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Outside, Closer
[Domino]
Welcome to England's wide countryside. "Outside Closer", Hood's sixth album surely is their more varied to date. A few weeks ago, the band offered "The Lost You" EP, with its wonderful falsely in bits song, and a perfect four minute digest of what makes this Leeds based formation's originality: energy, melancholy, non conformism and veiled melodies. This time, the Adams brothers Richard and Chris give up the musical haze they're the only ones to know the formula of, in order to deliver musical notes more distinct than ever. "Cold House" (released in 2001) was focused on the electronic side of their music, while "Outside, Closer" only keeps what's essential in it to support their legendary English post-rock. We rediscover this very detached singing with an adolescent-like voice which reminds us of Ian Masters' during the Pale Saints' glorious era. Rather than following a musical genre, Hood invented a whole universe of its own made of odd pictures and movies to the glory of the perpetual movement. Their music never stagnates, but improves on precision and grandeur at each album. The strings are both sad and beautiful, as well as the trumpets are warm like flames in a fireplace (L.Fading Hills, Closure)."Outside Closer" is an incredibly deep album we're not ready to get fed up with, as details reveal after each listening. We strongly advice this record to anyone who's not familiar with Hood's universe; the others surely already know it by heart.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Devils
[Virgin/EMI]
We always had a certain fondness for The 69 Eyes. So pretentious, so gothic (and proudly claiming it, which is unique), so cliché, this group was immediately likeable. Especially since they wrote irresistible tracks, and showed the same basic references than most of the movement's founding artists (The Sisters of Mercy in lead): glam-rock (New York Dolls), American punk (Iggy Pop) and hard rock (Motörhead). Real stars in their native country (with gold records and huge public success), these dark Finns are now releasing their fourth album on the major Virgin. Therefore, the sound is a bit cleaner, the synths are put forward, the melodies are a bit more bombastic and the female choirs are more present. We sometimes shudder when the group of the charismatic (but very funny) Jyrki approaches sounds closer to its unbearable compatriot, HIM. But globally, The 69 Eyes is still the same band: excessively goth and nicely rock'n'roll, with a demoniac crooner vocal (like if Iggy Pop was singing from a crypt), with thick ambiances and visuals that even the most flared up German dark-wave combos wouldn't have used. Besides, the quintets reveals this time, sounds and rhythms more varied than in the past, mixing its "goth'n'roll" with voodoo pulses and satanical gospel. In short, to listen to "Devils" of The 69 Eyes nowadays is equivalent to the guilty pleasure of stuffing one's face with Nutella: it's not good for your waist line, it makes your mates laugh, but it's so good!
Christophe Lorentz |
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All of White Horizons
[Alfa-Matrix]
A mythical Clan Of Xymox song as a band name was a good reason for retaining our interest.
Agonised By Love, the band from Poland brought to us by Alfa-Matrix, doesn't manage to charm us as much as we expected, though. Despite its very well executed sleeve which will seduce the amateurs of dark and cold artwork, "All Of White Horizons" will only please the fans of a fast warmed-up cold wave, which could be flirting with well-known European productions such as Diary Of Dreams, Diorama, Covenant, and so many others. Too many already heard sounds and sometimes of bad taste (like these synthetic horns on Little Ghost) will deprive the tracks of the depth they could deserve (Soul's Humility). In the end, we feel bored on this conventional record that borrowed a lot more from less undeniable bands than from Ronny Moorings' original line-up. This is the proof that when we're faced to bands badly inspired by their glorious elders, we'd better prefer the original. However, the electro-pop of Cover My World succeeds where the album title track All Of White Horizons lamentably fails as it sounds like a bad OMD track. Let's bet that History's made its choice, and will remember that Agonised By Love is and will always be that legendary track on the mythical "Medusa" album by an innovating Clan Of Xymox back in 1986. Please note that the album is also released as a limited edition with a bonus CD filled with remixes.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Silent Alarm
[V2]
As strange as it may seem, we're eagerly waiting for the next Bloc Party's move, although the band has only released three singles (Banquet, Little Thoughts and Helicopter), and an eponymous EP. That's because their fistful of highly energetic tracks and live performances have raised our expectations of this British band high, and we hope they'll be more than the monthly sensation of English tabloids.
