Nico Motte - Life Goes On If You Are Lucky

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  • With a label as stylistically varied as the Parisian-based Antinote, a strong, consistent visual aesthetic is often invaluable to presenting a clear artistic vision. In some cases, such as designer Vaughan Oliver's work for 4AD, the look of a record becomes inseparable from the music itself. Nico Motte is Antinote's Oliver, designing their sleeves under his Check Morris alias. He also moonlights as a vintage synth aficionado who crafts tasteful Balearic jams. The whimsy that defines the sleeves for Antinote albums, like Love On Delivery by D.K., pulses through Life Goes On If You Are Lucky, Motte's debut album. Many tracks, such as opener "Tema D'Amore," unfurl with a filmic patience, well-suited for the bird's-eye shot in a Michael Mann neo-noir. The title track laps along like low-tide, full of old choral patches, gently skanking synths and dubby, delayed drums. Here, as on Domenique Dumont's stunning Comme Ça, a sharp melodic sensibility begins to emerge. "I.C.A." and "La Figure De Rey" will work best for the DJs, but they're just as evocative as the rest of Life. The former keeps to a cinematic feel with its John Carpenter-esque house, while the latter could pop up in a Young Marco set. If there's one issue with Life, it's that it's conspicuously tasteful. There's a retromania at work that counts labels like Music From Memory, fourth-world Japanese music and early releases on Klaus Schulze's Innovative Communications among its formatives. Like with his Antinote sleeves, Motte seems incapable of producing anything that isn't somewhat referential and impossibly hip. I find myself wanting Motte to, say, take a keyboard solo that knocks out of tune for half a bar, but it never happens. It's a small qualm, and like the best records on Antinote, Motte's debut album is an alluring, nuanced escape. It's also not very long, barely topping a half-hour. During the brief runtime, Motte also dips into modern French pop ("Tacotac"), and with "Tiger For Breakfast," he goes on an exotic journey complete with rainforest samples. The music is all subtly psychedelic and brimming with talent. Life feels like it was made while Motte blew off steam, fresh back from the design office, uncorking some wine and firing up the synths. And the sounds he conjures at night are no less vivid and visual than the images he makes all day.
  • Tracklist
      01. Tema D'Amore 02. Life Goes On If You Are Lucky 03. I.C.A. 04. Tiger For Breakfast 05. La Figure De Rey 06. Tacotac 07. Beats Benny Keats
RA