| · Canadian ex-pat triumphs as French post-pop splinter groups map out possible futures.
After a still unexplained hiatus in 2003, the post-French Touch is back with a vengeance, as Active Suspension vs Clapping Music backs its dump truck up to your doorstep and unloads its latest genetically modified crop.
The product of a Stakhanovite collective effort between the two eponymous Parisian labels, the double CD AvsCM systematically dices and splices every style in the contemporary electronica repertoire, from hip-hop at one extreme to post-folk at the other.
Many of the same bands participated in the far more cohesive In Case of Motion Sickness compilation 18 months ago, where they mapped out a new world of soft glitch-pop instrumentals. This new collection is too determined not to revisit that territory, and the result is inevitably uneven.
Some tracks stand out – Encre’s "Thou shalt abide by the mighty deadlines rules" is a surprisingly graceful folk instrumental (Encre being previously known for dark and grainy post-trip-hop), while Hypo and Emmanuelle’s "Edh Hit" takes the soul sample cliché yet another step further. Colleen, who recently released her solo debut for Leaf Records, appears in a more experimental mood with a thoughtful collage of reversed loops.
More often, though, there seems to be a conscious striving to be more American, awkwardly indicated by a greater acceptance of electric guitars and other post-rock elements than has hitherto been current on the French e-scene.
The expatriate Canadian David Ballula is the best of this lot. Alhough his contribution to the collection gets lost in the clutter of the 24-track collection, his solo debut album, Pellicule, gives him room and leisure to make his case.
Subtle and melancholic, sung and whispered behind fine layers of noise and fragmented guitar and piano, Pellicule is strangely typical of Canadian pop at its best in its unexpected juxtaposition of new world tradition and old world innovation, between American post-folk (a touch of Red House Painters and Palace Brothers) and the recent more subtle pop-concrete of Germany and France.
CLAPPING MUSIC
3/5
DAVIDE BALULA
4/5
TIMOTHY HECK
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