On this first album, we find the three titles we already knew: Banquet, Helicopter and She's Hearing Voices. Now we have to calm your enthusiasm down, these three tracks are the strong points of the album, a bit like in comedies, when you've seen the best gags in the preview. But, let's not be killjoys either, these Britons, the protégés of Franz Ferdinand, prove with "Silent Alarm" that the buzz that surrounded them very early has still a real potential. We're especially keen on Kele Okereke's voice, the black equivalent of a young Robert Smith. With the energy and the rhythmics coming from punk music, and new-wave sounding guitars, we're always in the 80s' recycling era, but, even if they don't revolutionize rock music, this quartet still is among the good scholars beside Killers, Interpol and Franz Ferdinand.
Laure Cornaire |
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The Cursed Species
[Ad Noiseam]
Rhythm and beats again and again. This is how to clearly sum up Cdatakill's second album entitled "The Cursed Species". The beat box is the brain of that record from which the original cursed species of the booklet surely never existed ever. They would have found it rather difficult to follow the beat of these fifty three minutes of electronic music made of wild uncontrolled-like loops (Graceless). Zak Roberts says he's composed more elaborated and more complex tracks than the ones that figured on the previous "Paradise", released early 2003. There's no pure ambient track, though some moments send you a few millions years back in time, in the darkness of a world hostile for the human race (How To Kill People And Get Away With It). The title of the first track (Exorcise The Demons) clearly sets the scene: Zak Roberts gives life to his demons and make them "sing" on A Death Worth Re-living, with croaks and gloomy roans. Totally instrumental, "The Cursed Species" visits the world of video games (Swarm Of Vicious Angels) as well as dark drum'n'bass with its synthetic bass lines fitted on bouncy coils (Hymn of the Siamese). Be careful, though, with the lassitude this entanglement of loops might quickly cause to the non initiated.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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| Death In June & Boyd Rice | |
Alarm Agents
[NER/Tesco]
In 2001, despite some good tracks, the previous opus of Douglas Pearce "All Pigs Must Die" had already shown some signs of repeats and left us expecting more. This "Alarm Agents", recorded in collaboration with Boyd Rice confirms the fears we had: Death In June goes in circles... We would have liked to be surprised by a singular artistical opposite view like on the twin albums "Take Care & Control" (1998) and "Operation Hummingbird" (2000).
Unfortunately, if the richness of the arrangements orchestrated then by Albin Julius (Der Blutharsch/The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud) had transfigured the work of Douglas on these two records, here, the spoken words of Rice don't manage to bring the new breath we were expecting on this new album. Some nice dusk ballads (sometimes close to the period "But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?"), some industrial-ambient rumbles and many anecdotical inter-titles, this is the structure emerging from this record, which creative appeal is unfortunately very limited. Would the elaborated in the mid-80s from the albums "Nada!" and "The World That Summer", the "apocalyptical folk" recipe of Death In June have reached the limit that numerous dark-folk sub-groups had already reached? The answer is left pending because the album is still very pleasant to listen to and well above the pack of followers. But the redundancy of the compositions and the general lethargic ambiance, only rhythmed by Boyd Rice's monotonous voice (we miss the deep vocal of Douglas Pearce), could discourage the most demanding fans.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
[Kemado/Discograph]
Initially released in 2003, the first album of this young American group totally passed unnoticed (at least for us). So, this re-release, one and a half year after the initial release, is the opportunity for us to listen to it closely. Especially since this record has all the characteristics that should enable it to be part of the hype! To begin with, the band comes from New York, a geographical criteria which appears to be most useful to claim the title of revelation. Then and above all, they handle a well rounded bass, a neat rhythmics and offer a precious voice, full of emotion. The romantic ambiances coming from "Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid" remind us of the best of the 80s and 90s, with strong reminiscences of The Sound, as much in the ambiance than in the arrangements and the charismatic voice of Diego Garcia, which reminds of the late Adrian Borland's (The Sound's singer). The result is simply unbelievable, because the mix of these sounds, which are dear to us with a modern restrained treatment, is a success.
