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The Greater Wrong of the Right
[SPV]
What a slap in the face! When the godfathers of a decadent scene decide to re-start the Skinny Puppy machine, the whole scene starts to shake. Eight years after the last album of the band, "The Process", cEvin Key and Nivek Ogre decided to put back on tracks an engine we thought might be rusty. From the start, Skinny Puppy's music was characterized by an awfully innovating approach, at the avant-garde of the electronic scene back then, linking so easily technical mastery and rough emotion, and it kept this singularity until the end in 1996. Since "The Process" and the death of Dwayne R. Goettel, the two accomplices made their own way, perpetuating Skinny Puppy's spirit and ambiences, each one offering exciting productions with the elements of their past.
From the first notes of "The Greater Wrong of the Right", the rightful worry we had is confirmed. The very peculiar rhythmics and Ogre's voice are undeniably closer to what the latter did on his two last albums than what we were used to with Skinny Puppy... But from EmpTe until the end of the album, everything fit together very nicely: "The Greater Wrong of the Right" really is the result of the collaboration of two geniuses. The machine isn't jammed. If you're not used to Skinny Puppy's work, you'll maybe baffled, or even disappointed, but if you know them well, you'll realise the amount of hard work they put in; the production, the arrangements, the result is really enormous and dazzlingly rich. The point is not to know if this album is "better" than "Last Rights" or "The Process", but as the release of the latter was a real shock, "The Greater Wront of the Right" is astonishing. Ogre, Key and all the little geniuses they work with, managed to keep Skinny Puppy's sound and to develop it successfully. Like Front 242, Skinny Puppy are all times prodigies, they put aside with the back of their hand the jeremiads of several generations of followers which endless stutters were annoying us.
Christophe Labussière |
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Le Temps suspendu...
[Ant-Zen]
It was with the compilation "QFG" made by the label Parametric that we discovered, a few months ago, the formation Ab Ovo. Yet, the duo already had produced three albums and took part in other compilations, but it's only with their recent signing with the German label Ant-Zen that recognition came, and "Le Temps suspendu..." will help them to get it easily. Indeed, we're left speechless by this ability to create light and complex ambiences. When most bands only find the right combination of keys to play electronica, Ab Ovo shows they've got a real talent for it. Behind an apparent calm and a constant gentleness, the ambiences developed are rich in textures and matters. "Le Temps suspendu..." (The Suspended Time...) has got the right title, everything stops during these two CDs, the first one which make the album and the second one which offers remixes by Von Magnet, Mimetic and Haiku.
Christophe Labussière |
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Compilation
[3Patttes]
Forget everything you know or everything you've learnt about the so-called "conventional" music, as the 28 tracks of this double CD compilation will make you discover another world. A world where three-legged insects swarm, scratch, crawl and move ahead slowly, in a turmoil conversely proportional to their tiny size. From experimental ambient to concrete music, there's no long path, and taking those winding and rocky paths that link both worlds, the courageous protagonists are named Finalcut, Cortex, Planetaldol, Circonferent6.x, and TrombOne. Cutman's slow procession will lead toward BeNe GeSSeRiT's Perverted Desire warm oasis, set at halfway. one thing is for sure, the music created in this world isn't made of white nor black notes, but rather of non distinct shades, which suggest aborted melodies to the listener that can build them himself. So, the colonization is worldwide, with participating artists from France, England, Italy and Brazil. With this self production, the 3patttes label (3patttes.free.fr) offers you a two hour long shiver, like this deliciously worrying Zheras Legos by TZII or La Ligne de fuite du temps by Bleetch. A record that will run your blood cold, what can be a good preventive remedy to the heat wave way too much announced and feared by the Authorities.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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X-Posed
[Decadance Records]
