Telepopmusik - Genetic World

Track list:

1. Breathe
2. Genetic World
3. Love Can Damage Your Health
4. Animal Man
5. Free
6. Let's Go Again
7. Dance Me
8. Da Hoola (Soda-Pop Mix)
9. Smile
10. Trishika
11. Yesterday Was A Lie
12. L'Incertitude D'Heisenberg

Beyond the bounds of a word like eclectic, this mix'n'match debut from French threesome Télépopmusik is a suptuous style feast, the likes of which we rarely hear. From jazz to rap, from ambient to pop, all the bases are covered with effective and engrossing contributions from producer Alex Gopher, vocalists Angela McClusky, Soda-Pop and Juice Aleem and, not least, the band themselves.A beautiful array of artificial and sampled "nature" sound bytes (crickets, birdcalls) played alongside mesmorizing electronic beats; compositions that are evocative of both futuristic and vintage sounds. Music full of imagery - fields, skies, static, radio, flappers, crooners, disco. So strange and sometimes so moving.Most will be pretty familiar with "Breathe", an excellent number with those weirdly filtered but smoky female vocals.The other songs are not quite up to this standard of excellence. A couple of them play around with hip-hop notions with mixed success. Several are drenched in a noir atmosphere and sound as if they were pulled from the soundtrack of some lost existential European spy movie from the Sixties. Or perhaps they're updated for a post-modern cyberspace Edith Piaf.A decent enough beginning, but if Telepopmusik are to live up to their reputation they need to start playing to their true strengths.