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Loops from the Bergerie
[!K7]
It's always been difficult, and sometimes impossible to resist to Swayzak's charm. Their precisely dosed mix of electronica, dance and pop always caught our attention as James Taylor and David "Brun" Brown always invited prestigious guests who give relief and a good quality to their compositions, allowing them to link electronic and pop music. So, once again, we find Clair Dietrich, but also Richard Davis (whose first single was released on Swayzak's label, 24 Volt), Mathilde Mallen (who already took part in the labels Tigersushi's and Q-Tape's productions), and above all, there is Brun who's in charge of the vocal on two tracks, Snowblind and Keep It Coming. So, with "Loops from the Bergerie", Swayzak makes a following to "Dirty Dancing", even if it doesn't have the same collection of potential hits, there's more effort put in the vocals of this new album. You'll discover all its richness listening after listening. The two guys always seems to enjoy themselves as they subtly play with samples and always exemplary references (don't you think there's something you already heard somewhere else in Keep It Coming or Speakeasy?).
Christophe Labussière |
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The Slow Wonder
[Matador/Beggars Banquet]
A.C. Newman, more known as Carl Newman, usually works in the Canadian band The New Pornographers. For his first solo album, he decided to compose a very 60s marked pop and he completely assumes it! We can feel here the crushing influences of this genre's big names, such as the Beach Boys and the Beatles, the Kinks and the Zombies. Although they're a bit out-of-date, the melodies of "The Slow Wonder" are composed with finesse and are finally more convincing than the albums he made with his band. As many songwriters in the pop history, A.C. Newman creates his songs with much melodic skills and grace, and it works. Short (only half an hour long), but efficient, "The Slow Wonder" proves that it's possible to do something new with old materials. When you know that the recording of this album was subsidized by a Canadian allowance, you can only but think that this wasn't a waste of the tax payers' money!
Laure Cornaire |
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In a Safe Place
[City Slang/Labels]
Here is a genre, the one labelled "post-rock", which, unfortunately didn't escape to the over-crowding effect, and that is now, like many others, drown in countless clone records of bands as less inspired one than the other. So, it's always with pleasure and relief that we welcome artists, who manage to bring something new to this genre. As you must have guessed, one of these artists is the band The Album Leaf, the project of Jimmy LaValle (Black Heart Procession, Locust, Tristeza) who is now releasing its third album. Recorded in Iceland, "In a Safe Place" is basically an ambient album, but with explorations in pop and with parts sung by Lavalle himself, who's also accompanied by friends like Pall Jenkins of The Black Heart Procession (on On Your Way and the great Eastern Glow) or Jon Thor Birgisson of Sigur Rós and his ghostly vocal (on the very weird Over the Pond). On the guests' list, you can also find Maria Huld Markan (Amina) and Gyda Valtysdottir (Cellist, ex-Múm). The instrumental part of the album is just as good as you'll hear on tracks like Thule, TwentyTwoFourteen or The Outer Banks, brightened by light beats. In the end, this is a very good album, full of warmth, of tenderness and serenity which we highly recommend you to listen.
Renaud Martin |
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One Plus One Is One
[XL Recordings]
On the cover of this fourth album, Damon Gough, always wearing his woolly bonnet, is rooted in the middle of a room full of old fashioned wooden toys; he looks in the bottom of a box which probably hides some mysterious treasures with curiosity. And so does the listener of "One Plus One Is One" who enters here an extravagant universe. This record shaped as an Ali Baba's cavern, swarms with ideas and all kind of instruments: a very present piano, guitars (acoustic and electric), violin, and even a banjo, a melotron, a clarinet, bells, timpani, and children's choirs on one of the track... The melodies are somewhere between pop and folk, always sustained by an inspired songwriting and the délicatesse of an artisan's work. Could it be the return to Manchester, after a visit to California, that give this breath of fresh air to Badly Drawn Boy? Anyhow, his music sounds renewed, more refined than on his previous opus "Have You Fed the Fish". We noticed that this album is dedicated to the late Elliott Smith, a reference that springs to mind while listening to Badly Drawn Boy, although no comparisons can be enough to define his so peculiar work.