Not anybody can compete with Daniel Myer. Obviously, the Greek trio, Audioplug, tried to prove us, with this first album, that Haujobb is a formula anyone can copy. Well, "X-Posed" shows that mixing electro-EBM and techno demands a lot of skill, and when you don't master this technic, you can produce something really annoying for the ears. The trance-goa sounds that Audioplug uses are so little subtle, and the way they sing (in a very German and deep way, like TOY...) add to the heaviness of the whole. So, the result is a future pop, as less pop (with three notes melodies) as futurist (the sounds are really worn out). In the end, "X-Posed" is quickly forgotten, with the exception of some rare and good sequences (especially on Disoriented and Acidify Me). The whole could have been better and more original. But, let's be indulgent for this first try, and let's wait for a possible following.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Compilation
[Planet Mu]
A good compilation must be unpredictable, especially if it's released by the label Planet-Mu... The title isn't original. Mike Paradinas restricts himself to his editorial line and just like "The Cosmic Forces of Mu", this second collection has got a title refering to James Churchward's work. Musically speaking, "Children of Mu" reflects more than ever the diversity of genres Mike Paradinas gave to his label throughout the years, and it alternates Dante like anthems and hilarious strangenesses. So, this double compilation is unpredictable, and many of the artists on it are worth listening to, especially Jega, who offers us a novelty that announces a new opus, Datach'i always as intense and striking, Subjex, Lexaunculpt, Electronic Music Composer (alias Eight Frozen Modules), Nautilis, Local, Dykehouse & the Frost Jockey or the unavoidable Venetian Snares which new album should be very good. Let's also mention the presence of the latest signatures of the label, such as OOO, Julian Fane, Frog Pocket, The Gasman, Chevron and the noticed absence of Mike Paradinas himself... Beware of the addiction.
Carole Jay |
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Vortex
[Noiseplus Music]
Six months after the release of their new album, Collide offer us a double cd containing not less than twenty six tracks. Filled with a handful of exclusive tracks and a burst of remixes, this collection spreads out the band's two latest albums, "Chasing the Ghost" and "Some Kind of Strange". The good students in remixing are named Charlie Clouser, Rhys Fulber or Mark Walk: what a casting! We also surprisingly find Collide's reinterpretation of Front Line Assembly's Predator, which already appeared on the latter's "Re-Wind" album. Besides, Rhys Fulber did a nice reworking of Tempted. This version could have figured on Conjure One's first self-titled album, and one can bet that Karin will lend her voice to the Canadian's forthcoming second LP. Dave Simpson's version of Crushed may be listened to like one can get lost within an American McGee's Alice level, with the head full of these sounds belonging to gloomy video games world. Far from being monotonous as it's often the case with remixes compilations, Collide show us a little cha-cha step (The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum), try classical arrangements (Somewhere) and don't forget to remix themselves on the very cold Frozen. The verdict is undeniable: it's remixed that Collide's music is the richest and the most diversified. And if anything was to be added to that, learn that Statik, the conductor and sound sculptor of the duo contributed to write five tracks on Skinny Puppy's brand new album, "The Greater Wrong of the Right". A true lesson for all of those that never managed to make a remixed album so complete.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Particles & Waves
[Dadaphonic/M10]
After a live album and a remixed EP both released in France one year ago, we couldn't wait to get news from Cranes, hoping that their old stock would be empty, finally. This new album, "Particles & Waves", proves that the Shaw family at last got back to work together. And by measuring the serenity coming out from this record, it certainly is in a very calm atmosphere that the ten tracks here have been composed. In order to break the routine installed with the softness of both Vanishing Point and K56, Jim decided to take his sister's microphone during , which reminds that he already did so on their 1997 "Population Four". Those who never recover from the fabulous "Forever" and "Loved" won't find the peculiar sound of these two albums which brought success to the band in 1993-94. Nevertheless, long time fans will rush onto Here Comes the Snow and Light Song for their deranged side, dissonant and cacophonic, the only legacy from a past called "Self-Non-Self". And if we had to pick up some precious gems among these tracks as soft as a spring that dares not establish, Particles & Waves, sung in a 'made in Great Britain' French, and the wonderful Astronauts tracks would fit in a vintage case. For this seventh studio album which is a logical follow-up to their previous "Future Songs" album, surely is their best recording since "Loved".
