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Geography
[Alfa Matrix]
The reissue of "Geography", originally released 22 years ago, gives a historic insight of Front 242, these remarkable artists who, in their times, stunned the pop music world. The cultural context of 1982 was dominated by political cynism (Thatcher, Reagan) and the materialism of the yuppies who liked a bland music which was already a prey to mercantile considerations. The punk rebellion wasn't clever enough to break this system. Then, these four "warlike insects" rose up, as much influenced by the pictorial avant-gardes of the last century than by television's news. Their way of doing was radical, and their aesthetics was rough and even "terrorist". The only European cousins of Front 242 were called D.A.F, Fad Gadget, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire. They were geographically isolated, but they shared the same idea that sound creation and plastic arts are one, and that it should be practised with a philosophy close to electro-acoustic researches. Later, it was said that the members of Front 242 were the first sound designers of techno. Indeed, "Geography" is in the line of the irreverent DIY inherited from punk music. We feel that the band didn't have a very modern equipment (which was very expensive then), but they already know how to deal with these unstable monsters that were the first digital synthesizers which were available to everybody. At first, the icy vocal entices you. It reminds a kind of mutating Joy Division, probably the sublimated version of New Order in gestation. The cover was totally coherent with the "basic product" that the band controlled from start to finish. The record company didn't have any control over these home studio musicians who evolved in an artistical desert. The first round was won, then they'll have to face the conservatism of rock music who was really shocked there wasn't any guitars on stage. "Geography" is the Galileo of modern music. Right in the middle of rock'n'roll's obscurantism, it announced the radical advent of Detroit techno, of New York hip-hop and of Chicago house. Later, some tried to burn these wizards and to hush their influence, but if it's easy to persecute human beings, the sound stays elusive. The hardcore fans of the band will rejoice to learn that the limited edition of the record goes with novelties, demos and live recordings. This is a bonus in this remastering and dusting off work of the original album. A cult record!
Anthony Augendre |
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Autour De Lucie
[Village Vert]
For their fourth album, Autour De Lucie play sobriety and choose an eponym title. Without really knowing why, songs like Femme à l'eau de vie and La grande évasion remind of images and souvenirs of these proximity short walks we do on Sunday afternoons, without hurrying, with calm and serenity, so sure that it's the present moment that counts. Become a master in writing texts that are both personal and so universal, Valérie Leulliot's words articulate, light and sometimes avenging (Dans quel pays), like paper puppets that she can fold with precision. With a sound that producer Stéphane "Alf" Briat (Air, Phoenix) wanted more live-oriented, Noyés dans la masse is a follow up to the unforgettable Je reviens from the previous album "Faux movement". Valérie dares to sing in English on Guiding Hands and tries the frivolousness of lyrics on the happy pop song Personne n'est comme toi. However, she doesn't forget that Autour De Lucie also knows how to write melancholic songs that we recognize from the first notes, like Avril en octobre or Sans moi. This album is like its appeasing sleeve, where that protecting sunray masks, with subtlety and a sense of decency, the face of the ones that dare to unveiled themselves. And a very cinematic track ends this album with malice, on which Valérie recite more than she sings; with humour and amusingly, she interprets "Les hommes peuvent être". We could hardly play with her, and suggest: "Les hommes peuvent être... sensibles, tout simplement".
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Pandora's Box
[Kalinkaland/Novamedia]
Chandeen was one of the leader of the exciting heavenly voices' wave to which the German label, Hyperium, greatly contributed in popularising during the begining of the 90s. Beside Love Is Colder Than Death, Stoa, Anchorage and Stella Marris, the quartet offered yet a poppier (although very ambient and romantic) alternative to the neo-classic and ethnic clichés which already stigmatized this dark-wave avatar. Not falling into the sub-Cocteau Twins' bliss pop, Chandeen successfully kept this subtle alternation between melancholic songs and long meditative tracks all along their five albums. Despite many singers' changes, the band signature quickly imposed itself and came up with some great albums like "Jutland", "Spacerider Love at First Sight" and the sublime "Shaded by the Leaves". Now, freshly disolved, the central core of Chandeen, Harald Löwy (machines) and Antje Schultz (vocal) offers a new compilation under the form of a will. Browsing at random but homogeneously through the best of their discography, sometimes in edit versions (which is a shame in the case of the beautiful Scottish Hills), the duo proposes moreover two very good noverties, Breathing Spirit and Tides of Life which will make us regret the split of a such pleasing band.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Have You Ever Touched a Dream?
