nor the gloom of "Nijinsky". "Crève coeur" is a sequence of little gems, but they deserved a prettier case.
Christophe Labussière |
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Delìrivm Còrdia
[Ipecac/Southern]
The Fantômas are Mike Patton, Buzz Osbourne, Trevor Dunn and Dave Lombardo, each who are involved in other more well known bands, and they are back with their third album that is something to behold. It consists of just one track but this is definitely a case where 'less is more', much more, as that track is nearly an hour long. It follows the 'train of thought' pattern favoured by many bands who have taken the plunge off the experimental deep end. But don't be scared off just yet. The album isn't as inaccessible as one might expect. The single track actually plays like many individual ones, each with a distinct audio life of its own. Some of them are soothing with calm bells, dreamy choruses, light guitars, low voices, others are violent with thrashing guitars, crazy drum patterns, shrieking voices and others yet sound like otherworldly ethnic droning chants with strange instrument accompaniments and haunting operatic choruses. But as different as each one is from the others, there feels like a kindred chemistry between them all. This album has a similar feel to some of the tracks on Mr. Bungle's "Disco Volante" album, another side project of Mike Patton's. The end of this long opus ends with 20 minutes of cracklings and pops of a vinyl record on a continual loop. But there might just be a tiny morsel before the end. Curious?
Ron Sawyer |
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The Young Machines
[Wichita/Chronowax/V2]
Her Space Holiday is the pseudonym of Marc Bianchi, who comes from San Francisco. Practically unknown in Europe, he's yet the mentor of Audio Information Phenomena, a label able to sign country, hip-hop and industrial music at the same time. Author of a dozen productions, including remixes for Elastica, The Faint and Dead Prez among others, Marc Bianchi, who wears thick glasses, looks like a false nerd who hides a collection of tattoos on his arms, signs of a hardcore past. The artist seems to have assimilated these origins quite well like his cousin Fugazi. So, "The Young Machines" is the last opus of his artistic way of working which consists more in the art of writing a good song rather than trying to impress everybody with sound coquetries. Nothing to do with the pseudo Aphex Twin filiation the press tries to give him. Even if, here and there, you can find some experimental touches, they're quite anecdotic, they may just disperse our attention on the fundamental quality of the tracks of this album. It starts with a perky, bittersweet ambience, underlined by sequences of metalophones, arpeggios of synthetic cords and crunchy percussions. The other compositions reveal a real talent of short story writer. Humble, moving, the simplicity of these rhymes give him a rare sensitivity. The benevolent spirit of The Beatles glides above his young machines. Nice work.
Anthony Augendre |
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Barwy Kolorow
[M-Tronic]
With the help of the Parisian label M-Tronic, I:Gor offers us an album full of contrasts. The record starts with Domek Na Stadionie, a melodic title with light synthetic moments and an aerial rhytmics. Then Samurai follows, it gives you a foretaste on what's coming next. The rhytmics gets faster, the percussions become more incisive to end in an avalanche of unleashed rhythms. Niekochani and Serwol bring a truce with their sweet synthetic melodies, embeded with vocals, experimental sounds and video games' bleeps. So, all along the album, I:Gor plays with hot and cold ambiences, the fast and slow rhytmics, alternating warmhearted melodies and devastating breakbeats, the sound power reaching its peak on Get Da Fuck Out!. The result is a sound landscape with much relief where the calm and melodic moments are only present to emphasize the sound avalanche that follow. We should mention that this Polish band has been known, in the past, for its pertaining with the breakcore, one of the most radical movement of electronic music. With this album, I:Gor clearly evolved towards a music closer to electronica, although some remains of its breakcore culture are still present on some tracks. You can't forget your roots so easily! In the end, the album manages to put together melodic tracks with more agressive ones, full of bleeps, vocals and sound accidents of all kind which spirit is sometimes experimental, industrial, tribal as well as technoid.
