This French electronic pairing have their debut EP coming out at the end of August, so we thought now would be a good time to give them The Recommender treatment. You may have previously come across them on the ninth Kitsune Maison compilation, an inclusion which is usually enough to boost any new artist’s profile, but they’ve stuck with the French taste-maker label by continuing to release with them. Hugues Tonnay De Parrel and Thomas Desnoyers are both 23 years old and met up only last year, selecting to compose mostly by email, suggesting that they probably still don’t know each other that well! It’s early days, but the signs are strong with this EP. It has all the usual electronic genes often found in French dance music, but there’s more pop and funk in the riffs, which lightens the music from its electro heritage. Junocide is more typical of the genre, with the pace of the beats and the landing of a slapped bassline punching throughout, but the sampled guitar riffs lift it. The track builds without going anywhere in particular, perhaps being a break or two short of the listener’s attention, but as it hits the cinematic soundscapes, familiar to the likes of French DJ Kavinsky, it fills out. The other original composition on the EP is La Vie Moderne, which immediately feels more rounded, with its grooving bassline driving the song, before the squelching synths flip and spin around it. The music isn’t re-inventing French electro here, neither is it evolving it particularly, but it is refreshing to hear the genre have this slower, less intense groove – it makes it more accessible and enjoyable and ultimately less dated. It’s a promising start from the pair, but if they are to fully shake the shackles of their 2007 relatives, then they must push the boundaries further still. On the digital version of the EP you get a selection of remixes of La Vie Moderne, from the likes of Gohan and French Fries, amongst others, but they mainly serve to make the original tunes stand up. The press release for this EP jokingly talks up the apathy of the artists and suggests they deliberately produce tracks that are simple, passive and lacking a narrative, but that hides the charm found on this debut. They could perhaps take the lesson dished out by their label owners, by learning that it’s not about seeming anti-cool, or indeed cool, as that’s always a side effect of the quality of your output, not the driver. (MB)
Find them here: MySpace
Hear them here: LOGO – LA VIE MODERNE
Hear them here: LOGO – JUNOCIDE
