“This is a good album that can be listened to with fascination, so much there are so many unexpected outcomes and surprising musical twists”
1 And There Was Light 5:20
2 Mitosis (Haunting Fluid) 5:04
3 Sacred Rite 6:01
4 Awakening 4:39
5 Lucid Dream 3:29
6 The Rhythms of the Moons 5:34
7 Checkmate 8:25
8 Révolution 2:32
9 Aftermath 2:56
10 Renaissance 3:44
11 Innocence 7:24
12 New Vision 7:38
(CD/DDL 62:47) (V.F.)
(Electro, tribal cinema themes)
Here's another interesting surprise from AD Music. Dead Beat Project is the one of the French musician Olivier Goyet and in R'EVOLUTION he presents us an opus strongly influenced by the mysticism and the esotericism of the Arab tribal world. A dreamlike musical journey to the land of 1001 nights where the ambivalent rhythms are strongly inspired by the musical universes of Air and Daft Punk with a hint of JM Jarre and strong allegiances to classical music, given the orchestral arrangements that surround the 11 tracks filling the 63 minutes of this first work by the French synthesist. There are wonderful moments, beautiful musical pearls that nest within an album of which the fascinating ramifications with a world where the breaths of darkness crisscross random rhythms, and romance plus apocalypse vision flirt with down-tempos and good angelic melodies.
And There Was Light begins with a shadow of an apocalyptic synth which drops its thunderbolts. A sinuous line undulates between breaths and murmurs of wandering souls as well as a circular sequence which lets its scintillating keys. And There Was Light doesn't really move. It displays fleeting undulating synth lines which entangle while ululating like wandering specters encircling an atonal apocalyptic movement. A bit as if we were buried under an earth with corridors emerging towards the light, fine muffled percussions animate a weak down-tempo where fine crystalline arpeggios float among sinuous synth waves. Mitosis (Haunting Fluid) remains dark and is imbued with a heavy scary ambience on a movement which comes alive with more marked percussions and a good bass line. A brief ambient passage settles in, and layers of synth intertwine while the rhythm comes back to life accompanying a melancholy piano. Sacred Rite merges with Mitosis (Haunting Fluid) with a fine metallic rain whose drops echo on scattered percussions which try to infuse a rhythm. A chaotic beat pierces this artificial crackle, demonstrating the very cinematographic touch that Olivier Goyet uses to coat his music. Gradually the beat gets shaped with manual percussions with metallic tones of the Islands, shaping a sensual rhythm with tribal flavors of the Middle East. The flutes sing a muted joy of worry on a languid beat. The promise of 1001 nights as threatening as they are enchanting! Awakening is an adorable lullaby for imps whose delicate arpeggios sparkle under the spell of a corrosive synth. A nice ballad for an insomniac which comes alive with tabla percussions and which embraces a nightmarish tangent with strange gasps of a female voice. Those sighs blowing under a meandering wave bring us to the gates of Lucid Dream and its heavy drops of water falling vividly, accompanying crystalline arpeggios and those breaths of desire from this apocalyptic siren that has manifested on Awakening. Brilliant, Olivier Goyet paints this moment with a mellotron layer, like a solitary violin, which makes its chords tear up under a fine deluge of arpeggios with a thousand bursts. Beautiful morphic and poetic music that extends to the opening of To the Rhythms of the Moons.
Crisp and curt strikes shape its jerky rhythm. The percussions slam under a soft veil of a dismal synth which floats above the drummed chords of a spasmodic rhythmic line. Navigating this puny rhythm while embracing spectral synth waves and dark and melancholic arrangements, the music caresses a brief ambient passage before the hesitant rhythm returns to feed this ambiguity around R'EVOLUTION. Checkmate presents a futuristic electronic intro with the sounds of an artificial respirator, from which a synth line with reverberating waves undulates in ascending loops. It gives a down-tempo with percussive chords which pound for a jerky movement under a shower of radioactive crackles. The sequence shapes a nice melody which hangs in this strange maze of strikes and percussions with the blows of anvil. A melody whose key changes under a subtly syncopated line and an orchestral arrangement which envelops Checkmate in a strange ghostly choir. A good track, as bewitching as its rhythm, which brings us to Revolution which is in the same mold as Sacred Rite but heavier and in techno mode. After the vague breaths of Aftermath which crisscross a valley where the howls of a slow death are heard on slow percussions and bewitching murmurs, Renaissance comes alive by percussions with rattlesnake effects whose echo resonates among sparkling arpeggios and a limpid chord line that sparkles on orchestral arrangements with sweet Arabian scents. This movement progresses with an accelerated growth, up until its sonic exhilarating. Fine and delicate arpeggios sparkle at the opening of Innocence, tracing a delicious lullaby even more complete than on Awakening and Lucid Dream. Here are three superb pieces of a dreamlike and poetic sweetness which befits very well in the enchanting world of Olivier Goyet. The introduction of New Vision sounds strangely like that of Jean-Michel Jarre in Calypso. But the tabla percussions deviate its rhythmic axis towards a more languid beat. A tribal rhythm of an Arab world, which seems to have so much influence on the music of Dead Beat Project and which becomes sumptuously more musical with a palette of tones such as piercing flutes, wandering choirs, sitars and other sonic sweets that constantly haunt our ears.
I really liked this strange mesh of genres that is the music of Dead Beat Project. Without breaking or innovating anything, R'EVOLUTION is a good album that can be listened to with fascination, so much there are so many unexpected outcomes and surprising musical twists. I like this down-tempo and ambient fusion that circulates there, as I adore these innocent little rhymes that scroll under subtly diabolical synth lines. Yes! A very nice album which is well worth the detour and which let sees a bright future for Dead Beat Project.
Sylvain Lupari (March 17th, 2011) *****
Available at AD Music Shop