Christophe Labussière |
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Nightbird
[Mute/Labels]
Perfection may not be part of this world, but the new album of the British duo is, in the synthpop register, an almost perfect album, a major work, the best album of Erasure since the beginning of the 90s, at the time of the magnificent "I Say I Say I Say". Why? Because lately, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have moved away from what they do best, that is to say the emotional, catchy and dancing electronic music, to work on either more acoustic sounds (on the album "Loveboat"), or to work on melodies little adapted to their music, through doubtful iffy covers (on their latest album "Other People Songs"). Fortunately, "Nightbird" appears from the start to be a come back to their sentimental techno-pop origines. While listening to the first track, No Doubt, we already know we're dealing here with a great album; the androgyne voice of Andy Bell never was so deep and the great melodies of Vince Clarke are magnificent, and obsessing as you wish. Then, comes a real marvel, doubtlessly the best track ever created in this musical genre, Here I Go Impossible Again with its extremely pure sounds, a mix of Abba and a modern Giorgio Moroder. And we're not even talking of the first single Breathe, a magnificent mid-tempo with imparable harmonies, Don't Say You Love Me, a faultless digest of the group's know-how, and I Bet You're Mad At Me, a grandiose and progressive illustration of Andy Bell's vocal range. And even without evoking the very dancing and possible future singles Sweet Surrender and All This Time Still Falling Out of Love, particularly unforgettable. It's probably and already one of the best album of electronic pop of 2005. Rejoice slaves: your masters are back.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Resurrection - The Return of a King
[Cold Meat Industry]
In Slaughter Natives is, like other projects such as Ain Soph, Allerseelen or Deutsch Nepal, the emblem of these post-industrial wave, which was hastily called dark-ambient or dark-apocalyptic. Yet, regarding the terrifying acoustic fabric that envelops the ISN universe, it seems difficult to do without these eternal clichés. Exhumed from the slimy cocoon in which Jouni Havukainen let it rot since the mythical "Purgate My Stain" in 1996, this new alien entitled "Resurrection" resumes the slow descent to Hell started at the end of the 80s: a music for human sacrifices, rhythmed by powerful ritual percussions and underground, suffocating and obsessing sounds. Always very at ease in the art of sharpening the gruesome deviances of the better among us, In Slaughter Natives easily achieves the mission imposed by the genre: some good samples, a distorted voice, Gregorian chants, an angelus here, some baby babbles there, a military march, in short, everything that is needed to make a record in the line of Cold Meat Industry. Despite the cliché aspect of such enumerating, we notice that everything works well here. We might have thought the machine had jammed after all this time, or that it was surpassed by some of its disciples, but that's not the case! In Slaughter Natives is always exhaling its well-known cadaverous odours, all the while drawing with its crooked fingers, forms and colours that not even Munch or Schiele had thought of... Here's a requiem in ten sticky and sleazy moves, which will perfectly accompany this icy winter. We like it!
Stéphane Leguay |
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Absurdity
[Prikosnovénie]
Going back to Jack Or Jive is a bit like going back into a cocoon. A cocoon with soft walls, stretched of melancholy and sadness, we find difficult to leave. Languorous and deleterious, the ambiances created by the Japanese duo go throughout the years, each time a bit more weighed down by the tragedies that darken our world. Here's a saturation in front of the horror of the latest events (war in Iraq on the track Full Moon Death of a Journalist dedicated to Shinsuke Hashida, killed on May 27, 2004 in Bagdad's outskirts), which finds here a sinister echo with the title of the album: absurdity. The sobbing piano and the whispering synths can then play their traditional dramatical refrains, speared by the harrowing vocal of Chako, whose voice almost sings flat as usual, and presses a bit more on the frailty of her lamentations. So, there's nothing new under the (rising) sun of Jack Or Jive. Only this so peculiar formula, which still hits the bull's eye and makes us cry, track after track. Hardly have we emerged from the water with the light and kind Telepathy that, already All the Vanities makes us dive again into the icy water of this so eloquent "Absurdity". Between melancholy and depression, the duo finishes off this sad human painting with the touching Prayed Again, behind which we see an imperceptible flicker of hope. This impression is confirmed by these lines taken from the inside booklet: "(..) we won't give up, even though sadness continues". The way Jack Or Jive has to express its despair doesn't exclude fight, with its conscience as a shield and its art as a flag.