Laure Cornaire |
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Lava
[Danse Macabre/XIII Bis]
There was a time when Das Ich was a mysterious and disturbing band, synonym of novelty and creativity. The first two albums of this German duo, "Die Propheten" and "Staub", showed pompous madness and an abysmal darkness which marked the renewal of the dark music by merging with the symphonic indus, the dancing electro and the theatrical batcave. But, let's be honest here, after fifteen years of existence, a fistful of studio albums, a CD of remixes, two soundtracks records, a live album, two compilations, a solo project and (too?) many concerts, Das Ich doesn't make us shudder anymore. Nevertheless, we're always happy to hear again from Stefan Ackermann and Bruno Kramm, even if there hasn't been any surprise for a while. So, "Lava" won't revolutionize the duo's formula, even if it still proceeds in the return to the origin started with "Antichrist" in 2002. More symphonic than the previous album, but less dancing than the famous "Egodram" (an important record), "Lava" doesn't have the instantaneous classics such as the unforgettable Kain und Abel, Gottes Tod, Von der Armut or Destillat. This seventh opus sometimes tries to insert some new electronic sounds, but it's finally very close to what Das Ich got us used to: some rhythmics sometimes heavy and sometimes catchy, a declamatory vocal, obsessing choruses, some powerful symphonic moments and some gloomy ambiences. And with this eternal energy and this pleasant impression we're visiting old friends...
Christophe Lorentz |
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6 Feet Underground
[Drakkar/BMG]
One year after "Devolution", a bland record, the German Depeche Mode probably wants us to forgive them as they deliver here an almost 100% electronic opus, like a real come back to their origin. So, it's with great pleasure that we listen to the efficient techno-pop melodies again, with the very mature I'm Not Enough (which, nevertheless, reminds us a lot of the last of Camouflage) or the definitive hit I'm Not Dreaming of You. There are also (too?) many ballads, although beautiful and sensitive, they're not very dancing like on Unputdownable, Turn Me on, the grave 6 Feet Underground and the very beautiful Klangmonaut. One of the good surprise comes from the touching, melancholic and powerful Aimee. The real novelty probably dwells in the more subtle than in the past mixing of the voice which is quite behind the rhythmics. We also appreciate the almost instrumental dancing techno of Right on Time and the machine-like sounding Beside You. In short, "6 Feet Underground" is a varied album, worthy of the band's first opuses. So, this is a good record for all the fans of De/Vision and, more generally, for all those who are still moved by the sentimental techno-pop.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Break Me
[XIII Bis Records]
Les Tétines Noires benefited for a long time of their status of marginal and unclassifiable band which started with their first stutterings, and we often confused this specificity with avant-garde. But, to tell the truth, except for an undeniable originality, the rest of the adventure, might it be the Tétines Noires' or Lt-No's, never maintained the band at level with their reputation which now appears usurped. Dead Sexy Inc., the new project of Emmanuel Hubaut and Stéphane Hervé (the singer of Prime Time Victim Show and former editor of the magazine Rage), offers a kind of bustle, that even if it's still unclassifiable, is also undeniably out-of-date. The album offers a totally out of phase brouhaha that juggles with hackneyed references, between electro-rock and glam-indus. The cover of The Cure's Let's Go to Bed doesn't even manage to give the whole some relief. So, without much creativity and, above all, in a real chaos, "Break Me" is quite hard to stomach.
Christophe Labussière |
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Wet From Birth
[Saddle Creek]
We can easily promise you that "Wet from Birth" will be a success, as it seems to have been created to make you addicted to it as soon as its first notes are played. The band uses again the recipe that made the success of its previous album, "Danse Macabre", but this time, it doesn't let the listener take his breath one moment. The tracks follow one another, each one managing to outdo the previous one with an amazing fluidity, like if the band had recorded the whole album in one go. Indeed, it's surprising to realise how things overlay one another so smoothly, with Symptom Finger as the climax, this track being assured a heavy programmation on MTV and its likes. We're not bored one minute, as much with the flight of violins "à la My Life Story" on Southern Belles in London Sing or with the punk accents of Drop Kick the Punks with which the American try to remember that the band's roots are rawer than the whole sound of the album which is quite smooth. Somewhere between prefabricated youth music, new britpop, a Green Day that would have discovered electronic and Interpol free from any constraint, The Faint made a good album, that, even if it favours the form and the efficiency, has nothing to blame itself for.