[A Different Drum]
Careful! This record is a medicine and is to be considered as what it is: an antidepressant with a limited effect in time. This Day Behavior's second album is one of those records that wonderfully accompany the well anticipated come back of Spring, with its sober and chic electropop, the kind like Vince Clark would offer us if he decided to replace Andy Bell with a nice dark hair half Swedish-half Italian female singer. When listening to "Have You Ever Touched a Dream?", one might think of Dubstar or Olive (Happy Fairytale), even though the use of some dancefloors oriented sounds and clichés is as much irritating as an immediate jubilation. So, like Celluloide, Day Behavior did some covers on Depeche Mode and Camouflage tributes, and learnt to compose melodies as simple as magical (and for every audience), like the ones of Give Me, Close Your Eyes and Devil in Me, which will make you forget the abusive ingenuousness of their too much easy Mon:Ami as well as the roughness of Winter. Paulinda's breath warms up where Darkleti's (Celluloide) gets everything digitalized on her way, and even if their music shows some similar approaches, the real similarities are to be looked for on the accessory second remixes CD that goes with the album. Have you ever touched a dream? After listening to this record, your answer could be "yes".
Bertrand Hamonou |
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InHuman
[Matrix Cube]
Trisol
Let's say it right away: the new Die Form's album is a good surprise! While we thought Philippe Fichot had fully explored all the variations his style allowed (an ethereal female voice, a saturated male voice and machines), the guy found another way to renew himself without losing an ounce of his personality. Indeed, from the first track, InHuman stuns us with its more modern and richer sounds which are sometimes close to industrial techno. Besides, the voice of Eliane P. as magnificent as ever, also explores new territories. Closer to the spirituality of "Duality" than the agressivity of "Extremum", the vocal of Fichot's muse takes some new tones, sometimes reminding medieval music, but it doesn't fall into some old-fashioned "revivalism". So much so that tracks like Féérie, Ad Libitum or Fossilized Light could almost be taken for Qntal's! Let's also mention the great Amnestic Disorder, certainly one of the most accessible tracks ever composed by Die Form. Philippe Fichot's voice is more withdrawn and the compositions find so an amazing balance between virulence and caress. Of course, the couple's music and concept haven't radically changed, and the fans won't be disappointed, Nevertheless, let's hail this artist's exploit, who after 25 years of career still cleverly progresses and achieves here one of his best albums.
Christophe Lorentz |
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The Power Out
[Too Pure]
Here is the current English novelty! "The Power Out" is the second album of Electrelane, a girls' band coming from Brighton who already made "Rock It to the Moon" (2001), a first instrumental and rather experimental album which was left quite unnoticed back then. This time, the famous Steve Albini produced them and the tracks, which were a bit too long before, are here shortened and given a more "classic" rock songs' form. Nevertheless, the band still has inclinations for experimentations and "The Power Out" offers to the listener some originalities like the very synthetic Only One Thing Is Needed, a kind of crazy punk disco, or the ballad The Valleys where a poem of the Englishman Siegfried Sassoon is sung... in the way of religious choir! The rest of the album goes between punk, folk and cold-wave minimalism, as many influences taken, digested and cleverly re-used by the singer, Verity Susman and her girlfriends: for instance, we'll mention the very good Take the Bit Between Your Teeth, This Deed (with its German lyrics taken from a text of Nietzsche) or the instrumental Love Builds Up and its charmingly retro synths. So, this is a very agreeable album with some surprises, and this band is about to become a new neo-punk-arty reference. Did you say hype?
