L’album s’introduit sur “You Can’t Kill Time“, déjà une belle démonstration de tout le soin apporté à cet LP. Dwyer n’est pas loin, on y retrouve la dualité entre une production qui joue sur le noisy et des sonorités analogiques très 90′. “Brain of Clay“, le petit second, est centré sur sa mélodie. CFM joue l’alternative sur un titre en escalade. On veut plus. Vient alors “Lunar Heroine“, un titre encore supérieur, plus analogique, plus psychédélique, plus Charles Moothart. Il se tourne là vers les bas fonds du punk et du stoner (son projet Moonhearts ressemble à des enfants de chœur comparativement). Ce titre à quelque chose d’un mélange entre le Damaged Bug de John Dwyer et le Fuzz de Ty Segall. Oh, un squelette de chat à trois têtes.
Et puis, connaissant l’artiste, on se doutait qu’il n’allait pas tarder à nous en remettre plein la vue. C’est “Habit Creeps” qui se charge de nous faire prendre en vitesse, le son inversé de la batterie rend parfaitement la monnaie de la pièce à une partition vocale plus nerveuse. Et dire que CFM semble encore en avoir sous la semelle. Vient ensuite “Clearly Confusion“, un titre qui aurait pu être le petit dernier de la famille Mutilator. CFM y fait preuve d’une grande inventivité, une fois encore. Le problème de ce genre de titres (et d’albums, plus largement) est qu’il relègue au stade de l’amateurisme tous les groupes qui ne relèvent pas le défi de l’innovation, tous ces groupes de garage qui se contentent d’un rythme par chanson, d’un seul type de mélodie par album. La guitare de CFM a pour elle un aspect métallurgique sur lequel on pourra longtemps s’extasier. Oh, un bébé siamois.
Et puis, le rêve touche à sa fin avec “Still Life of Citrus and Slime“. Naomi Punk joue parfois d’une ambiance similaire, une sorte de musique subconsciente qui nous fait planer au-dessus de la cohue à laquelle on vient d’échapper. Ce titre rajoute au chaos créé par cet LP. “Fast, slow, wonky and straight. There are moments of everything in these grooves” qu’il dit. OK, ce coup-ci, on comprend bien le message : Still Life of Citrus and Slime veut aller où les autres LPs du genre ne vont pas, et c’est réussi. Mais après tout, Still Life of Citrus and Slime, c’est quel genre ?
Impossible en cela de trop rapprocher Still Life of Citrus and Slime d’un autre LP. Certes, on y trouve quelques ressemblances avec Thee Oh Sees. Il y a un aspect D.I.Y. plutôt brouillon qui renforce le côté creepy des quelques créations qui s’y trouvent. Et puis, peut-être aussi, une volonté psychédélique qui est suppléée par une excellente maitrise du travail studio, et j’insiste sur ce point. Mais CFM marque surtout en ce qu’il nous maltraite avec quelques titres que l’on a du mal à s’approprier. Il me semble qu’un dénommé Ty Segall a fait état de la même volonté sur son dernier album… Le ton est donné. Le tableau est certes accroché de travers (voir pochette), mais force est de constater que CFM semble avoir fait tout le reste sur le droit chemin de la postérité. Des premiers albums de ce calibre sont chose rare, sinon tout à fait exceptionnelle. Chers amis, nous venons de vivre la naissance d’un Nom.
(mp3) CFM – Lunar Heroine
(mp3) CFM – Clearly Confusion
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English version
French above
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Welcome to CFM’s cabinet of curiosities. CFM is none other than the acronym for Charles Francis Moothart, and Charles Francis Moothart is none other than the founder of Epsilons, the bassist from Moonhearts and the guitarist of Ty Segall Band, Fuzz and GOGGS. Ahhh, I feel like I already have your attention.
Still Life of Citrus and Slime, his first album, has just been released on In The Red and I already bet that the label’s 289th release will mark a turning point, in its history, as much as in this beautiful year 2016. Sometimes close to Ty Segall, sometimes close to Thee Oh Sees, CFM has a convoluted universe of his own that he conveys with an excellent production. And CFM is also in line with the very dark atmosphere of these albums which enchanted 2015, except he adds pop to it, a lot of pop. The songs from Still Life of Citrus and Slime also keep this punk aspect, being mostly short and brutal. That’s a lot, but it’s precisely the feeling CFM aims at creating : the overflow, the ecstasy by the number.