Christophe Labussière |
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Antics
[Labels]
At the first audition of the sirupy and 60s sounding slow (that REM wouldn't disavow themselves) that starts "Antics", we might wonder what is awaiting us on the rest of Interpol's second album. But after this rather winded begining, there's a series of spectacular tracks that unrelentlessly follow one another: Evil, Narc, and the great Take You on a Cruise haunted by this now symptomatic drums that we too quickly accused to plagiarize Joy Division's. Then, with Slow Hands (Used to be "Rod Laver"), the album restarts with another series of tracks which don't reach the same intensity as the previous ones, but which are still quite efficient. Supported by this more than nasal, but also more lyrical than ever voice "Antics" ratifies once for all the Interpol's sound, which is now quite far from all the references that would have been disabling if they had been kept on this second album. Maybe it's time to admit that the name-dropping everybody accused the band of, was in fact only the reflect of the references that each of us thought he would find and not the sacrilege plundering we suspected them of.
Christophe Labussière |
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Walking Cloud and Red Deep Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined
[Rykodisc/Naïve]
Mono is a bit "The" Japanese band of this summer, here in europe. You probably noticed that it's difficult not to read about the different praises of the sounds' feats of these four young Japanese, who, we have to admit it, further than the fact they're cute, can also seduce us music-wise: with a dark and imposing post-rock, which alternates suspended moments of peace and calm and formidable thunderstorms with deluges of heavy guitars and wild drums. But, if like us, you heard it before, you might suspect the band to loosely copy and paste ideas taken from post-rock classics such as Mogwai or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, they even give their album a long title as if to copy Constellation. If the presence of Steve Albini (who also did "Yanqui U.X.O.", GY!BE's last album) on production might give a bit of credit to these Japanese's work, we'll still call a spade a spade: this is a (nice) uninteresting plagiarism.
Renaud Martin |
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Blue Album
[Orbital Music Ltd.]
Almost three years after their rather disappointed previous album, "The Altogether", the Hartnoll brothers make a grand come-back with the perfect opus, the ideal symbiosis of all their influences, a miraculous summary of all their fifteen years experience that always allowed the band to keep their atypical character, to the point that they're probably now the only real accessible "techno" band who's referenced by the indus-electro websites. So, the "Blue Album" is dark and aerial, dancing and meditative at the same time, it's sometimes grandiloquent, always majestic like an imaginary movie soundtrack, with the welcomed collaborations of the Sparks (Acid Pants) and the heavenly Lisa Gerrard (One Perfect Sunrise, the double single of the album). So, we go from sad and slow tracks (Transient with violin samples which remind of the work of Michael Nyman, and Lost that could compete with master Vangelis' work) to more dancing and hypnotic compositions with progressive rhythmics and new sounds which have become their trademarks (Pants, Tunnel Vision, You Lot with striking samples of voices), and also some very Kraftwerk sounding tracks (like Bath Time, with its cheap synth sounds and its pseudo naive atmospheres), and we don't even talk of the very ambient Easy Serv. This "Blue Album" is the band's best and more representative album. It's a shame that it appears like a testament in Orbital's career, as the brothers said before the release this album that "the end is near" and that this would be their last record. Obviously, if this is true, it would be a real loss for the electronic music universe.
Stéphane Colombet |
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The Third Eye Foundation / Rob Swift
[Ici d'ailleurs/0101 Music]
The OuLiPo, OUvroir de LIttérature POtentielle, is a literary current created in the 60s by the surrealists Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, and whose aim is to look for a new form of writing by imposing different rules and constraints. This movement was declined and adaptated to other arts' forms like the OuMuPo (OUvroir de Musiques POtentielles) concerning music and the OuBaPo (OUvroir de BAndes dessinées POtentielles) for the comics. The French label Ici d'ailleurs and its electronic division 0101 Music decided to reunite these two currents for a collection of compilations and here are the two first albums. The rules impose by the label are the following: an artist must create a series of remixes of the label's bands' tracks with some different constraints, while an oubapian makes a comic strip of 16 pages which must be in harmony with the musical part of the project.
So, on the first volume, we find the Englishman Matt Elliott who, under the name of Third Eye Foundation, creates a splendid series of remixes haunted by ghostly voices, strange melodies and subtle and lacy rhythmics. This is a real delight which makes us eager to hear the next album. The comic strip is made by Jochen Gerner ("Tnt en Amérique", "Le Saint Patron").
