Demain Est une Autre Nuit is the first widely available full-length from Essaie Pas, but the Montréal-based couple -- Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau -- have been active in the city's music scene for years. Davidson has released two excellent solo albums (Perte d'Identité and Un Autre Voyage) in addition to being a member of Land of Kush and a few other projects, and Guerineau has engineered recordings by Dirty Beaches, Femminielli, and others. Together, their work treads similar territory to Davidson's minimal wave solo efforts, consisting of hypnotic electro and disco rhythms along with vocals spoken as well as sung in French; this album's "Retox" is cut from the same cloth as Davidson solo tracks such as "Excès de Vitesse." The cold, suspenseful songs are equally reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder and John Carpenter film scores as well as the industrial synth pop of Chris & Cosey, and there's a distinctive French pop influence as well, particularly in the staccato cyber-chanson "Carcajou 3," one of the album's brighter, more playful songs. The album's second half gets faster and more hypnotic; "Le Port du Masque Est de Rigueur" has an intense, racing feel, and near-instrumentals "Facing the Music" and "Lights Out" tip toward psy-trance and EBM, respectively. The album ends with a sad, dramatic ballad titled "La Chute," which concludes with a sort of crackling sound, like embers dying out. The album constantly maintains feelings of loneliness and obsession, and serves equally as a soundtrack for fantasy exploration as well as late-night dancefloor enrapturement.
© Paul Simpson /TiVo