Renaud Martin |
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Flux
[Clapping Music/Chronowax]
Encre's music is like the cover of their new album. It's not easy to understand, you can't help trying to decipher it again and again, without really any success. Yann Tambour only uses a plain laptop to compose his well chiseled melodies and their amazing orchestrations. Piano, guitar, violin, drum and other classic instruments are cleverly mixed to dress up his complex melodies on which he then puts and imposes his expired, really hypnotic but too rare vocal. If the music of "Flux" is quite accessible, it's nevertheless difficult to classify, because the eight tracks have as much charm as enigma. A kind of distorted post-rock electronica, curious but enjoyable. Please, do try it, you won't regret it.
Christophe Labussière |
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Hidden Between Sleeves
[Conspiracy]
Immense chose their name well. As much by the broad palette of directions taken in this unclassifiable album, as by the feeling of having a little gem in your hands, they're big. If the term "UFO" is a bit too often used by critics, it should really be applied here. The paradox of Immense is that they deliver a coherent album all the while taking different directions all the time. Indeed, sometimes we can hear some ambient electro influences (especially on The Most Dangerous Part, which intro will reminds of Radiohead), some post-rock (see HMS Immense, very Godspeed-like in his crescendo construction with drums, guitar and xylophone), some pop-folk (with 22,000, one of the four tracks where Rocky Votolato puts his husky voice) and some classic (with the bewitching 3-Year Plan). Minimalist and grandiose at the same time with its debauchery of instruments, the rare tracks of saturation and ambient, "Hidden Between Sleeves" could easily unsettle you. At places where others trample, Immense gracefully destroys the barriers of style and take the listener with them in a fascinating maze. This new experience is simply unforgettable.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Haine
[Manic Depression]
More than five years after his first album, the very average "Coram", the French grandfather of batcave makes a thundering come-back with "Haine", an album more powerful than the previous one. Some electro loops, more present guitars and a sound generally more corrosive give to this record an odour of metal-indus which takes a grip of your ears and guts (Dérive). Not innovating but efficient, the new compositions of the Northerner imp seem to totally deviate from his past with Neva, even if a gothic shadow still hangs over an album always lead by his eternally underfed gibberishes. Furious, feverish, depressive, but never lachrymose, "Haine" enumerates almost clinically, the schizophrenic and delusional visions of its creator, offering us an abrasive 1945, a dying Cimetière, and a heartrending Nuage. With this rather successful record, we hope that Jacquy Bitch will benefit from the neo-batcave wave created a few years ago by Cinema Strange and Bloody Dead and Sexy, and that he will, at last, draw the attention of a younger public towards his more than worthy career, which seems to have a few year ahead of it yet. That's all we can hope for this veteran of the French underground, who always was against the current of fashions and styles.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Twilight
[Ad Noiseam/Soundworks]
When he doesn't spent his time making music under the name of Lapsed, Jason Stevens sells records. His musical knowledge seems to have greatly influenced this first album. Indeed, at the first audition of "Twilight", we think we're dealing here with an umpteenth click & cuts album with basic rhythmics and clichéd ambient tracks. Fortunately, this guy knows how to compose and he proves it in the second part of the album where the melodic discoveries follow one another (like this nice alternation of clear sounds and "muffled" textures), even if sometimes some tracks sound like unfinished experimentations that would had been found at random. So, with his professional experience, this young American flirts with all kind of styles: drill'n'bass, techno, ambient, rhythmic noise, electronica... but he never chooses one in particular. And it's not his intention either, because he already said that his second album would be completely different. "I never want to write the same thing twice" he says. Could we suggest he then chooses a shorter format and channels a bit this desire to control and do everything if he wants to fill his contract. He can do it.
