★★★☆☆
Antoine Husson’s greatest trick would be to put the two parts of the dancefloor he separates back together like a member of the magic circle, fooling those thinking that it can’t be done. Electro and tech-snipped house both deep and combative are the big deal here, but with a jumble of beats also in attendance, the two don’t mesh well enough to validate any nip and tuck, back and forth, or high to low pressure situations the French authority puts forward.
Reeled off one after the other, the big room kickers make for a steaming great set of dancefloor force and contours. “The Rave Child,” a flare-up of steadily released euphoria, and “Lili” finishing as a ruminative quest for hope, are the kind of variation that fits. That the beastly spines of “Silky” and tech house gruel of art/life imitations “Irritated” and “Lowd” find themselves dropping back towards “Airy Filed”, with its acoustics and accordions, and “Saturn” lessening with pale pianos, is Husson not being terribly protective of the vibe he’s built up.
“To Sail”, in the hands of recurring smoothie Gran Cavaliere and set to a sub-western soundtrack, is quite dramatic, but is a distant relative scooped up by the throbbing thunder of “The Four Keys”, in one of the album’s less logical sequences. Harsh/greedy as it sounds, it’s a house and techno album that needs more house and techno to guarantee a good thing.
Matt Oliver
File under: D’Jedi, Laurent Garnier, Maxime Dangles