Band : Aussitôt Mort
Album : Montuenga
Release Year : 2008
Genre : Screamo | Post-Rock
Tracklist :
1. Mort mort mort
2. une heure plus tard
3. le veilleur du grand marché
4. ...
5. huit
6. le kid de la plage
7. on a qu'a se dire qu'on s'en
8. prophète de malheur
The rest of the album fulfills the initial promise of Montuenga in a variety of ways. Beyond appending different genres and sounds to French emo's predictable core, Aussitot Mort are still in the business of writing emotionally riveting hardcore. A song like "Une Heure Plus Tard" abandons delicate guitar-work to end on a heavy and crushing climax. "Le Kid de la Plage" builds from quiet to loud, ending on an equally cathartic crescendo that fades out into static and noise by the end of the track. It sounds as if Aussitot Mort have retained just enough of emo's concern with emotional payoffs to keep that vestigial aesthetic in tact for the sake of making the tracks immediate and memorable, while leaving enough room to experiment.
Experimentation takes a range of forms on Montuenga. The most obvious comes from the use of non-hardcore instrumentation. No this isn't Fucked Up tossing in an incongruous flute melody at the opening of a song, but instead, violin is seamlessly worked into "Mort Mort Mort" or the opening of "Le Kid de la Plage" is adorned with vibraphones that nicely accompany the acoustic guitar arpeggiation. The most impressive deviations aren't in the exoticism of the instruments but rather in the innovations to guitar playing, both in the way the guitars intermingle with one another and in the way Aussitot Mort use delay and other effects. The guitar parts are really fresh on this album and most of the guitar leads are non-repeating throughout the course of the song, meaning they always come out of no where and are constantly revolving the song's energy and intensity in new, exciting directions. The ascending melody on "Une Heure Plus Tard" at 0:20 is a perfect example. The song begins on stop-start opening that invokes Daitro to a T, but then the echoed lead guitar and sidewinding accompanying riff carry the song off into an uplifting and uptempo territory that turns the introductory passage on its head. Also, the use of effects deserves some attention as well. The mix on Montuenga is heavy, but is by no means cluttered. Every instrument has its own sonic space, which means that the delay and reverb on the guitars creates little echoes and contrapuntal movements that fill in the spaciousness left in the mix. The result is gorgeous and fulfilling, and is at its best when the guitars are playing some kind of trill that sends little waves of fluttering notes out across the pan, completing the sense of saturation in the production.
This guitar work is wonderful and the alloy of influences is pretty original, but don't take the bait on this one 100%; Montuenga is not some revolutionary tour de force. It's still a genre album, but it does an applaudable job of stepping outside its comfort zone. Aussitot Mort have taken steps in the right direction, but there is still quite a bit of territory left to explore before the French scene will yield an album with the ambition, originality, and precision of an As the Roots Undo or The Moon Is a Dead World.
2. une heure plus tard
3. le veilleur du grand marché
4. ...
5. huit
6. le kid de la plage
7. on a qu'a se dire qu'on s'en
8. prophète de malheur
The rest of the album fulfills the initial promise of Montuenga in a variety of ways. Beyond appending different genres and sounds to French emo's predictable core, Aussitot Mort are still in the business of writing emotionally riveting hardcore. A song like "Une Heure Plus Tard" abandons delicate guitar-work to end on a heavy and crushing climax. "Le Kid de la Plage" builds from quiet to loud, ending on an equally cathartic crescendo that fades out into static and noise by the end of the track. It sounds as if Aussitot Mort have retained just enough of emo's concern with emotional payoffs to keep that vestigial aesthetic in tact for the sake of making the tracks immediate and memorable, while leaving enough room to experiment.
Experimentation takes a range of forms on Montuenga. The most obvious comes from the use of non-hardcore instrumentation. No this isn't Fucked Up tossing in an incongruous flute melody at the opening of a song, but instead, violin is seamlessly worked into "Mort Mort Mort" or the opening of "Le Kid de la Plage" is adorned with vibraphones that nicely accompany the acoustic guitar arpeggiation. The most impressive deviations aren't in the exoticism of the instruments but rather in the innovations to guitar playing, both in the way the guitars intermingle with one another and in the way Aussitot Mort use delay and other effects. The guitar parts are really fresh on this album and most of the guitar leads are non-repeating throughout the course of the song, meaning they always come out of no where and are constantly revolving the song's energy and intensity in new, exciting directions. The ascending melody on "Une Heure Plus Tard" at 0:20 is a perfect example. The song begins on stop-start opening that invokes Daitro to a T, but then the echoed lead guitar and sidewinding accompanying riff carry the song off into an uplifting and uptempo territory that turns the introductory passage on its head. Also, the use of effects deserves some attention as well. The mix on Montuenga is heavy, but is by no means cluttered. Every instrument has its own sonic space, which means that the delay and reverb on the guitars creates little echoes and contrapuntal movements that fill in the spaciousness left in the mix. The result is gorgeous and fulfilling, and is at its best when the guitars are playing some kind of trill that sends little waves of fluttering notes out across the pan, completing the sense of saturation in the production.
This guitar work is wonderful and the alloy of influences is pretty original, but don't take the bait on this one 100%; Montuenga is not some revolutionary tour de force. It's still a genre album, but it does an applaudable job of stepping outside its comfort zone. Aussitot Mort have taken steps in the right direction, but there is still quite a bit of territory left to explore before the French scene will yield an album with the ambition, originality, and precision of an As the Roots Undo or The Moon Is a Dead World.
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