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever
[Emperor Norton/Naive]
Since 2001, the name of Felix Da Housecat was linked to the one of Miss Kittin, it's yet without her that the DJ from Chicago went back in studio to record this new album. And the absence of the miss passes unnoticed because the female vocals (often in French) seem the copycat of the voice of the girl from Grenoble. But, in the end, the only thing left from "Kittenz and Thee Glitz" are these "a bit too systematic" voices, as the rest of the album is quite disorganized. We don't hear much of this try supposed to be "more rock and more new-wave", except for the endless guitars' samples and the few cliched synths. If the album mentioned above is now an unavoidable reference and will probably stay among the best representative of the eighties' revival that the electro of the begining of this millennium has integrated, this time, it doesn't work because the whole hasn't got any coherence. Here and there, some tracks hold our attention back (Everyone Is Someone in L.A. or Let Your Mind Be Your Bed) but we'll probably forget the anecdotic "Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever" as soon as it'll be heard.
Christophe Labussière |
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People
[Autoproduction]
Furnace St., a band coming from the American Middlewest was founded by two school friends (Adam Boose and Lisa Jorgensen) at the end of the 90s. After reading their biography and after listening to their previous album "Headmusic", we could quickly classify Furnace St. in the shelf of the unpretending, auto-produced and homemade synthpop. Their last production, "People", offers a series of remixes made by some unknown combos (ThouShaltNot, Filament 38, Missile Command, The Faint of Heart), and one has to admit that it's not easy to find the personality of the band behind this heteroclite assembly of remixers. Between the very German dark electro of Filament 38 (who is yet an American band!), the Depeche Mode-like tone adopted by The Scinema, or the very ambient tracks of Twine, we sail on a whole of electronic styles of average quality. This record probably isn't the best way to make one's opinion on a band, but it lets glimpse a bland insight, which won't give you the urge to find out more about it.
Laure Cornaire |
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Black Sheep
[Infrastition]
Fourteen years. That's exactly the time a member of Asylum Party needed to deliver a personal follow up to the second and last underrated album of the band, "Mre", released back then on Lively Art, the label and shelter for Touching Pop. When listening to the first track of "Black Sheep", we wonder whether there's a mistake somewhere as we fail to recognize the voice. Fortunately, Flying comes when needed to take off the masks and give back to Cesar what belongs to Philippe: his particular voice. The shock is imminent, this is what Asylum Party would be like today, with a bass line like the ones Thierry Sobezyk could play. Philippe Planchon did decide to give it all up, and we surprisingly find out that he made this album thanks to equipment some friends lent him, and that he did lose his guitar, replaced by some melancholic keyboards. Again, we find that immoderate taste in simple and redoubtable choruses (No Sin for Lovers, Take the Best of Me). Hearbeat and Overhead are not extraordinary, but they flank the excellent Eleven Past Eleven. Mery Xmas Mr Wolf manages to re-create the magic that was in touching pop, and at that point in the record, there's still a huge surprise to discover: the last track, People (Let Your Heart Be Happy, Yes). With a hammer drill-like rhythmic, keyboards chords in profusion and another evident chorus filled with simplicity, it can only foretell the best for the next Irrelevant's relevant adventures. Welcome back, Philippe!
Bertrand Hamonou |
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You're Welcome
[Autoproduction]
The problem with French bands is that most of them are very gifted, brilliant, inventive... but they're French. This means that from the begining, they know that they must have more luck, or more courage, or more will power, or more talent than their Anglo-Saxon colleagues. Everyone knows that, in France, to do some rock music sung in English is a gamble. So, there are only two solutions: to cope on your own, hoping you'll find a craftier micro-label, or to apply to Popstars, or to any real TV show. So, when we find a real gem like the mini album of MarvinMarvin, we really want them to succeed. First because the package cover, CD, website, humour, professionalism and "indie" spirit is flawless (let's mention than before finding a label, all the tracks quoted in this article can be downloaded on their website). Then, of course, because their music is full of feeling, of rage and emotion. In short, we love it. MarvinMarvin reminds us of loads of stuff it would be difficult to cite because the band has its own originality: perfect pop melodies, nervous guitars and true melancholy touches. We could say that they play some emo-pop-core, we could liken them to some famous elders (Pixies, Nirvana, Wedding Present), but we like them for what they are: MarvinMarvin, an "electric indie orchestra" (as they define themselves), French, with a funny name, gifted, unpretentious and very promising, especially if they manage to cross over the barriers of the French music system.
