Various - Liste Noir #2: Darker It Gets, Clearer We See

  • Share
  • Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston might be the best known exponents of chugging, sub-110 BPM music, but they aren't the only ones enamored with slowness. Along with the likes of Magic Feet in the north of England, there are crews influenced by the A Love From Outer Space parties as far as Japan (the Blindetonation label) and France. Since 2011, Marseille outpost La Dame Noir has operated as a blog, bar, DJ/producer collective and label. Now, for the second time, the Provençal artists offer us a glimpse into their small but perfectly formed world with Liste Noir #2: Darker It Gets, Clearer We See. The 11-track collection offers tracks from associates old and new. Few of them will be known outside their own circles, but that's not to say the quality level isn't consistently high. What ties this music together most is tempo, rather than any specific stylistic tropes. Every type of slowness is explored, from mechanical grooves to end-of-days disco via twanging no wave. Just don't expect Cafe Mambo-style Balearic bliss here: La Dame Noir's disco is dark, with grubby drums or grizzly guitar licks always trumping dazzling melodies. That's not to say there isn't real musicality and songwriting (see Vox Low's "I'm Dreaming Of You"), or some sunshine, like in radiant opener "You Can Play." But there's also plenty of pain and melancholy along the way. A key to successfully sparse, codeine-paced tracks is making sure each element hits with maximum impact, which is certainly the case here. The kicks in "Snakes In Your Eyes" are so heavy they might collapse the track at any moment. The gauzy licks in Johnson's "Liebe Safe" drip with lust as a filtered vox asks, "Do you wanna dance?" Mounissa and the La Dame Noir production team would make Adrian Sherwood proud with the dubwise post-punk swagger of "Aoyama Ride." This is stained, imperfect, narcotic music that relates more to the real world than some imagined paradise. With its slow-release pleasures and weightless anticipation between each languorous kick, Liste Noir #2 is a thoroughly enjoyable collection.
  • Tracklist
      01. Amevicious feat. Alta - You Can Play 02. Did Virgo feat. Johanna - Snake In Your Eyes 03. Dawad feat. Dr No - Dancing Delight 04. Thomass Jackson - Trouble Sky 05. Mounissa & La Dame Noir - Aoyama Ride 06. Johnson - Safe Liebe 07. A & N - Weather Of An Empty Space 08. Cassandre - Machinations 09. Duncan Gray - Since We're Here For The Night 10. Undo - Where Is The End 11. Vox Low - I'm Dreaming Of You
RA