Perhaps it's because there's a right-wing lunatic in the White House, but the illusion of the early 80's is momentarily all over us. That whole era - post-punk but pre-acid house - is proving an invaluable source of inspiration - artful, experimental and amateur in almost equal proportions.
It's untapped potential has already been cherry-picked by a plethora of punk-funk NYC bands. Now, faraway from the Big Apple's retro grime, Parisian graphic designer, Marc Nguyen, provides a Eurocentric slant on things. Taking the interim period as Joy Division morphed into New Order as his template, Nguyen has created what will probably be one of 2003's best albums. 'Again' is a dark and sexy record that reveals itself seductively over time.
Opener 'Crazy Love' is certainly pure New Order circa 'Movement'. The bass and drums especially - someone somewhere must be selling keyboards with buttons labelled 'Hook' and 'Morris'. Yet, as whispered vocals drop into the mix - "on the road to heaven" - the music finds it's own identity: metallic, alien and sparse. The trick is repeated on 'Confusion', 'Version' and 'Where'. But this is not plagiarism, not by a long chalk.
A handful of tracks are even better. 'Shiny Star' is brutally sensuous - a nagging acoustic refrain where a heavy French accent intones, "you little rain, you little shine, my little wonder, my little wonder" - before the music rises to a series of drum claps. It's extraordinarily precise with tension, cinematic in sound. A breathtakingly claustrophobic four minutes.
'Silicone Sexy' throbs like Suicide, Nguyen creating great swathes of echo space between the beats and static. You'd swear Martin Hannett's ghost was twisting the production knobs. 'The River', meanwhile, takes the minor key piano line from Joy Division's 'The Eternal' and builds a song around the sad repetition. "I feel as old as this river," sighs Nguyen as drones flow ever onwards.
On 'Colder' he sings like a sad robot - or at least half-man half-machine - broken and rusted. Musically rogue electronics seemingly powering themselves, and the effect is stunning, the sound of human emotion breaking through the circuitry. Rarely does electronic music get as poignant as this. It's akin to the plot of 'Blade Runner' condensed.
As a whole, 'Again' is a disorientating experience, and one for the Walkman rather than the dancefloor. An exhilarating drive through the midnight city in a big black European car.
by Adam Webb