Search - Pas Chic Chic :: Au Contraire (Dig)

"A swirling experimental take on '60s French pop. There's a lot going on here ... repeat spins reveal an adventurous and dramatic record that puts the band on par with some of their more famous Montreal homies (Arcade Fire, Malajube)." -- Gorilla vs. Bear "Trippy Francophone pop purveyors conjure a tilted landscape of sound--a bold debut with strains of avant-garde musical elements battling for space within the heady compositions." -- Exclaim "The band's exciting, experimental synth-pop borrows liberally from French chanson, turbo-charging it with lush psychedelia, soul, swooning ambience, and noise." -- The National Post "A beautiful blend of seductive '60s French pop and Farfisa/Mellotron wonky psychedelic delight ... a treat of an album." -- The Organ UK Pas Chic Chic is a band apart, formed in Autumn 2005. After the release of their first 7" single in 2006, they quickly gained the reputation as one of Canada's brightest new acts and found themselves embraced by the online tastemakers worldwide, despite their lyrics being in French. The Montreal quintet's lineup features former members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire To Flames, Fly Pan Am, and Cursed, and sees the group venturing in new directions previously unexplored in their rich musical past. Debut album Au Contraire was released in Canada on the 50th anniversary of the BBC founding the Radiophonic Workshop that was created for the purpose of experimenting with new ways of using electronics to create new forms of music. Pas Chic Chic now continues where the BBC left off. With echoes of Roxy Music, Neu!, Os Mutantes, Francois de Roubaix, and My Bloody Valentine, the band weaves through their influences while creating a whole new vein of pop. The enigmatic French male vocals evoke a darkened Serge Gainsbourg, only for the ethereal singing of Marie- Douce to bring back the Technicolor. Their fractured melodies, cinematic arrangements, driving rhythms, and retro-futuristic synths simultaneously bring to mind psychedelia, shoegaze, and tropicalia. This is pop music with one foot in the past and the other in the distant future.