Delphine Payrot |
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Holy
[Minuswelt]
There's obviously some subtlety and a female touch in this In Strict Confidence's sixth album, what doesn't prevent it from being an electro-dark hits mine. Let's face it, poisoning is instantaneous and the antidote doesn't exist yet. The first single, Babylon (the sole track sung in German) fill it's part perfectly and the more frequent use of female voices avoid the band from going round in a circle. In fact, they manage to make "Holy" a masterpiece in In Strict Confidence's discography, which introduces a female touch to the man / machine equation. And to prove it, Sleepless would fit in the latest Delerium CDs, while Dennis Ostermann's voice sometimes does sound like Jean-Luc De Meyer's (The Darkest Corridors, Closing Eyes). However, we must admit that choruses (may they be female / male duet or not) are more intense, as well as the ultra complex rhythms of Emergency are, on which the Germans carry the vice to leave the microphone to Antj Schulz singer of Candeen who has to fight with strength and precision against a sequencer and a beat box together in perfect symbiosis. Even if we may regret, sometimes, the "cliché" imagery they use on their sleeves, the In Strict Confidence style improves as time goes by and then becomes valueable. A perfect record for those who love huge sound and irreproachable production, as well as catchy melodies like the ones in Heal Me and Eye of Heaven.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Auf der Maur
[Capitol]
Labels
For the time being, Melissa auf der Maur is mainly known by the public for her duo "Le Grand Secret" on Indochine's last album... Those of you who are a minimum interested by rock music will also know that she was the bassist of Hole for five years before joining the Smashing Pumpkins at the end of their career. Fortunately, this remarkable first solo album should make us forget her role of "accompanist" (Courtney Love's, Billy Corgan's, Nicola Sirkis'), and consecrate her as an artist with a strong personality and an intense music. "Auf der Maur" is immediatly catchy, it brings us back ten years ago when the grunge was still untamed and that the noisy-pop unveiled some universes as bewitching than worrying. The pretty Canadian offers us so twelve songs which are all little gems. With sudden rises of noise reminding "Goo" of Sonic Youth, this poisonous record is fascinating from start to finish. We have to mention that Josh Homme and Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkin) and Eric Erlandson (Hole) largely contributed to this album, which partly explain how Melissa managed to get this balance between dull violence and deep melancholy. The result is a highly addictive record that reconciles Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Hole, The Cure and the Smashing Pumpkins... A masterly first try!
Christophe Lorentz |
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Returning Wheel
[Crammed]
Sixteen years after "Live", the last failure (because of its terrible sound) of a yet faultless career, Minimal Compact benefits, at last, of a more honorable epitaph."Returning Wheel" is a little box, easy to shelve for once, made up of three fussless CDs and a simple but thorough booklet (with a discography, the lyrics and an historic).
The first CD, a compilation, reveals the incredible quality of Minimal Compact's work. It is showed by the chosen tracks, of course, but above all, by the missing ones, which could have easily filled a second CD with the same quality, for instance, The Traitor, Sananat, Nil Nil, Inner Station, This Scent of Love, Losing Tracks, Invocation, Deadly Weapons, Immigrant Song, To Get Inside, It Takes a Lifetime, Everything Is Wonder... In fact, 50% of the band's production could have been on this compilation! Let's also mention that the only novelty of this CD, Dedicated, a suave ballad, largely deserves to be in the band's selection.
"There's Always Now", a remixes' CD, sounds like most of its kind: some real successes, huge failures and a dose of boredom. Among the curiousities, we'll mention Autumn Leaves by International Observer: some oriental sounds of the band mixed in a Jamaican way, that's daring! There's also Volga Select (Ivan Smagghe and Marc Collin) for the remix of Next One Is Real.
Last but not least, the third CD "Music From Upstairs", allows us to discover a hidden side to Minimal Compact's career, which is a band that likes to meet to improvise and experience for hours on end, with no other goal than playing and enjoying themselves. This CD is to be taken as a historic testimony more than a structured work. Maybe some tracks emerged from these sounds loops, and some others were left unfinished, but in any case, they prove the band's great creativity and open-mindedness. Among these demos, you'll find three titles recorded for a radio session in 1982, two novelties and Introspection, which will later become the B-side of the single It Takes a Lifetime.