Carole Jay |
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Rewound
[Shayo]
Present on the San Francisco independent scene for ten years or so, Neither Neither World mainly appeals to the fans of dark-folk. Adept of Anton LaVey, fascinated by serial killers (from Henry Lee Lucas to Charles Manson and the Marquis of Sade), the band likes to see their music classified under the "satanic-folk" label. This sulphurous universe is in contrast with the sweet voice of Wendy Van Dusen which reminds Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star). The Neither Neither World's dainty melodies (with a guitar and sometimes a bit of piano) also strongly remind of the acoustic ambiences of Current 93 or Death in June, and it's not accidental that the band released two albums with World Serpent before. "Rewound" is precisely a selection of tracks taken from the last records of the group which are now sold out ("Alive With the Taste of Hell" and "Suicide Notes"), and it also contains covers like Psychocandy of the Jesus & Mary chain, All I Ever Wanted of Bauhaus or No New Tale to Tell of Love & Rockets. If you like ethereal folk atmospheres, this re-issue is the chance for you to discover this band who doesn't innovate much, but nicely devotes itself to the best of this genre.
Laure Cornaire |
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Utopia
[Cynfeirdd]
It's been a long time since we last heard of Regard Extrême. Discovered ten years ago on the compilation of the label Alea Jacta Est, "L'appel de la muse vol. IV", the Fabien Nicault's project goes on willy-nilly playing a neo-classic music with some martial ambiences reminding of Les Joyaux de la Princesse (with who he made the magnificent Die Weisse Rose). His third album, released on the French label Cynfeirdd, doesn't deviate one iota from the liturgical style and the mortuary rhythmics which suit Regard Extrême so well. Entirely instrumental and dominated by keyboards, "Utopia" languorously elapses like a long odyssey towards the abyss of disenchantment and melancholy which are apparent each second of the album. The titles say it all: Lorsque fuient les rêves ("When Dreams Flee"), Eldorado, Blessures éternelles ("Eternal Wounds"), Par-delà les ruines ("Beyond the Ruins")... Yet, after half an hour of listening, this agreeable trip in misty landscapes starts to go in circles, and we must wait for the salutary trumpet of Gae Bòlg on the remix of Utopia to wake up a little. So, we won't dwell on the redundant aspect of a necessarily cyclical music, and we'll mention the quality of the compositions and the mastery of the ambiences, in which Regard Extrême excels more and more.
Stéphane Leguay |
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T/I/D
[Brume Records]
To put in music the three "acts" of a "cycle of life" according to Remain Silent (aka Yann Souetre), namely Tension, Introversion and Destruction is an ambitious project. These three long tracks (each are about twenty minutes long), which are subdivided but without any interruption, are an invitation to discover a singular universe. The latter will be pleasantly complex to the indus and ambient electro fans who'll choose to be more than simple witnesses in it. Indeed, it'll be hard not to be engrossed by this sounds palette, because each stage has varied ambiences. Tension is an engaging unfurling of swirling electro with fast beats, even if the seven parts of it have some welcome breathers. Far from being a continuous crescendo, which could have been easy to do, Remain Silent plays the card of the clever alternation. The most obvious example of this paradoxical coherence is Introversion which introduces dark-ambient tracks in this often tough indus-electro without too much pathos. Nevertheless, some parts remind of Gridlock and Raison d'Etre (the second one, and more particularly the fifth one which is a beautiful and heartrending apnea dive), while the fourth part, composed with Bernard Filipetti (from Prime Time Victim Show), has a more dancing and even dub rhythmics. Yet, the almost hardcore intro of Destruction, doesn't foreshadow the following, very close to "L'Eau Rouge" of the Young Gods, which little by little becomes an instrumental a la Skinny Puppy. We'll let you discover the end of this fascinating human odyssey by yourselves. This is the tour de force of this concept album: nothing is foreseeable, but the hidden elements are cunningly revealed and the whole is terribly accurate.