Frédéric Thébault |
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Lost Alone
[Dependent]
We found out this band some time ago through Beyond the World, a track present on the compilation "Septic 4" of Dependent, a delirious form of futuristic pop-rock music, 100% electronic and a real novelty for the ears. So, we impatiently waited for this first album, which is well beyond what we expected, all the while leaving us a bit dubious: is this music easy to do? Because the common point of the twelve tracks of "Lost Alone", is that they offer us something underground and commercial at the same time. But the answer to this question is probably negative. Like Dismantled, Mind.in.a.Box, who we know very little of, surprises us with their very clever and personal composition of their complex and structured melodies, and even more on the vocals, as the band uses a lot of vocoders in a new and fascinating way (the female voices sound like out of this world). Let's mention the tracks Change and Walking, some future-pop titles enriched with dehumanized choruses, which offer with their rhythmics alternation, new auditive sensations. There's also You Will See, an ultra-futurist and dark version of Mesh. In the end, Lost Alone appears to be an album which will be long to tame and will offer new pleasures to each new audition. Another good signature for the label Dependent.
Stéphane Colombet |
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I Com
[Labels/EMI]
Muse of the electroclash scene, Miss Kittin never really proved it though. Except for her noticed vocal participations to the productions of Felix Da Housecat, The Hacker, Golden Boy or Detroit Grand Pubahs, and a series of compilations, but until now, the young French woman never really showed what she was capable of. At last with "I.Com", the time has come to assess her. The result consists of some ditties tinged with electro, which only just manage to instal a homogeneous atmosphere, and are quite remote from the often exemplary ambiences that were put in place with her former partners. If it is the same voice we appreciated so much, it's because it was accompanying more efficient productions which were more advisedly constructed than it is here. We can find on the album a cover of Indochine's Troisième sexe, a bad taste choice with no interest whatsoever, except for the lyrics that seem to have a totally different meaning in the mouth of this re-looked Miss, who's got unkempt hair and less weight. A good DJ doesn't make a good musician. And even if a part of "I.Com" will delight her fans, the others will be left incredulous. There was a moment when we expected something better from Miss Kittin, but we just overestimated her.
Christophe Labussière |
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You Are the Quarry
[Attack Records]
We're in a period with a lot of come-backs, after Skinny Puppy and The Pixies, it's Morrissey's turn. And as it was presaged by his recent live performances and his new single, the dazzling Irish Blood, Engish Heart (that NME already qualified of "Best single for a decade"), the man, exiled in Los Angeles, forsaken by his record company and weakened by an expensive court trial with the former drummer of The Smiths, seems to be fit. His new album, produced by Jerry Finn (reknown for his efficient work with the punkstars of Blink-182, AFI or Green Day), makes you forget the well-named "Malajusted" released in 1997, and it's almost as good as "Vauxhaull and I" or "Viva Hate", the greatest moments of his solo career. Here, the vocal is remarkable, it hasn't aged at all and we really enjoyed listening to tracks like America Is Not the World, I Have Forgiven Jesus, All the Lazy Dykes or You Know I Couldn't Last. The whole album seems carried by this voice, as much in the richness of these typically Morrissey sounding melodies, or in the nicely cynical lyrics. The scandalmongers could talk of bitterness and paranoia, but nevermind, we also like Morrissey for that. Each track has got some of these great sentences (with a special mention for the settling of accounts on The World Is Full of Crashing Bores and You Know I Couldn't Last, or Let Me Kiss You where Morrissey begs "Close your eyes, and think of someone you physically admire and let me kiss you"). As you must have understood by now, this album is delighting from start to finish, and as Morrissey is quoted as a reference by a lot of artists (from Outkast to Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines), we can only but rejoice for the come back of one of the major artist of last century.