As a conclusion, the nice present for the fans is five tracks taken from the band's reformation's attempt in 1993. If that didn't happen, the result of their rehearsals deserved to be released, like the track sung by Malka Spiegel, What You Are and the brilliant cover of Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay. The last news are that, after the success of the two concerts given last year (at the Transmusicales in Rennes and in Brussels), a mini-tour should take place. If this is confirmed, you can go to it blindfolded.
Eric Semenzin |
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Beyond Flatline
[Dependent]
To all the futuristic pop fans we say: Seabound is definitely the worthy successor of Covenant, Apoptygma Berzerk, Assemblage 23 and VNV Nation. Even better, the German duo offers us a second album in the same line of the first one, "No Sleep Demon" which was already remarkably mature. Inspired by the bands cited above (harmonious synthetic melodies, catchy rhythmics, a dark and human vocal), Seabound put between our delicate ears ten various tracks, prone to a universal melancholic phylosophy somewhere between despair and courage. Like a new era electronic odyssey, Seabound's music, more complex than on their first album but with less tortured vocals, is structured but, at the same time, produces a feeling of being lost, of interplanetary escape. If tracks like Transformer, Contact, Poisonous Friend and Go International are clearly destined to the clubs, Souldiver, Torch and the sublime Watching Over You are progressive atmospheric compositions of an intensity unheard of. So, the whole is quite mature, that is to say that this record will still tirelessly be listened to in years to come. From the start, you'll take off and about one hour later, you'll land in your living-room, calm and serene, after experiencing a serious and powerful emotion. A weightlessness success and an already unavoidable record.
Stéphane Colombet |
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People Are Like Seasons
[City Slang/Labels]
It's difficult to talk about Sophia without evoking God Machine, the previous band of Robin Proper Sheppard, this band who became cult because of its impressive stage performances and its heavy and inventive rock sound, and which career ended prematurely with the sudden death of the bassist Jimmy Fernandez. Sophia, the solo project that Proper Sheppard built on the ashes of God Machine, has the same aura, especially in Belgium and in Germany, and this new album won't tarnish this good reputation: indeed, "People Are Like Seasons" is a worthy following to the previous albums (there are three of them, including one live album), and the connoisseurs will find there the same painful laments of the songwriter, but this time, they're musically slightly less tormented. But beware, the relative lull apparent on most of the album (let's especially mention Swept Back and I Left You, two of the most beautiful and darkest ballads of this record) becomes, at the end of the track Desert Song No.2, a violent storm with the masterful Darkness (Another Shade in Your Back) and If a Change Is Gonna Come on which we find an efficient, scorching and sweltering rock (almost metal at times): these ten extremely intense minutes, placed in the middle of the record, like a heart, the firm yet gentle hand of Proper Sheppard in a way. Don't miss either the exemplary single Oh My Love which opens this excellent album and which should becomes one of the pop-rock hit of this season. So, if you're a fan of dark rock and that Nick Cave's or Lambchop's work have no secret for you, we keenly advise you to listen to this record.
Renaud Martin |
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Margerine Eclipse
[Duophonic]
Three years after the album "Sound-Dust", the most enticing UFO of the London indie low fi poppy lounge (!) scene emerges again. And the general ambience of the album isn't spoilt by the terrible event that was the death of the singer, Mary Hansen at the end of 2002. We find on this record all the creativity, the energy, the sensitivity and the good spirit of the band. More pop than the previous album, "Margerine Eclipse" is amazingly produced; if the inimitable sound of Stereolab is still clearly identifiable, the ambience is particularly clean, almost silky. Some really successful arrangements give an amazing dimension to a rich and varied album where Laetitia Sadier's voice is more present than ever, always as seducing and bewitching, and which skillfully and charmingly dresses the inimitable melodies that the band always creates so easily. The audition of "Margerine Eclipse" is simply a pleasurable moment.