Catherine Fagnot |
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Compilation
[Dependent]
Fourth part of the series of compilations "Septic" released by the German label Dependent, this new album is quite satisfactory for two reasons. First because the "rear guard" of the label is well represented with the excellent Seabound who does a purged remix of Transformer, the very energetic Pride and Fall and their dancing remix of Omniscient, Interlace with a powerful version of their hit Under the Sky and the worthy offspring of Nine Inch Nails, the very gifted Dismantled with a rather dark but human demo of one of their last tracks. Then because the newcomers are well chosen: Mindless Faith imposes its very paced indus-electro with a vocal a la Bigod 20 / Icon of Coil, Fektion Fekler offers us an obsessing composition which reminds us of the simple melodies and the clear sounds of Tangerine Dream's synths, Standeg gives us much hope with its hype electro-techno track and its repetitive and relaxing chorus, and Babyland is even more surprising with a pop, light and dancing track. Only a few groups like This Morn Omina, Mind in a Box, Audio Agression and Hate Dept. spoil the whole because they're a bit dated and repeat themselves. But basically, this fifteen tracks compilation will satisfy the electro-indus and the future pop fans, in the manner of Retrosic and their perfect track which makes us forget:Wumpscut: and Suicide Commando. This record is even, in its whole, the best of the four. We can't wait for the following.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Le Sixième doigt
[M-Tronic]
Servovalve has always been apart on the French electro scene. Each live meetings with this prodigy and his amazing graphist and musician talents surprises us a bit more. He manages to show an always perfectly balanced combination of his musical creations and his aesthetic work on graphic waves, distorsions, effects and laying outs. The interaction of both worlds is always surprising. Very few artists manage to mix the sense of hearing and sight so brilliantly, except Rioji Ikeda. As much on stage than on his website, Servovalve always showed this strange setup of graphism and electronic, he even offered on his first album a software allowing the listener to "visualize" his compositions on a computer.
His new album, "Le Sixime doigt" has only one audio CD, but it goes with a software with which you can re-compose in a random way the track Irregularities. But even with its playful and experimental ways, one has to admit that without the visual side, the album is a rather boring electronica record. The last track, which is soberly "sung", is curiously and pleasantly apart from the rest, but it doesn't manage to make us forget the austerity of these too mechanical and sometimes rather classical compositions. So, if we have only one advice to give you it'll be: go and see him live on stage, this will be a really unforgettable experience.
Christophe Labussière |
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Norfolk Coast
[Roadrunner]
It's been six years since the Stranglers last released an album, and to be true, it's been much more time since we listened to them. We won't pretend that the absence of Hugh Cornwell (who disappeared fourteen years and five albums ago) is not felt, but we can find in "Norfolk Coast" so many typical elements of the band's best years that we're left bluffed by most of the tracks: you'll surprise yourselves humming on the begining of Norfolk Coast or you'll be sure to have heard Lost Control before... One has to admit that Jean-Jacques Burnel and his mates managed to reproduce this so particular sound which aged surprisingly well. Even if in years to come, we feel again the need to listen to an album of the Stranglers, we'll rather chose "La Folie", "FŽline", "Aural Sculpture" or "Dreamtime", but let's not spoil our current pleasure: listening to "Norfolk Coast" isn't shameful, quite the contrary.
Christophe Labussière |
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Compilation
[DTA Records]
Decidedly, the conceptual triple compilation has more and more success. This time, it's the American label DTA's turn, with the second part of the series Tonal Destruction. 41 artists (their own plus others borrowed to other labels like Hands, Ad Noiseam, M-Tronic and Frozen Empire Media...) are proposed to us in, let's say, four or five different styles. The first CD explores the rhythmic/power noise scene and starts with the hammerings of Pneumatic Detach, followed by C.H. District, Exclipsect, Proyecto Mirage, Cdatakill and Mlada Fronta. The second CD adjusts the aim with the electro/dark ambient bands (Chaos As Shelter, Nihil Est Excellence, Wilt, Magwheels...) with more or less success. As for the third, it mixes power electronics, electronica and diverse experimentations, and the result is a bit strange and chaotic, we go from Aural Blasphemy to Duuster, from NTT to Cordell Klier and Mago... Even if the quality of all these tracks is rather uneven, this is nevertheless a good way to discover a world which is still rather discreet. If you already had heard of some of these artists, but didn't dare buying anything, this compilation is for you, especially since its price is quite affordable ($15 on the DTA's website).