The second volume is more hip-hop orientated and so, relatively less interesting to us, it is made by the American Rob Swift (scratcher and member of the X-Ecutioners), as for the comic strip, it's done by Etienne Lecroart ("Cercle vicieux", "Le Cycle").
The next volumes of this project will be made by the Frenchmen Mr Neveux, Rubin Steiner and Readymade, or the Japanese DJ Hide and DJ Krush. So, let's greet this original initiative of the label Ici d'ailleurs who proposes us an interesting experience (even if the link between the CD and the inside booklet isn't always obvious), and we'll appreciate the superb first volume made in Third Eye Foundation.
Renaud Martin |
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This Is For Real
[Mute/Labels]
Contrarily to what their music might implied, the six smart kids of Pink Grease aren't American, they come from the sullen city of Sheffield, in England. What could be more normal, and even salutary, to escape from this dullness than to create a rock band who'd be excessive, full of energy and eccentricity?
Because if Pink Grease named themselves after a vintage doo wop (!) record, they borrow mainly their inspiration from the punk and disco musics, taking there their anarchic energy and the glamour finery. Like the inimitable Cramps, or the closer Electric Six, Pink Grease tries to cross styles. The result is an hot alchemy which we might fear it would burst in our hands if we shake it too much... That's what probably seduced Daniel Miller, founder of Mute, who not only signed the band for his label, but also appears as a guest on synth on one track of the album (Serial Heartbreaker). Even if sometimes the gimmicks coming from the gleaming 70s glamrock period might irk (especially the over-acute voices), we have to admit the energy coming from the dozen tracks is kind of ecstatic. So, why look further?
Laure Cornaire |
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Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned
[Capitol]
We must admit that it's rather difficult to listen to Prodigy's new record with no preconceptions. Endlessly delayed, we didn't expect it anymore, and to be true, we didn't care what these brats were able of. The madness that came along the release of "Music for the Jilted Generation" is now a remote memory, and the big mechanism of "The Fat of the Land" did everything to disgust us of any of their next productions. And these prejudices won't disappeared with the first audition of the album, because their "peculiarities" which can be counted on the fingers of one hand (they're the very foundations of the Prodigy's sound) are faithfully present, no surprise here. But, quite unexpectedly, we're left breathless by the power of the sound and the construction of these totally addictive twelve tracks. The vocal performance of Juliette Lewis is really impressive on Hot Ride, Noel's and Liam Gallagher's on Shoot Down is faithful to their reputation, and The Way It Is built on Thriller of Michael Jackson is rather well done. Always as inventive, but not really original anymore, Prodigy succeed in the paradox that will allow them to easily fill the dancefloors all the while filling their purses.
Christophe Labussière |
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Waves Are Universal
[4AD]
Rachel Goswell, the pretty red-haired one-time Slowdive's female singer, at last decided to see by herself for one record. For her first solo effort, she affirms that waves are universal. Those waves also manage to turn the strongest rocks into fine grains of sand, and it's by following the same process that the unwavering resonant rock that Slowdive was finally turned into an intimate record made of Irish folk ballads (Warm Summer Sun), and whispered moments (Beautiful Feeling). Loyal to Mojave 3's label, her current band she leads with her long time band mate Neil Hasltead, "Waves Are Universal" comes out on 4AD. And it's not by accident that we'll compare these compositions to the very classy productions of the unfairly forgotten Heidi Berry (Deelay, Plucked). Coming from a label famous for having revealed female voices that still thrill us today, the production had to remind us of the one on This Mortal Coil's "Blood" (Thru the Dawn). With no whirling effects that once used to stifle the young lady's voice, the songs on this record are with no artifice at all: one accordion, a pipe-bag, some slide guitars, violins and a cello bring some colour and some warmth to this almost too much intimate and voyeur record (Sleepless & Tooting, Gather Me Up) where it's all about hope, blame and freedom.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Stealing of a Nation
[City Slang/Labels]
Some time ago, an Anglo-Saxon jounalist named the New york new scene as "pogo-disco", and a Frenchman talked of synth-less techno. How adequate these terms are for Radio 4's new album! We could also talk of "pogo-techno", because this album reset in motion the dancing machine which was already present on their previous records. Now, the influence of PIL and Gang Of Four are over, Radio 4 seems to be freed of these chains, and they emphasized on the groove which clears your head and electrifies your body. Talking about it, doesn't it remind you of someone else? Come on, make an effort, you know the band who went out of its way to look for problems, and who then subtly changed its style and began to enjoy sweating on dancefloors? Go on then, let's dare the comparison: it's New Order we're talking about. Anyway, if you think of Absolute Affirmation, (Give Me All of Your) Money, you also think of the Happy Mondays (No Reaction, Shake the Foundation), and even of the Charlatans (Dismiss the Sound), so it seems obvious that Radio 4 inspired themselves with 80s' England (and Manchester) these last months. So, here's an exciting album, because the band keeps its own style and doesn't copy its mentors, and secondly, it definitively put Radio 4 among the sure values of its times. It's also an exhausting record, despite one or two quieter tracks, (Fra Type I & II, in the same line as Radiohead, Nation), the rhythmics is quick. That could be ideal to beat the autumn and winter seasons, don't you think?
