You can stretch out all you like in the shade of a century-old baobab, toes sunk in cool, damp sand, nothing on the horizon but the endless line where sky meets ocean… Music always and forever!
We’re launching our new monthly rendezvous: a raw distillation of indie rock news, sifted down to its purest essence. Let’s open the dance with a first roundup of July.
LIVE GEM OF THE MONTH: DARKSIDE
Looking back at an exceptional residency on July 8th and 9th at the Gaîté Lyrique: Darkside (Nicolas Jaar on production and electronic experimentation, Dave Harrington here on electric guitars, and more recently percussionist Tlacael Esparza) did us the honor of picking Paris, alongside London and New York, to treat our ears to four intimate shows inspired by their residency at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles.
Blending tracks from their three albums Psychic, Spiral and Nothing, our sonic adventurers completely dismantled their own songs, stretching them out into long, hypnotic improvisations for the occasion. And never the same version twice from one night to the next: long live psychedelic electro art-rock!
ALBUM CRUSH: ONLY SUN, ONLY MOON BY LOCKIMARA
On the album-release front, Canadian-turned-Brooklynite Lockimara, a project we’re particularly fond of, delighted us on July 24th with a sophomore album, Only Sun, Only Moon!
Somewhere between intimate folk songwriting and dreamy synthetic textures, Nicholas Gay leads us with real lightness of touch into the small daily pleasure of a well-earned break. Our biggest summer crush, with a special mention for the track “Every Day.”
A STUNNING VIDEO CLIP FROM ARAB STRAP
Scotland’s Arab Strap delivered a rather striking video on July 15th for their track “Glamour Magick,” steeped in the body horror of Cronenberg or Carpenter. A wry little ode to the pressure of aging, physical appearance, and the cosmetics industry that feeds on them. Watch out!
NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS
How could we not mention the unmissable return of two icons, The Strokes and Jack White?
A wind of melancholic apocalypse hits our eardrums with the divisive seventh album from The Strokes, Reality Awaits, on which the quintet serves up nostalgic melodies and anxious instrumentals, as if fleeing a present that’s grown too heavy to bear. A romantic album in the truest sense!
As for our garage-rock guitar hero, Jack White gives us Frozen Charlotte, a worthy successor to No Name: powerful, efficient, blending rock and blues to perfection, technically flawless, and pure joy for the ears… and the eyes! Anyone lucky enough to catch one of his June shows at the Olympia can vouch for the spontaneous fervor of this towering artist!
