Customer Reviews

Ceux Qui Inventent N'Ont Jamais Vecu

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This release, along with the new Do Make Say Think LP seem to suggest a new direction for the Montréal label Constellation. Furthermore, it seems as though the bands on the label are beginning to move out from underneath the shadow of the label's claim to fame, Godspeed You Black Emperor!.

"Ceux Qui Inventent..." take's the group's hybrid of minimalist Neu!-like repetition and jagged punk harmonies (with of course traces of the Godspeed! sound) to a new plane. While keeping that sound intact, a more funky sensibility has been introduced, reminscent of Fela Kuti's repetitious thrust, as well as a glitchy randomness, quite apart from the so-called "laptop" or "glitch" scene. By feigning error, the group repeatedly excites the listener, reminding them to remain attentive.

While bizarre, this amalgam is highly effective and sets this album apart from the groups "post-rock" peers. Along with the aforementioned DMST release, it also shows Constellation moving toward a more electronic & "produced" aesthetic, without compromising their trademark grittiness.

2 1/2

Despite creating comfortable cushions of angular noise to fall into, there is little meat on these apathetically experimental bones, barely masking third-rate Canned recyclables with inane noise manipulation to rarely produce moments of genuine vitality, as a brief final transition reminds.

To start with, this I think is my favorite art-rock album I own, and not least for not knowing art-rock.

The constellation/alien8 scene is dandy, but of those bands that I would listen to more than once, fpa and dmst. I've just bought the new Fly Pan Am record which to be honest is quite a bit disappointing, but has forced me to go back to this record and share its laurels. And to finish with this shoddy intro, among those aforementioned bands' records, the two I've returned to consistently-this record and Do Make Say Think's "&yet&yet"

That being said, let's get to the details:

This album starts out with a minute long barely audible track of static and skipping and then breaks into the first (2nd) track which i believe is somewhere in the ballpark of 17 minutes long. Listening to it you wouldn't notice it though as it seamlessly dips between minimalist funk riffs and cascading shoegazer sections only to be cut in the middle by faux skips and static, and then again resuming where it left off. It's as if the double-drummer backbeat hooks you into a jam session where the band is trying to compose the extended sections for the song, only to be lured again and again into trying it mbv style. The second track seems like a continuation of the first with a sort of middle-eatern motif again turned shoegazer/punk. I can't remember the middle tracks too well at this second, but the closing number to this album is a truly epic number wherein the finale the bass lures you into to recollecting the sheer emotion and power of what you have been silently witnessing the whole time.

Again, i think it is my fav art-rock record, substance and style triumph over lyrics and scenester sensibilities. Mysteriously engaging...

this album is just solid. you will like it if you're into the post-rock scene.