Renaud Martin |
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Uh Huh Her
[Island]
We were quite impatient to listen to PJ Harvey's seventh album. Especially since his previous record, "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea", ripen at length and highly awarded (at the Mercury Prize 2001), has pushed further the excellency in the artist's discography. With "Uh Huh Her", we go back to the time of his first album, "Dry". His voice, accompanied by a sober instrumentation, is more present than ever. The drums are played by his long time collaborator: Robert Ellis, who also mixed the album. And Mick Harvey (member of the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave's band) also offers his multi-instrumentist talent to the album. The songs are rough and close to the blues spirit with their simplicity which touches the soul; the lyrics talk about freedom, revolt, sad love stories, ridiculed promises and lies. PJ Harvey hasn't got the peace of mind, but God knows we like him that way.
Laure Cornaire |
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Sonic Nurse
[Geffen]
A new album of Sonic Youth, it's a bit like waiting for Santa Claus, it's highly expected because there are always good surprises in it. The band has been offering us great presents for twenty years now, and we were never disappointed. Even if the last productions were less hardy, the band experimented with jazz and other kind of padded and sweltering ambiences. And we reproached it to them as we remembered the grand period, when the eighties became the nineties, and the guitars were noises machines and that screamings and dissonances were the rule. In 2004, Sonic Youth isn't a young group anymore, but they haven't changed their name. Nowadays, they're parents, spouses, they've got children, and so they can't see life with as much violence and darkness than before. So, what do you do when you've got children? You sing, because if children can love electric guitars, their ears don't have any silly prejudices, they don't really like non-melodic songs. So Sonic Youth made "Sonic Nurse", an appeased album: ten melodic tracks, with less rage and violence, you can (almost) hum. Obviously, Sonic Youth will always be Sonic Youth and their music will always be marginal: it always conveys some kind of pain. Even if they're more mature, their age doesn't change anything. An album parents should listen to, early in the morning, before taking their children to the creche.
Frédéric Thébault |
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Delt Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen
[Telescopic]
In the category "music coming from the cold" and beside Björk, Stina Nordenstam, Múm and Sigur Rós, we now have to put Under Byen, a remarkable Danish band whose second album, released two years ago in Denmark, has just been re-released by the French label Telescopic (Eleni Mandell, Prudence, Hector Zazou) on the occasion of the band's live performances at the festival "Les Femmes s'en mêlent #7". Entirely sung in Danish (a really beautiful language), the nine tracks of this album are somewhere between pop, post-rock and classical music, and it's really surprising. From the irresistible opening track (which gives its name to the album) to Om Vinteren, the twelve minutes long splendid finale, machines and instruments (piano, bass, double-bass, oboe, strings and all kind of brass) cohabit harmoniously together, and the vocals are the charge of Henriette Sennenvald with her fragile and sensual voice which is often (and easily) likened to Björk's and Stina Nordenstam's. A really superb album which makes of Under Byen one of the nicest surprises of this Spring.
Renaud Martin |
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Russian Doll
[Bella Union/V2]
If everybody agree to congratulate the ex-Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde's work in their label Bella Union (with signatures such as Kid Loco, Lift to Experience, Dirty Three, Explosions In the Sky or more recently Midlake), Robin Guthrie's solo record (the instrumental album "Imperial" in 2003) and his duo with the singer Siobhan de Mare, Violet Indiana were less enthusiastically welcomed. That's the kind of feeling we also got here with Violet Indiana's second album. Not helped by a little engaging sleeve-cover, "Russian Doll" takes things back were they were left out in "Roulette": we can find the same ethereal and melancholic pop, which is quite well done, but inevitably crammed with references to Cocteau Twins' sound, as much in Guthrie's guitars as in Siobhan de Mare's voice intonations (it's blatant on the very beautiful Beyond the Furr). It's also a shame that the lyrics are so dumb and that some moments are so grandiloquent (the choir on The Visit or the winded vocal on Touch Me). So indeed, there's the indisputable know-how of Robin Guthrie, but we're left dubious with this album, which is a bit naive and still too dependent to its famous resemblances.