Stéphane Leguay |
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Our Shadows Will Remain
[Vector Recordings]
Two years after his dark "Redemption Son", Joseph Arthur comes back with "Our Shadows Will Remain", lighter, less long and above all, much more varied than the previous album released in 2002 on Real World, from which the American has departed since then. The violins of the Prague philharmonic orchestra on three tracks count for something in this unusual lightness. Unusual also, the track I Am, loaded with energy for a song about self-consciousness and self-emancipation. Joseph does odd jobs with cheap keyboards (Wasted) as well as with his multifunctional guitar, with which he's able to create on stage and alone tracks of an amazing complexity, helped with a sampler. He doesn't forget the intimate and acoustic ballads he owns the secret to, which he won't share on Echo Park nor on the fragile and moving A Smile That Explodes. Potential and impeccable singles (Can't Exist, Leave Us Alone) are quickly noticed, and a glance at the booklet bring us face to face with that soul we could swear is kept prisoner in a body made anaemic from every part. For the singer is also a drawer, and seeing the illustrations he's made for "Our Shadows Will Remain" booklet, no one can be mistaken: this humanoid monsters fair he can't help drawing, desperately haunts his nightmares or his worse lucidity moments. Then, it's frightening to think such visions can accompany happy songs like Even Tho or Puppets. A true successful result.
Bertrand Hamonou |
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LCD Soundsystem
[DFA/Labels]
Here is one of the most expected album of the beginning of this year. Announced for months, carried by the success of the singles, like the phenomenal Losing My Edge, Yeah or more recently Movement, the album of James Murphy, the boss of the New York label DFA and happy producer of "Echoes" of The Rapture, was to be irreverent, incisive, dancing, in short: unavoidable. Well, the promise is kept! Electro, rock, punk, funk, house, all these genres are skillfully mixed in a clever and astute dance-rock. After a hopping Daft Punk Is Playing at My House and a groovy and nonchalant Too Much Love, James Murphy writes the perfect electro/new wave hit with the radiant Tribulations. Then follow the single Movement and its frentic rhythms, then a bit further, the diabolic On Repeat, which may be the better track of the album with its totally insidious rhythm ("Beat on repeat, beating on me" sings Murphy), its post-punk guitars and its irresistible powerful rise. To top it all, Murphy had the good idea of offering us on a second CD, the integrality of the three singles, Losing My Edge, Give It Up and Yeah (a track you should absolutely hear in its "Crass Version" for the raving of its acid sounds and the plugging of its horus "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!"). Here's the cream of the dance-rock made in New York.
Renaud Martin |
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Before The Dawn Heals Us
[Goom/Labels]
An American-like "success story", that's how we could qualify the story of the French duo from Antibes, M83: these two students, who after their first noisy-pop band, started to play electronic music, were revealed to the European public in 2002 with the electronic and instrumental tracks of their second album "Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts", before breaking through in the United States, one year later, with a re-release on the prestigious label Mute.
This adventure might well go on a long way. From now on leading M83, Anthony Gonzales decided to invite a few guests on this new album: beside a real drummer and a bass player, who replace the machines, he invited Ben (from the group Cyan & Ben), the American singer Lisa Papineau (on Farewell/Goodbye), the American actress Kate Moland (on Car Chase Terror) and even the children choir of Saint Louis. The result is a more ample sound, more diversified in its atmospheres, a sound that explores intimity (In the Cold I'm Standing, I Guess I'm Floating), "Godspeed-like" rage (Fields, Shorelines and Hunters and *), as well as grandiloquence with track like Moon Child, Don't Save Us From the Flames ou A Guitar and a Heart. So the album is varied but coherent, where you can hear the most banal and indigestible arrangements (we regret the winded use of choirs), and some clever marvels like the terrifying and cinematographic Car Chase Terror, probably the best track of the album.
In the end, this record is sometimes a bit excessive, but it's well built and it seems promised to the same international success than its predecessor.