Carole Jay |
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Baxendall
[Unique Records]
Virga and Lunt, two loner musicians' projects, Lionel Maraval (Virga) and Gilles Deles (Lunt), afford a split CD in order to break the monotony and to cover the path in good company. Each of them intervene in the other's work via interposed remixes, and a true collaboration settles on the track Hix, where one's guitars (Lunt) and the other's beats (Virga) gives to this split production some work in common type of thing. On the path of that twosome travel, we'll meet references and winks to Micro:mega and to the Canadian Constellation label (Stretched Meridians). The successful Shining which opens and ends this record begins an invasive hypnosis: to the electronic loops and sophisticated ambiances that remind of those by the Humberstone brothers with their side-project Les Jumeaux, is added a forceful and martial glockenspiel. Then on Heliotrope, Virga creates the strain and the energy from his machines, like a mad scientist trying to create life in a test tube. Which scientist blows some mystery into Lunt's One Day with an end-of-the-world like remix. Sole sunray in this badly enlightened lab is Lunt's superb Geodesic, all made of guitars and shrewdness, and will calm the experimental storms created by his road fellow. This split CD sounds like the instrumental album of a unique artist as Virga and Lunt's productions are complementary, and we would advice them to do it again. After all, Virga&Lunt, it's a good name for a band.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Trinity
[Baal/Minuswelt]
Created in Munich in 1987 by Peter Devin and Dominik Van Reich, yelworC (the anagram of Crowley, first name Aleister, a magicain and philosopher associated with satanism) marked the dark-electro music with their only album in 1992: "Brainstorming". Very influenced by Klinik and Skinny Puppy, the duo even stirred the dancefloors with some hits which cleared the field for the :Wumpscut: wave. In 1994, Dominik Van Reich founded Amgod, and yelworC sank into silence. Today, as the only captain on the boat, Peter Devin resumes the project with this concept album based on Dante "Divine Comedy". At first, the record surprises with its very neat aspect, a beautiful digipack with a classy graphism and a rich booklet whose illustrations are worthy of an esoteric comic book. Unfortunately, it's not as good once you play the record and hear a terribly out-dated ignominious sound mush. You'll hear many samples of horror films, distorted voices which mumble inaudible texts, sharp industrial percussions, fragments of lyrical choruses and bit of remote melodies, the whole is quite "flabby", the sound is dull and the production is narrow. Despite the collaboration of Dennis Ostermann of In Strict Confidence (responsible of the mastering and a vocal on one of the track), no tracks stand out from this laborious magma where you'll have difficulty finding any musical trait, any catchy gimmick, any original sounds and any dancing rhythm. Somewhere, Peter Devin went through with his concept: to listen entirely to "Trinity" is quite hellish!
Christophe Lorentz |
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You certainly can't ignore Franz Ferdinand (Domino) and his very British pop because he's the hyper current "revelation". Half way between The Rapture (but funnier) and the Talking Heads, his eponymous album, which sounds very much like Dexy's Midnight Runners (especially on the single Take Me Out), has been haunting the radios and the charts for a few weeks now. If the swank of the band is a bit excessive, the first album of these Scots still deserves our attention.
We have to admit that if we got interested in Microsillon in the first place, it was because Mona Soyoc (Kas Product) and An Lysbeth Tollane (Juniper) were guest stars on one track each, and for the work of Mr Wrong and Le Poulpe. But in the end, even if these two tracks deserve that you buy the album, the whole thing, the well-named "Some Flavoured Pearls" (M10), is quite exciting; because between pop, easy listening, bossa and groove, the two DJs and musicians at the head of this clean project, offer us a varied and energetic record. We can only but urge you to get it.
