Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble
Find Me Finding You
Drag City
EVERYONE'S favourite Marxist economic theory-spouting French chanteuse returns with her fourth post-Stereolab solo offering, this time in the company of the Source Ensemble – regular collaborators Emmanuel Mario and Xavi Munoz on drums and bass respectively, plus keyboard player David Thayer and oddly-named sonic experimenter Phil MFU. Two other helpmates are Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, who duets with Sadier on Love Captive, and guitarist Mason Le Long. No power chords or lavish strumming here, though: this is a Laetitia Sadier record, after all.
The six minute Psychology Active (Finding You) could be straight out of the Stereolab songbook – a winning mix of astral 1970s Krautrock and 1960s Yé-Yé pop – and opener Undying Love For Humanity works off the same familiar template. But through Mario and Munoz's adoption of complex polyrhythms and gypsy-style flamenco breakdowns, Sadier's Franco-Brazilian rhythm section brings other flavours and textures to songs like Reflectors and The Woman With The Invisible Necklace, while Phil MFU's inner Jean-Jacques Perrey is allowed off the leash in spacey closing song Sacred Project. Over it all, Sadier's double-tracked vocals – some in French, some in English – remain the unifying force, an icy presence that give this beguiling album a rich but resolutely melancholy feel.
Barry Didcock
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