Renaud Martin |
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Drinking Songs
[Ici d'Ailleurs/Discograph]
Apparently, Matt Elliott doesn't have nighmares anymore. After mistreating and torturing his instruments for years under the name of Third Eye Foundation, here he is now pampering and cradling them to create some touching and strange reveries, closer to folk and electronica than to drum'n'bass. So, this second album, once again under the name of Matt Elliott, logically resumes the musical turn started since the excellent "The Mess We Made" (Domino, 2003): we find again the same dainty melodies built in loops, Matt's voice, which is now more present and imposes itself for the first time on tracks like Whats Wrong and The Kursk. And after the calm and the melancholy of the seven first tracks, the albums ends in fury with beats on the very long The Maid We Messed (more than twenty minutes long), a mutant version of the eponymous track "The Mess We Made" that usually ends his live sets. So, here's an album keeping its promises, a new little gem in the discography of this really gifted multi-instrumentalist.
Renaud Martin |
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Where We Go We Don't Need It Anymore
[0101/Ici d'ailleurs]
Micro:mega produces one of the first deceptions of the year, by fixing this Where We Go We Don't Need It Anymore in a one time one place unit, and above all, in a one sound unit (organ and electric piano). With this second album for the young 0101 label (started in 2002 as a division of Ici, d'ailleurs and dedicated to electronic music), Sylvain Chauveau and Frédéric Luneau's band doesn't manage to interest us during the forty minutes of their fifth album, which is very disappointing since Human (2000) and Photosphere (1999) still remain highly recommendable productions from this uncommon duo. The disconcerting way they usually and easily mix electronic layers with instruments such as a trumpet, a guitar or a piano, is discarded from this record. However, let's keep in mind that Sylvain Chauveau is involved in a few side projects (Arca with Joan Cambon, On with Steven Hess), and so does is fellow with his solo project Webcam. This burst of activity and creativity may be the sole responsible for this more minimal, less rich and less surprising record than their previous works: and what if running several musical projects at the same time would unfortunately end up in weakening what's essential: the inspiration?
Bertrand Hamonou |
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Zygène de la Filipendule
[NSX Project]
Created in Metz in 1995 by the Bonnet twin brothers, Noctule Sorix has always navigated between batcave, dark wave and cold wave. Its singular style, often difficult to define, has often been to its disadvantage in a country where we like to label things precisely. Yet, the group (who is now reduced to a trio) has always proven it can assimilate its influences to create its own very personal universe. Painfully made during two years, Zygène de la Filipendule" (its third album) is certainly the most achieved record of the combo, but also the most demanding. Subtly mixing electro, goth-rock, cold-wave, gloom-pop and experimental sounds, the album is hard to seize in its whole at the first auditions (there are fourteen tracks in 70 minutes), but in the end, it appears to be very coherent, very homogeneous and remarkably deep. Playing an intense melancholy, multiplying the bewitching atmospheres, "Zygène de la Filipendule" proves, like the just as marvelous record of Popoï Sdioh released last year, that it's still possible in 2005, to be in the gothic movement (in the largest meaning of the word), without imitating the tenors of this genre. Because, even if we can see the shadow of Robert Smith on several bass lines and guitars' parts (there's also a very beautiful acoustic cover of M in ghost track), this is a good success we'll still be listening in months to come...
Christophe Lorentz |
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Unshattered
[Viastar Records]
After seven albums, we have to say that we now know quite well how Peter Murphy works. And even if each of his production isn't really a surprise, we're always as delighted to hear it. Except on his previous record, "Dust", which was more experimental and therefore less catchy, and even a bit hermetic, the ex-leader of Bauhaus manages to seduce the listeners in an instant. As usual, his voice is perfect, with its so characteristical grain, this warmth and this ability to give to each word its own melody. As always, sumptuous ballads with neat melodies and arrangements, cohabit with bittersweet pop songs in total harmony. Once again, "Unshattered" is brilliantly done, and even if there are no surprises, it's not really a problem. Although many musicians surrounded Peter Murphy in the album's making, like his mate Kevin Haskins on the track Blinded Like Saul, it's intimity and serenity we feel is coming out of it. "Unshattered" is a precious and engaging record.