Frédéric Thébault |
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Sopor Aeternus
& the Ensemble of Shadows | |
La Chambre d’écho - Where the Dead Birds Sing
[Apocalyptic Vision]
The first thing that will retain your attention on Sopor Aeternus' new album, which is only available in a limited 2000 copies edition, is the object itself. It's an imposing black fabric box containing a big and magnificent book whic shows full page colour pictures (taken by the genius Joachim Luetke) of the "creature" Anna-Varney staged in very tormented postures (always inspired by buto) amidst the icy decor of the Museum of Pathology and Anatomy of Vienna. This heavy box also contains a booklet of the lyrics translated in German, a leaflet presenting the Museum, postcards with photos from the book and ten numbered bookmarks. Nevertheless, this magnificent presentation must not make you forget the CD that you'll find at the end of the book. Obviously, the fans of Sopor Aeternus won't be traumatized: they'll find Varney's wailful vocal, his morbid ambiences and his desperate lyrics. The music is always medieval and neo-classic sounding with some batcave in it, but there's also a more marked synthetic side than on the previous albums. "La Chambre d'écho" evokes the first works of Sopor Aeternus, which were compiled last year in "Es Reiten die Toten so Schnell". The rhythms are brighter than on "Dead Lover's Saraband", and the music creates a very peculiar fusion between the classical instruments (flute, bassoon, cello, clarinet...) and the electronic programmations with as a result a sound which is rich and minimalist at the same time. A track as engaging as We Have a Dog to Exercise could even allow Sopor Aeternus back on the dancefloors. So, this is once again a sonorous and visual success for this uncommon creator whose mystery and fascination power won't disappear just yet.
Christophe Lorentz |
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Any Minute Now
[PIAS]
The Dewaele brothers have been real stars for a few years, not as leaders of Soulwax, but under the pseudonyme of 2 Many DJs: by inventing what we now called "bastard pop" (which is made by mixing together diverse artists such as Velvet Underground, Adult., New Order, Destiny's Child or Royksopp), the Flemish men made the entire world dance with their energic DJ sets and sold some 300,000 copies of their album "As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt.2". But, as lucrative as this activity may be, it's only a distraction to them, they had to come back to more serious stuff, and that was to make a following to Soulwax's previous album, the excellent "Much Against Everyone's Advice" (1998). Well, now that's what they did with "Any Minute Now", this new opus conciliates the clever Soulwax rock to 2 Many DJs' dancefloor frenzy. Produced by the famous Flood (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Nine Inch Nails) and mixed by the also well known Alan Moulder (Depeche Mode, My Bloody Valentine), this new record is powerful and efficient, a bit like the video clip of the single Any Minute Now where you can see the band playing loud in a business district which then starts a brawl. The perfectly produced tracks follow one another with no lulls, from the imparable E Talking to the final The Truth Is So Boring, going through the electroclash-like of NY Excuse (written with James Murphy of DFA and sung by Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem). This is heavy sound like Primal Scream or Garbage, an union between rock and dance which these Belgian did very well.
