DAKOTA SUITE The End Of Trying

Beau, tendre, dérangé et impopulaire, voilà les mots qui me viennent à l'esprit. Ce sont des chansons d'une autre planète. Un talent vrai, caché, si lointain, derrière d'autres d'artistes davantage intéressés aux campagnes de pub de la TV, aux couvertures de magazine. DAKOTA SUITE c'est les conneries à la mode en moins, mais plus de coeur et d'âme. Le NME a donné le signal avec un 8 sur 10 et MELODY MAKER les ont félicités avec 4 étoiles !!! « Le chanteur Chris Hooson de DAKOTA SUITE est très, très triste en effet, et pourtant tout semble magnifique. Utilisant des violoncelles, des violons et l'harmonium ,il offre son coeur soigneusement meurtri et battu à nos regards. Et puis tu auras noté le nom de ce groupe que je ne peux qu'aimer, n'est ce pas!!!

Beautiful, tender, damaged and unloved , here are the words which come me to my spirit. These songs are coming from another planet. A true talent, hidden, so far, behind others artists more interested in the campaigns of advertizing of the TV, the covers of magazine. DAKOTA SUITE it is the bullshit of the fame in less, but more heart and soul. The NME gave the signal with one 8 out of 10 and MELODY MAKER praised them with 4 Stars!!! “The singer Chris Hooson of DAKOTA SUITE is very, very sad indeed, and yet all seems splendid. Using Viola, violins and harmonium, it offers its heart carefully ravaged and beaten to our glances. And then you will have noted the name of this band which I have to love, isn't it!!!

TELEPATHE Dance Mother

J'aime beaucoup le dernier TV ON THE RADIO et là, c'est la même impression, un mélange de mélancolie et de naïveté touchante. Sitek a un contact magique infaillible; tout ce qu'il touche devient de l'or. Un exemple, l'album de Scarlett Johansson, où l'architecture amassée du synth de Sitek a été vraisemblablement conçue comme contrepoint aux vocals spontanés de Johansson, immédiatement frais et curieusement convensionnel. Pour ici, le premier album des Telepathe, de Brooklyn Sitek leur donne souvent l'abondance de l'espace pour respirer dans les neuf chansons sur cet excellent disque. . Il y a beaucoup de groupes travaillant dans ce secteur à l'heure actuelle, chant tout brumeux, l'exotisme imprécis, un sens des rituels décrétés. Mais la « Dance Mother» est la meilleure et la manifestation la plus puissante de cette nouvelle scène.




Much as I love the TV On The Radio album, I wonder sometimes if all the hype surrounding David Sitek might be a bit out of hand. For a start, reading some of the stories about “Dear Science”, you’d be forgiven for imagining that he made the entire record single-handed, when in fact virtually all the songwriting was handled by the band’s vocalists and, perhaps, creative heart, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. Then there’s the perception that, as a producer, Sitek has an unfallible magic touch; that everything he touches turns to hipster gold. Actually, his CV isn’t entirely unblemished, as some of us who were left nonplussed by, say, the Celebration records can testify. Sometimes, Sitek’s aesthetic can be as smothering as it is opulent. A case in point, I guess, was that Scarlett Johansson album from earlier this year, where Sitek’s massed synth architecture was presumably designed as a counterpoint to Johansson’s offhand vocals, at once chilly and oddly conversational. For me at least, it didn’t really work, but it’s clearly a juxtaposition that Sitek likes. For here’s the debut album by Telepathe, from Brooklyn somewhat inevitably, and while once again it would be dumb to ascribe unbounded Machiavellian qualities to Sitek, they’re a duo whose vision seems pretty well-suited to the hook-up. Melissa Livaudais and Busy Gagnes have diffident, airy voices, and to his credit, Sitek often gives them plenty of space to breathe in the nine songs on this excellent record. The comparative spaciousness of “Dear Science” is followed up here, so that the layers of gushing vintage synths are built up gradually. “Devil’s Trident” is quite brilliant, overlapping streams-of-consciousness unravelling while the instrumentation gracefully increases; by the end, it seems as if the Antibalas horn section, so prominent on the TV On The Radio album of course, may even have crept in to thicken out the mix. There’s something trancey, even a little witchy, about “Devil’s Trident” and other tracks here like “Lights Go Down”. Although the gear may in some cases date from the ‘80s (and judging by a few pics, some of the outfits may, too), it’s hard to find obvious antecedents: imagine “Hounds Of Love” if Kate Bush were replaced by The Raincoats or The Slits springs to mind this morning, though it seems quite a way off the mark to be honest. Perhaps more accurately, much of “Dance Mother” feels like an upgrading of the ‘80s 4AD sound; the translucent grandeur of “Can’t Stand It”, particularly, is heavily redolent of the Cocteau Twins. The twitching beats that orbit round so many of the tracks, on the other hand, are clearly informed by various derivatives of R&B and hip hop. But the resulting music is a kind of obscurely catchy art-pop, where the street beats have been transformed into something mystical and otherworldly. There are plenty of groups working in this area at the moment, all hazy chanting, imprecise exoticism, a hint of rituals being enacted beneath Williamsburg warehouse spaces: High Places, Rings, Effi Briest and even Chairlift are all making good music not a million miles from this. But “Dance Mother” is the best and most powerful manifestation of the scene thus far, I reckon.