Christophe Labussière |
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Culture
[A Different Drum]
First album of the German duo, "Culture" is, beside groups like Lavantgarde, the promise of a good quality techno-pop renewal, in the same line as Iris, with a retro side in bonus, more electronic new-wave like Soft Cell or OMD. Rename is certainly less rock than Mesh or Michigan, but they proved to be very deft and have lots of energy. Sometimes the crafty use of discreet vocoders pleasantly change the classical construction of some tracks, and some sound mixes of analogical synths and big modern electronic basses offer a rather new and harmonious whole. Rename's music sometimes resembles dream-music but, in general (and fortunately), it's rarely instrumental for too long. The male voices vary from one track to the other, sometimes reminding of Erasure, sometimes of the Pet Shop Boys. The whole album, with sixteen very different, but well built tracks, show they're quite mature. The acoustic landscapes are naive and dynamic at the same time. Surely, Rename is a name all fans of synth-pop should remember.
Stéphane Colombet |
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Shapes and Colours From the Land of God
[Trisol]
Having escaped, the time to do one album, from the family lap of Kirlian Camera for who she sings, Elena Alice Fossi is now following up the Siderartica adventure. Two years after "Night Parade", a convincing first try with a spatial radiance and lunar angles, the belle and her two accomplices stay in weightlessness with "Shapes and Colours From the Land of God", which is delightfully volatile. An artistic partiality which reminds of Kirlian Camera's last album, "Invisible Front.2005". An obvious and logical kinship that doesn't prevent the Italian trio to quietly elaborate some pretty dark-electro pieces, all very fine and subtle, alternating lewd mid-tempos (Circle of the Angels) with very binary dancefloor rhythms (Antland) as well as slow intra-galactical drifts (Lucy Pharr's May). The 100% synthetic texture of the orchestration enables to put forward the seducing voice of Elena Fossi, who manages with some whisperings to humanize and tame this machines' universe. Now, we're looking forward to seeing how this side project will evolve in the future, but it would seem that Siderartica is here to stay, following a way that'll be less and less parallel to Kirlian Camera's. Let's also mention the superb limited edition containing a very interesting CD of remixes, "Toys and Robots From the Land of God".
Stéphane Leguay |
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Barry Black
[Doxa/La Baleine]
A priori, Venda Novas has nothing to do with the little Portuguese town. We'd thought they'd rather be Belgian or German because of their dark electro-techno sound. But for once, this trio comes from France, or to be more precise from Nantes and Angers. A DJ, a producer and a singer, here's the team who came up with the 120 bpm hammerings that intend to make your body move. Basically, this is a modern Electro Body Music. Except that, we regret we have to express some grievances: weak melodies and constructions, tiring linearity, few acoustic findings... it's a shame, we feel that with just a few more things the band would have achieved its mission, which is to do some good club music... Some tracks certainly come out of the lot (the efficiency of Vendredi or Find Her and Catch Her could be singles). But, Vendas Novas may, at the best, draw some cheerful sympathy, a bit like the duo Vive la fête (without the humour and the personality), at the worst, they might find themselves put beside the plethora of cheap groups that appeared with the 80s' electronic music...
Laure Cornaire |
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We discovered the mixed duo Foretaste on the "Children of Depeche Mode" compilation that came out on Diff Records in 2003. This French band released a few months ago their first self-produced and very professional 4-track EP "Discordance" on which they don't cheat: as fans of electronic pop music from the 80s, Sylvie and Pierre devote themselves to their passion by playing a music, surely under influence but truly modern, that uses actual sounds rather than vintage' ones like Celluloide successfully does it. Sylvie's singing seems offhand on Victim's Heart, but her quite retro-like voice perfectly matches the sweet For Your Own Good, Discordance and Re-love. Extracts from "Beautiful Creatures", their first forthcoming self-produced album are available on their website (http://www.foretaste-music.com) which is also full of covers and remixes. Let's stay in France in a much less electronic register with "Helice", trio One For Jude's 4-track CD. Compositions are raw and dry, withy French singing on three tracks. What a peculiar mix of French song coming from an other age and a guitar playing coming from the other side of the Channel, as well as an accordion and a saxophone on L'Ebloui. The band's website has got some track to listen to (http://oneforjude.chez.tiscali.fr). No internet site yet, but a good self-produced CD for the French band Tempus Fugit who subtly combines to infinity, soft electronics, very cold guitar and a fairy-like voice on four distinct and complementary tracks. The rather long songs are inspired by the most delicate heavenly voices music ever. Let's end with "Goodbye", The Czars' third album released on Bella Union, and in competition for "the ugliest record-sleeve of 2004" award, including the pictures inside the booklet. There's nothing to do about it, despite a charming piano intro, we're lost in a universe of old rock where country music reigns (Pain The Moon), helped with jazzy songs like Little Pink House. It's not that John Grant's voice is unpleasant, but if we had the choice, it would be difficult not to prefer Perry Blake's more classy works. Only I Am The Man sounds pretty modern, probably due to that vocoder Daft Punk made available in other times.