We've all known a clean and disciplined high-school band, who gave at the end of the year, a square set in front of an already conquered audience. Pálinka, with its bass, guitar, drum and discreet synths offers us a very scholastic pop-rock sound, without a hitch nor any relief, which personality rests (too much) on the singer's voice, who is unfortunately very influenced by Nicolas Sirkis (especially on Paradoxe). It's a shame and P‡linka should get rid of it if they want to pursue the adventure beyond these four tracks.
We're in a completely different class with the album of Object, "Voices". The delicate and diligent pop-rock compositions are impregnated by sounds which constantly remind of the begining of The Cure (like the guitar on Heure d'ŽtŽ or the bass on Loin du monde) and hit the bull's-eye at the first listening. The vocal, which alternates between French and English, brings something to the whole and gives all the interest to this curio which is a bit overwhelmed by the insistent and necessarily wilful tribute to Smith and Gallup.
Christophe Labussière
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After they celebrated their ten years anniversary last year, Ultra Milkmaids come back with a new album entitled "Pop Pressing" (Ant-Zen). In exactly 38 minutes and 48 seconds, the duo proposes us none less than fourteen tracks which follow, sometimes at random, one another, going from a familiar experimental electronica to a more than "classic" post-rock style. The two brothers seemed to come back to their origins, as shown on the CD's photos where a poor laptop is drown among several electro-acoustic instruments (guitar, drum). We're very close to DŽsormais and Fennesz's as well as Sonic Youth's experimentations, and surprisingly, the result is quite attractive.
Rasal.A´Sad is Fernando Cerqueira's side project, the guy is an activist of the Iberian electronic scene, a member of the project Ras.Al.Ghul and the head of the Portuguese label Thisco. After a four tracks released in 2002, "Asuan" is the first album released under this name. But from the new-age ambient start (which evokes the best moments of Tangerine Dream!) to the ultimate note of this record, we're surprised to realise that a so dated music can still be created nowadays with so much conviction! Some nice voices surround us in a moment of perfect quietude, but for the rest... Make your old hippie parents to listen to this record, they should love it. A totally anachronistic record.
Finally, let's grant some deserved lines to the Japanese label Progressive Form, who after the compilation "Forma 1.02", proposes us its little sister, "Forma. 2.03" released at the end of 2003. This is the occasion to (re)discover many fascinating artists, some German (like Static, who have already released two albums on City Centre Offices), some American (such as the young duo 30506, who was already present on the first compilation), some Russian (the newcomer, Serguei Iwanikov) or obviously, some Japanese (the excellent Katsutoshi Yoshihara). Between microfunk and IDM, this compilation is a good example of artistic rigour and a nice sample on what this inevitable label can offer.
Carole Jay
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Disturbing and raw. With the farce aspect of the Eglise du Mouvement PŽristaltique InversŽ lacking, some lyrics and a vocal a la Programme, an indus rhythm box (like on Panneaux de laque, a track reminding of the begining of the EinstŸrzende Neubauten), a roving cello and weird samples: this is what Arnaud of Mille Feuille. proposes us on a promising experimental indus four tracks that we would like to hear on a longer support...
On the other hand, "I Matter" (Dora Dorovitch) of Thomas Mery, ex-Purr, leaves us nonplus. Of tough access at first blush, these three collage tracks made of glitchs, acoustic guitar and piano may annoy or interest you. But if the listener is ready to cross the a priori binary and destructured experimental electro, he'll discover in this maze some amazing intimist track, with a worrisome and deep sensibility.
On "ƒtat des lieux" (Ad Noiseam) of Crno Klank, C-Drik's solo project, that we already knew for his remarkable work with Ambre, Ammo or Dead Hollywood Stars and his collaborations with Mark Spybey, there's no room for finesse. Indeed, this boisterous album is of the most brutal tribal of indus electro. Except for some ambient moments reminding of "Heaven Deconstruction" of the Young Gods (on ƒtat des stocks or Ontdekkingsreis), the 45 minutes immerses the listener in a restless universe where the percussions collide with often agressive frequencies. The density is present and the level is maintain almost all along, but it gives to this extreme machinery a detrimental linearity.
Catherine Fagnot
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