Christophe Labussière |
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Empty Into White
[Kalinkaland]
New York doesn't only give birth to pop or crazy noisy bands. Since 1998, Unto Ashes is known for its medieval folk music which distinguishes itself from its numerous European cousins through assumed influences. But are they assimilated? That's not quite sure, it's hard not to frown on tracks like I Cover You With Blood, which intro comes directly from Frontier of Dead Can Dance. Same thing for the instrumental Heralds of War. Once this postulate over, because, after all, Dead Can Dance never had the monopoly of medieval and oriental instruments, we constate that "Empty Into White" is quite a success and doesn't limit itself to this genre (let's mention the excellent Spider Song and its beautiful Persian melody which reminds of Mor Te O Merce from the album "Saturn Return", released in 2001). If the curious cover of Tori Amos' Beauty Queen in Latin (!) evokes Ronan Quays, we noticed the similarities between the track Allu Mari and the Pink Dots' universe or Current 93 (see the serious Flayed By Frost) and, in a more recurrent way, Coil (on the tracks Empty Into White and Gate, a tortured instrumental). A range of dense atmospheres that Unto Ashes cleverly makes its own, as much on the compositions as on the female or male vocals. Fantastic.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Farsuct
[Delabel]
In theory, for a newcomer, Willie Cortez already has some real assets. What do you expect from a nomad who worked as a drummer in experimental hardcore formations, before singing in sound system jungle? A kind of Tackhead punctuated with a flow of socio-political slogans worthy of a warlike MC? Some mechanical Sonic Youth orientated on flawless rhythmics lines? Or some melancholic drum'n'bass? In practice, we're far off the subject, simply because Willie Cortez invents here the future funk. We're not exaggerating, there is some genius in this "Farsuct", a first visionary record where everything is where it should be; with eclat, recklessness and distinction. The Catalan chisels his arrangements with jeering basses worthy of Dave Tipper, some lame breakbeats taken from Autechre, in a purer version, and surprisingly, a princely vocal. Willie Cortez seems quite singular in this formated world. Indeed, rare are the electronicians / composers / authors / performers who know how to sharpen our senses and don't forget the background. The themes broached such as security paranoia and video-surveillance systems, suddenly remind the spectre of the writer William Burroughs and his "electronic revolution". "Farsuct" is sexy electronic where the machines sweat as Gabi Delgado of D.A.F. says. A good surprise.
Anthony Augendre |
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At last, we've got news from The Notwist. The German's band who is currently touring in the USA and in Canada, thought of us who are feverishly waiting for a following to the excellent "Neon Golden" (2002), by releasing the EP "Different Cars and Trains" (Domino). On it, you'll find an instrumental entitled Red Room (which is unfortunately rather inconsistent) and four remixes (two made by Console, one by Four Tet and Manitoba and the last by Loopspool), but all are really dispensable. As Belle & Sebastian would say: "For Fans Only".
Then, still in Germany, we find a more inspired remixer, DJ Ellen Allien with her "Remix Collection" (Bpitch Control), a very homogeneous compilation of ten very "club" remixes which she did for artists like Sascha Funke, Apparat, Covenant and the duo Miss Kittin/Goldenboy. You can also do without, but it's very agreeable to listen to, you'll find her voice on a lot of tracks and some sounds used on the album "Berlinette".
Another novelty, "Pre-Earthquake Anthem", the first real album of Circlesquare, the mysterious project of March21, a just as mysterious artist who comes from the Vancouver underground. Released on the English label Output (Black Strobe, Colder), this record offers a slow and sickly pop tinged with minimal electronic sounds (which sometimes remind of the oppressive atmospheres of Mezzanine of Massive Attack). A very successful first album and an artist to follow closely!
Renaud Martin
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