The album is introduced by “You Can’t Kill Time”, a good illustration of all the care brought to this LP. Dwyer isn’t far, and we find here the duality between a noisy production and the analog sonorities from the 90s. “Brain of Clay”, the second track, is focused on its melody. CFM alternates with an escalading track. We want more. Then comes “Lunar Heroin”, an even better song, more analog, more psychedelic, more Charles Moothart. He is oriented towards the lower depths of punk and stoner (his Moonhearts project looks like a little angel, in comparison). This track is somehow a mix between Damaged Bug by John Dwyer and Fuzz from Ty Segall. Oh, a three-headed cat skeleton.
“Street Car History” breaks this unrestrained rhythm with an acoustic guitar, the first of the album. But don’t count on Moothart to leave it too much room, a stoner of steel comes to remind us the darkest ages of DIY music. Without banking on the melodic aspect, he turns our brains upside down once again, thanks to a production that makes the garage scene green with envy. The sounds never ceases to emerge, this is good. “Glass Eyes” begins like a punk song, as classic as could be. And it continues that way. That’s not where CFM is the most creative, but his cabinet of curiosities starts showing its guitaristic oddities. Oh, a wingless bird.
We immediately let ourselves embarked by “Slack”, that seems to herald an epic track. It is. Taking the time to build its empire, the storm never breaks out, and we get convinced by Moothart’s pop ambitions. Yet, CFM is a project made to scare the faint-hearted off. Thus, he builds his psychedelic music like a White Fence track, far from the conventional paths from a scene of which any creative genius seems to have melted under the sun. “Slack” will remain one of the biggest surprises of the year 2016.
And, knowing the artist, we suspected he wouldn’t take a long time to blow us away again. “Habit Creeps” takes care of speeding us up, the inverted sound of drums perfectly pays back in its own coin to a more nervous vocal partition. And to think that CFM still seems to have some gas left in the tank.. Then comes “Clearly Confusion”, a song that could have been the youngest of the Mutilator family. CFM shows of a great inventiveness, once again. The problem of this kind of track (and album, on the larger scale) is that it relegates to the status of amateur all the bands that don’t take the challenge of innovation, all the garage bands that rely on a single rhythm by song, on a single type of melody by album. CFM’s guitar has a metallurgical aspect on which we will be able to go into raptures, for a long time. Oh, a siamese baby.
CFM pretends he wanted to sail between two tools: his brain and his Tascam 388. That’s what “Purple Spine” encapsulates in a more mastered style. The title of the song tries to dupe us, in vain. This ballad temporizes before the last two tracks grab whatever punk remain with us. But we have to admit that we find more pleasure with tracks such as “The Wolf Behind My Eyes”, of the not-faint-hearted kind. We rarely notice it, but this very punk distinguishes itself from the 1977 one as well as the 90s one. It’s 3rd generation punk, Pistols 3.0. CFM will be able to brag about being part of the first leaders of this genre. Oh, the Marquis de Sade’s corpse.
And then, the dream approaches to an end with “Still Life of Citrus and Slime”. Naomi Punk sometimes plays with a similar atmosphere, some kind of subconscient music that makes us glide above the crowd we have just escaped. This track brings more to the chaos created by the LP. “Fast slow, wonky and straight. There are moments of everything in these grooves”, he says. OK, this time, we get the message : Still Life of Citrus and Slime intends to go where the other LPs of this style don’t, and that’s achieved. But still, what style is Still Life of Citrus and Slime ?
Still Life of Citrus and Slime is a very fast album. While its richness can disconcert, it is also a proof of quality, which will make us listen to it again after 20 other garage albums get in our way. The strength of this LP lays in its will to surprise us continuously. CFM sometimes makes it at the cost of the melody, but it must be noted that the final result is among those that leave a mark on a year. When too many bands refuse statements and seem to rely on the idea of releasing an album to please the most, CFM comes to tell us to refocus the artistic values around their progressive aspect.
Taking this into consideration, it’s impossible to put Still Life of Citrus and Slime much closer to another LP. Of course, we can find similarities with Thee Oh Sees. There is a messy DIY aspect which reinforces the creepy side of the creations there. And, maybe, there is a psychedelic will, highlighted by an excellent control of the studio work, and I insist on this point. But CFM scores when he brutalises us with a few tracks we have trouble taking over. It seems to me that a guy named Ty Segall took the same approach with his latest album… The tone is set. The frame may be crooked (see the album’s cover), but it must be noted that CFM seems to have made everything in the straight way of posterity. First albums of this calibre are scarce, or even exceptional. Dear friends, we have just witnessed the birth of a Name.
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