Artist:
Kick Bong
Title:
The Lost Valley
Label:
Cosmicleaf
Released:
20th April
I've
always felt Franck Jousselin has followed his own path musically.
Even with his earlier releases although there were strong elements of
psy-chill and dub he had a slightly different edge as
well as playing the percussion, bass, keyboards and synths on his
releases.
I've said it before and I'll say it again I remember a set he did for
Fluid Radio a good number of years back where he played re-mixes of
the Cure and Depeche Mode amongst dubby psy-chill. At that point I'd
never really come
across anyone brave enough to fuse the two.
But then he did start his musical career as a member of the French
new-wave/pop act Romy
et les Gateaux secs.
Although
his style isn't to everyone's taste (I've heard a few die-hard
psy-chill and psy-dub heads mention it isn't) I feel he's moved away
from that sound album by album admittedly jumping back on certain
tracks. On this album however I would pigeon-hole it more as a
collection of down-tempo chilled electronica and mid-tempo not too
dis-similar to nu-disco (and by that I don't mean the cheesy sounding
tracks with a house beat or the harder edged acid-chug).
I'd
also advise getting past the first few tracks to
really appreciate this release.
The opener 'Walk my Way' is a melodic piece of chill with some nice
strings and chimes followed by 'Clip Clap' a slo-mo nu-disco
sounding no with some beautifully melodic synth sounds. The fourth track of
the album 'Dancing on the Dust' is an absolute corker that's
difficult to pigeon hole there's elements of nu-disco, a driving beat
and some excellent psychedelic twists. From
this pinnacle the album descends slowly track by track and just when
you think you're moving back to old ground with Ludivine Dubos flute
in 'The Pursuit' Franck drops a funky riff on the bass re-affirming
what a quality album it is.
Reviewed
by Woodzee.
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