Renaud Martin |
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Supergrass Is 10 - The Best Of 94-04
[EMI]
Supergrass was born while the noisy and grunge waves were losing motion. The weary public wanted other sensations. In 1994, when Caught by the Fuzz, a very Sex Pistols like track hit the charts, the public had then something to quench its desire for freshness: very energic and very melodic tracks, with choirs, guitars' soli, a good feeling of "seventies' rock", a touch of punk, some ultra-sirupy synths, the whole delivered by a young trio of ugly faces (the singer, Gaz, was 18). Ten years on and Supergrass, with only four official albums under their belt, offers us a best of. So, what could we say about it? We could say that Supergrass was (is) a good band, obviously, and they're much better than, let's say, Oasis, who came up at about the same time but was too calculated, too image conscient. Supergrass never took themselves too seriously, and humour was always present in their music. Humour, and a nice mess too.
Nevertheless, the release of this album has a very limited interest for those of you who were already conquered, but it is the ideal record for a party, or in your car on your way to work. It may also be use to educate your little brother or nephew, who are keen on easy accessible music, and it's still rebel enough to cock a snook at Linkin Park without appearing to be an idiot, moreover, it's well tolerated by even old fashioned parents, who we'll only see there an ersatz of the Stones. So, it's dispensable, but not useless.
Frédéric Thébault |
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Bone
[Sanctuary]
We hadn't had any news from Tim Booth, James' singer with a unique voice, since 2001. Back then, he'd just left his band after their rather uncomforting "Pleased to Meet You" album and its associated tour, when he had decided to become an actor after having taught how to dance for a while. And it's almost by accident that we're delighted to discover "Bone", his new solo effort which looks like a holiday trip post-card. He made it with his new band, composed of friends he met during his new life. Those who like James' records from "Laid" to "Millionaires" will definitely like this record, full of mastered and sweetened vocals. With the likes of Angelo Badalamenti and Bernard Butler, Tim was already responsible for "Booth and the Bad Angel", released in 1996, from which he covers Fall in Love in an acoustic version. Let's face it: "Bone" is a modern pop record on which Tim sometimes thinks he is Bono (Love Hard), pretending he's a superstar with his grotesque moustache. But it's also a varied album, relevant and daring, where an harmonica competes with a deafening noise (Bone), on which Booth the thug borrows some world and jungle percussions. Moreover, it is an album on which Tim's voices gathers and easily makes the difference (Falling Down and Monkey God). Every time you listen to it, you discover some precious details here and there, even though In The Darkness and Eh Mamma don't bring anything in but silly rock'n'roll clichés. Were you still looking for a non-boring record for this Indian Summer?
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding
[Planet Mu]
Aaron Funk, the new confirmed star of the label Planet Mu, has at least one merit: he always manages to release some very good records among the enormous quantity he proposes each year. "Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding" is one of them, even if the real fans of the experimental Venetian Snares might abjure what they would too easily consider as a schematico-warpian ersatz... Much more moderate than his last productions, this record of electronica, even if it's a bit schizophrenic, also surfs on the wave of "Winter in the Belly of a Snake", released two years ago, with more subtlety and complexity, but without abjuring its breakcore bases (except for the track Aaron, a narcissistic sweetness to which the Canadian musician didn't get us used to). The melodies are excellent (Vida, Cadmium Lung Jacket, Keek...), the rhythm is hellish, yet very delicately expressed, well then what? We reproach to the genre's big names, they're not up to their reputation, so we won't reproach Venetian Snares to do "accessible" Venetian Snares' music. Aaron Funk understood well that his success dwelt in this alternation of esoteric, hardly audible releases and more melodic and calm tracks. With this eleventh album, he proves that his talent is intact.
Carole Jay |
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Specialised in muscled goth-rock tinged with electro, the English label Nightbreed proposes us now a nice young combo called Pro-Jekt, who sounds a bit like a technoid Sisters of Mercy, with slightly metal guitars and some effects borrowed to synth-pop. Their first album, "Encryption" (Nightbreed Recordings), is crammed with terribly efficient tracks on which Carl McCoy sings on the compositions of a Apoptygma Berzerk who would have added heavy guitars. Since we're talking of Fields of the Nephilim, let's not go past the very good album of Lacrimas Profundere, "Ave End" (Napalm Records), which offers us an excellent gothic metal, melancholic, classy and energic, like a mix of Anathema, Nefilim and Paradise Lost. Brilliant compositions, subtle production, catchy melodies, dark ambiences and deep bass vocal... Nice work.
