|
Seventh release for what is now becoming the formidable Autres Directions in Music imprint from France. With a real DIY ethic undertow this Nantes based label offers an excellent service to bands and music lovers alike by providing a platform / portal into electronica. Each release is freely downloadable from the site, even the artwork, and if you haven’t the time or means then for a small charge they’ll do it for you. So far the label has treated us to the joys of Melodium, Depth Affect, Dudley, Atone, Harpages and Dirge.
Propergol y colargol is the brainchild of two French musicians, Manu C and Reno B and in our humble opinion their 11-piece set provides the Internet label with quite possibly it’s best release to date. Working to a black board approach the duo take their base inspiration from the likes of Stylus, Hutter and Schneider-Esleben’s pre Kraftwerk experimentation project Organisation and Sonic Boom’s post Spacemen 3 work, they seek to utilise and develop the hypnotic effects of drones and cyclic repetition to create something that evolves into a life of its own rather than sitting lamely in the background chilling out, and for the most part they achieve their aim with a certain amount of aplomb.
In many ways ‘charly roger, songs for fuzzcandy’ can be distinctly divided into two separate parts: the dark and the light. The dark moments are noticeable for their often-sparse applications and ominous alienated sounds while the lighter moments take on a more defined melodic path and dare we say, a more realised ambient flow.
The early stages employ all manner of minimalist textures that would make the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop jump with joy especially on the fragmented chamber like chilling and unworldly ‘ass.music.etna.zo club’. Elsewhere the sonic improvisations take on a more detached nature. ‘No particular destination’ happily passes several nods to the Ochre and Expanding stables, not a million miles from the early outings of Pimmon incorporating modulating hums and crackles / scratches to run riot across constant hypnotic waves. On ‘il covo club’ amid its hostile glacial landscapes are what sounds like a regiment of typewriters all busy cackling.
Things begin to get a little more malleable beginning with ‘auntie’s annies’ the overlapping drone waves combine to give a subtle calypso effect that’s not unlike Maps and Diagrams as though being re-processed by a lighter frame of mind E.A.R. Both ‘benjamine’s spasm’ and ‘café trauma’ are split from the same seed and see the duo veering into a more defined pop orbit, partly combining the simplistic yet stark soundtrack devices more associated with Carpenter / Budd, the whirring spacey textures and 70’s electronic aspects soon unravel into something approaching the early Jean Michel Jarre laced with classic Kraftwerk. Fans of Ray Scott’s ‘Soothing sounds for baby’ would do well to check the shimmering ‘Forum Stadpark’ as the delicate lullaby-esque charms work their ethereal magic, similar things could be said for the lulling ‘hitchhiking non stop’ while the fluffy contours of the enchanted ‘o’fantasmo’ warns us it’s late and time for bed. A beautiful release and absolutely recommended without hesitation.
MARK BARTON
|