THAVIUS BECK Thru

What this is which makes the sound of " Thavius Beck' ' ? Three alternated notes of piano, the passage sfar and a sound and loop, the color had deformed voices, symphonic zigzags of chords? It is a mystery and in any case This is incomparable. Ten years that lasts, since Global Phlowtations and through LabWaste. How to refuse the call of the voyage, I listen of this disc like an one-way ticket towards the country which one is with no return? With far, a detuned piano, the noise of a food mixor blocked on the function work on, waiting that its battery dies. A call to the help stressed in an old intercom. Bits of speech or phonecall asking for help. It is magic and it works, so fine.
A feeling which confines with the certainty: the serious things began, in a sufficiently large disorder and an austerity. It is necessary to decide, it is necessary to choose. One finds in this disc a taste for the lists, the full inventories of a lucid humanity. This taste returns in mouth with the beach ' ' 98'. One l' had liked in ' (Music Will Be) The Death off Custom All' on " Decomposition" , where s' the names of those shelled whose modern music made nowadays. It here is found accompanied by a big band of Mir station, jovial though not-human. Or non-exactement human: happy Martian box, slappings of hands compressed by the machine. Yes the music is done suddenly almost merry, light in any case; seemingly, because you l' will have included, it goes from there here from the rhythmic preparings like masks of Venice. Here the list in question is that of what l' one feels, in 1998, of what l' one would like not to feel, the chronological list of what l' one notes and of the EC what it is deplored when the disease comes to mow your father. And finally the list of this that one owes him, of what l' there is evil to see it leaving you, henceforth, for you only.

Buy it if you like it
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Qu'est-ce qui fait le son "Thavius Beck'' ? Trois notes de clavier alternées, le passage au loin d'une boucle sonore, la couleur d'une voix déformée, des zigzags de cordes symphoniques? C'est un mystère et en tout cas c'est incomparable. Dix ans que ça dure, depuis Global Phlowtations et à travers LabWaste. Comment refuser l'appel du voyage, l'écoute de ce disque comme un aller simple vers le pays d'où l'on ne revient pas?
Au loin, un piano désaccordé, le bruit d'un robot ménager bloqué sur la fonction marche, dans l'attente que sa batterie meure. Un appel au secours scandé dans un vieil interphone. Des bribes de discours ou d'appel au secours. Une magie qui opère. Un sentiment qui confine à la certitude : les choses sérieuses ont débuté, dans un désordre et une austérité suffisamment grands. Il faut décider, il faut choisir, se placer d'un côté ou de l'autre de la route.
On retrouve dans ce disque un goût pour les listes, les inventaires pleins d'une humanité lucide. Ce goût revient en bouche avec la plage ''98'. On l'avait aimé dans '(Music Will Be) The Death of Us All' sur "Decomposition", où s'égrenaient les noms de ceux dont la musique moderne a fait des vedettes. On le retrouve ici accompagné d'un big band de station Mir, jovial quoique non-humain. Ou non-exactement humain : martian beat box, claquements de mains compressés par la machine. Oui la musique se fait soudain presque joyeuse, légère en tout cas ; en apparence, car vous l'aurez compris, il en va ici des habillages rythmiques comme des masques à Venise. Ici la liste en question est celle de ce que l'on ressent, en 1998, de ce que l'on voudrait ne pas ressentir, la liste chronologique de ce que l'on constate et de de ce que l'on déplore quand la maladie vient faucher votre père. Et enfin la liste de ce qu'on lui doit, de ce que l'on a du mal à le voir vous laisser, dorénavant, pour vous seul.

A écouter absolument

FLOWING TEARS Thy kingdom come

" Thy Kingdom Gone" is so class, this is an album which does not miss good moments and of a personal aesthetic direction, and perhaps which is still sought. It is in same spirit that PARADISE LOST and you know how I am fan of that guys but it is true this band is a quiet good goth band. This one give us the desire to follow Flowing Tears and to see where they will go. They are good. The album is opened with sublimes started from piano, of which splendid introductions of " Orchidfire" , " Thy Kingdom Gone" , or " Words Before You Leave" , and especially the second part of " Fortune" miss. The good surprise is the presence of solos inspired on each title, thing rather not very common at a Gothic group to be raised. Some of these solos are even very good (" For My Enemies" , " Thy Kingdom Gone").

Taste it and buy it if you like it
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"Thy Kingdom Gone" a de l’allure, c'est un album qui ne manque pas de bons moments et d’un sens esthétique personnel, et peut-être qui se cherche encore. On a vraiment envie de suivre Flowing Tears et de voir où ils iront. Et puis je dois dire que je suis fan depuis des années de PARADISE LOST et là je trouve des tas de similitudes, en particulier sur les longs solos de guitare. Il sont bon. L’album est doté de sublimes parties de piano, dont les magnifiques introductions de "Orchidfire", "Thy Kingdom Gone", ou "Words Before You Leave", et surtout la seconde partie de "Miss Fortune".
La bonne surprise est la présence de solos inspirés sur chaque titre, chose assez peu commune chez un groupe gothique pour être relevé. Certains de ces solos sont même très bons ("For My Enemies", "Thy Kingdom Gone").