In the same register, but a bit less seducing despite some good elements, like their singer, the album "Lovelorn" (Napalm Records) of Leave's Eyes (the solo project of Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull, ex-singer of Theatre of Tragedy) unveils a classic goth metal with an ethereal female voice and a throaty male vocal. Heavy rhythms, tight guitars, pleasant melodies, neat arrangements: everything is set, but there are no surprises. Shame...
As for the French, Dexy Corp_ proposes an industrial metal tinged with electro on a 4 tracks EP entitled "Jigger" (autoprod). If their music still hesitates between surly gothic glamour a la Marilyn Manson, and more personal things (like the excellent Evil Inside and its female vocal or the powerful instrumental Embryo), the quintet has a real talent for writing and they composed here some tracks we won't get tired of too soon. To follow closely...
Always in France, with the new production of HIV+ from Marseille, "Interferencias" (3Patttes). This interesting limited edition three inches CD, which is in a very special packaging (a Pétri box), unveils two original tracks, one track done in collaboration with Epidemia, and a remix of Planetaldol. In whole, that's two insidious indus ambient tracks with, in between, two plain noise rhythmics tracks. The fans will appreciate...
Finally, let's mention the nice Americans of The Cruxshadows who offer us a CD with novelties and remixes, which follows their very good "Ethernaut" (2003). "Fortress in Flames" (Dancing Ferret Discs) has two new powerful hits, as well as twelve remixes by Clan of Xymox, Razed in Black, Neuroactive, Trevor Brown and In Strict Confidence. Very close to the gothic future pop that this band generally plays, the result always sounds like a mix of Apoptygma Berzerk and Clan of Xymox (with the violin of Breath of Life) and it's quite pleasant.
Christophe Lorentz
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"Specially for You" (ELP Records) is the first album of the French band The Dude, who seems to have everything to compete with the best Anglo-Saxon rock bands. Somewhere between pop and garage-rock revival, the album multiplies the references to their influences (we think of Blur, or Divine Comedy in their begining), but it never falls in plagiarism and it's got the kind of raw energy we would like to see on stage. A very good surprise from ELP records.
Another release from across the Atlantic, the EP "Let the Light in" (Conspiracy Records) of the Boston quartet 27: there's an agreable sound between sexy rock and delicate pop, enlightened by the beautiful voice of Maria Christopher, which works very well all along the seven tracks of this luminous EP. Of course, even if it's not revolutionary, this record is really pleasant to the ears.
Let's end with "Whiskey Tango Ghosts" (Beggars Banquet), the last album of Tanya Donelly (ex-Belly, who also appeared in the Throwing Muses, This Mortal Coil and the Breeders). On the program, there are twelve plain, intimist would-be pop songs, which, unfortunately sound like some bland and honeyed "easy listening". Here's an album to avoid (nevertheless, let's mention the participation on two tracks of the ex-Throwing Muses Dave Narcizo on drums).
Renaud Martin
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Klip!Klap!Force! is the first compilation of the label Wwilko, who already offered us Groupgris and Kap Bambino, two projects that are obviously present here (and that have a common point: Orion Bouvier, the founder of Wwilko). Beside Beffroi and Khima France, two other members of the Bordeaux based label, we pleasantly notice names we already heard before, such as the energic Chilean Original Hamster (Tigerbeat6), the ineffable Puyo Puyo and the placid Vs_Price. In short, this mad compilation qualified of "lofi-robo-tronic" will delight the fans of electronic extravagances.
Propergol Y Colargol has nothing to do with the power electronics band, Propergol, or any daft bear, it's a duo from Brest, whose confessed affinities go towards the German krautrock and the audio experimentations of Sonic Boom. Indeed, from their album "Charly Roger. Songs for Fuzzycandy" (Autres Directions In Music), you can hear an atmospheric music, where drones and high-feeling synthetic tracks mixed, and where some welcomed electronica touches are added, without whom this record would take another tone, let's say... anachronistic.
We don't know anything of Scrabble Dog, except that it's not a dead dog whose unworthy owner isn't even able to write the name properly (it's written "Scrablle" on the cover...). So, here's a diehard autoproduction (available through the label 213 Records), which tells us the story of a poor labrador through some developped bitpop, we can classify somewhere between Printed Circuit's or Lektrogirl's electronic contortions and the cheaper productions of Micromusic and 8bitpeoples. A rather short record (just over 20 minutes long), but so kawai.
Carole Jay
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