Bertrand Hamonou
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In France, the electronica and indus-rhythmic scenes aren't the only ones to be in ebullition. Thus, the very nice label La Chambre Froide, militates for the defence of a quality dark-electro, in the same line as:Wumpscut: or Leaether Strip. Their latest release is the split album Tamtrum vs Lok-8, where the now famous duo Tamtrum meets the project Lok-8 on three tracks, a new track for each, two new versions and two remixes of the first for the second and vice-versa... Of course, the result is dark, surly and dancefloor. It's not really original, but it's efficient and it'll help you wait for the next Suicide Commando.
Things are also moving for the French metal-indus. Especially with the energetic Crack ov Dawn, the authors of an attractive "Dawn Addict" (Exclusive Music/ Equilibre Music). Nicely inspired by Marilyn Manson, this quartet gives us some "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" with just enough provocation and glamour. Music-wise, they're not very original either: metal guitars, gothic ambiances, federative choruses, dancing rhythms and discreet electronic. With some well-balanced and imparable compositions, a certain dose of humour (like on the savory Gothic Party) and a little bit of sulphur... That should warm you up this winter!
Even darker, the quartet Deadchovsky, signed by Manic Depression (Violet Stigmata, Jacquy Bitch, Wallenberg), the new French goth-rock leader. Openly batcave, "Decadence Revolution" energetically uses all the elements of the genre: a high-pitched and wailful voice, an obsessing bass, an acid guitar, alienating rhythms, underground and dank ambiances, without forgetting the punk accelerations and the "macabre fun fair music" passages. Oppressive as you wish, close to the music of their neighbours from the label Violet Stigmata (but in more tense), Deadchovsky's music will delight the nostalgic fans of Virgin Prunes and Sex Gang Children.
Christophe Lorentz
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Let's start with the first album of the duo PTI "Blackout" at WTII Records', a kind of rather violent US indus-electro, especially at the beginning of the record, endowed with big heavy EBM-influenced rhythmics. Even if the already heard voices are rather agressive, some good melodies appear here and there, with the help of Cut.Rate.Box and Dubok. The whole sometimes reminds of Front Line Assembly in its classical part, and sometimes of Stromkern and Informatik for the hybrid and innovating aspect of some of the musical structures. We even found some electropop and some ambient. The production, in its whole, is rather disappointing and a bit unfinished, like the inside booklet. Yet, you should listen to it 'til they get more maturity and perfectionism.
Let's go on with the new album of Lights of Euphoria "Gegen den Strom" at Accession Records', which is certainly better produced but just as "heavy". The very prolix Torben Schmidt, who's been doing the same style of music for fifteen years, offers us once again, an album with very thick rhythmics, somewhere between a nasty Covenant and a nice Suicide Commando. The voices remind of those of the beginning of the 90s and the golden age of the German label Zoth Ommog, but all this seems a bit outdated. The often grinded rhythms aren't really bad, but the whole isn't convincing. The more or less active and successful participations of Punto Omega, Plastic, In Strict Confidence and State of the Union don't change anything to it. Disappointing.
Let's end on a softer touch with the last album of B!Machine "The Evening Bell" at A Different Drum's. They offer us fourteen aerial, subtle, dream-like, refined, Asian-scented techno-pop gems. They're sometimes dancing (like the magnificent Angels, which is probably the best track of the group), sometimes meditative, but never boring and rarely instrumental. B!Machine imposes a modern and examplary mastery of the Eighties' sounds. The very recognizable and shaky voice of the singer and creator of this project imposes himself like the group's trademark. Every fans of synth-pop will soon know them. Recommended.
Stéphane Colombet
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