Renaud Martin |
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As Giants Watch Over Us
[Ad Noiseam]
James Keeler likes giving a theme to his records and this time again, we can't say he's very optimistic. "As Giants Watch Over Us" is a feverish album, the musical picture of the current collective concerns and torments (social, ecological and even economical). Confined to dark and sometimes noisy ambiences (such as the penultimate track, Wires for Nerves), most of the tracks were recorded live and they can be read like chapters of an apocalypse. But the most notable event of this new album is undoubtlessly the inclusion of new sounds, of purely electronic segments, which were absent until now in Wilt's universe (it's blatant on the last tracks, especially on Engineering Eternity and Reversing Magnetism). This novelty probably comes from the collaboration with Miles Tilmann who, after Larvae or Horchata, goes on collaborating with artists from the label Ad Noiseam. Thanks to this unexpected collaboration, James Keeler increases the idea of actuality evoked before, while "Radio 1940", his latest album, focused on the past. Always as prolific, Wilt is already announcing the next release of several new records, let's hope he'll keep the same collaborators.
Carole Jay |
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Last year, "War of Sound" and its detuned readings of Tolkien's "Silmarillion" allowed Mathis Mootz to reveal his "satanic dark ambient" side, that's what he was ironically saying then, anyway. But there's a change with "Aswad" (Ant-Zen). Squaremeter (m²) is always dark ("Aswad" means black in Arabic), but much less ambient, or to be precise, not only ambient anymore. By progressively replacing the microsounds by Northern African sounds (this is a redundant element in this album, which reaches its climax with the very good Khalast), Mathis Mootz also integrates more and more exciting rhythmics to his compositions. Even if Squaremeter hasn't catched up with Panacea yet, it is getting closer.
As for Horchata, he shows us his vaporous and rather eerie universe throughout his sober and pleasant compositions, just like the Spanish drink which got the same name. While listening to "Basidia", we hear mysterious organic sounds coming from the Amazonian forest interacting with each others right in the middle of illbient melodies. This is an efficient cocktail, even if we heard it before on his previous album, "Integral". Even if this is the first record of Michael Palace on the label Ad Noiseam, he can pride himself with a nice little discography and a few years of experience behind him, and different collaborations with artists likeTwine and Miles Tilmann. A good point for him.
Entitled "Memory Loss" (8bitpeoples) the new Psilodump EP is a real pleasure, because after his breakbeat / house antics on the labels Sound of Habib and Q-Records, we were afraid that the Swedish man might forget the 8bit sound of his begining. But contrarily to what the title of this EP implies, Psilodump hasn't lost his memory, and his goal still is to make us move on his playful and melodic tracks (like on the excellent Låtsades Krama). Let's mention that the four tracks of this EP can be freely downloaded on the website 8bitpeoples.com, and that they're also available on a miniCD format on the same site.
Carole Jay
The fans of the Cologne school and its minimalist melancholic electronic sounds, will be interested to listen to the last productions of the label Kompakt. Starting with "Diamond Daze" of Pantha du Prince, the project of the German Hendrik Weber, also known as Glühen 4 or Panthel, and also the bassist of the band Stella. This is a pleasant and classy record, on which dull and dancing beats, evanescent tracks and bitter sound textures commingle. Not as convincing, the EP of Pass Into Silence, entitled "Calm Like a Millpond", is as bland as the soundtrack of a relaxation session...
Finally, in a more rock style and distributed by Kompakt, the vinyl EP of "Devotion/Fluent and Pure/Over the Edge" of The Uncut is a welcome union of electro and rock. Coming from Toronto, Canada, this duo zigzags between a dark and sober techno and Joy Division-like guitars. And precisely as we ask for more, an album is expected soon...
Laure Cornaire
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