resurface

Music for Invisible People is the title of Melodium’s second full-length album for Autres Directions in Music. The 13 track album is filled with his brand of quirky acoustically based electronic music that can be heard on previous releases such as Parthenay EP from 2003 (which is also the very first ADIM release), La Tête Qui Flotte from 2005 and Hum Hum & Bla Bla released the same year. The biggest difference would be the vocals, that have now been incorporated into each and every song. The sincerity cannot be missed and the end-result is ultimately a question of personal taste. Autre Directions in Music continues to safeguard their uniqueness and it is a good thing that Melodium does the same. Another chapter to the evolving story about individual sounding productions has just been added.

One of Adim’s rising stars strikes again, this time around his œuvre is somewhat cryptically entitled “Hum Hum & Bla Bla” and proudly carrying catalogue number Moulin014. The EP consists of eight songs all branded with the Melodium insignia. Starting off with “Untitled 1″ a gentle melody acting as intro to the rest of the EP, this melody is then carried onto the next song “Hellomusic (Ochre remix)” and expands as the as lovely as massive string arrangements and gentle acoustic guitar are fused with 1+1 step beats. This is great stuff. “Untitled 2″ features feather light beats, the trademark acoustic guitar and strings drifting into heavily distorted light beats. “Gamm-recomposé (Audioroom remix)” a piano and ultra distorted beats fused with mechanical machine sound sampling creates irresistible rhythms and contrast that are simply breathtaking. “Untitled 3″, repetition can be beautiful as is the case in this piano based piece. “Untitled 4″ again brilliant melodies from Melodium and manipulation by an artist by the name of Audioroom. This track displays some rather interesting arrangements involving the sound of crickets and clever reversed sound engineering – the end-result being a very unique sounding delight. “Untitled 5″ which is quirky and disjointed in that unmistakably Melodium way and finally “La fin de tout (Marsen Jules remix)” with layers of acoustic guitars framing this eight and last track. The Marsen Jules remix is a fitting end to “Hum Hum & Bla Bla” an excellent piece of contemporary electronic music. Made by Melodium, interpreted by Ochre, Audioroom and Marsen Jules and released by Autres Directions in Music.

The latest release from ADIM features a full-length album by Melodium entitled “La Tête Qui Flotte”. He released the very first ADIM recording “Parthenay EP” in 2003 when the label was established and now some two years later he releases their 13th record. ADIM has been spearheading the electro acoustic movement and any other label could not have put out this release. Melodium’s productions are still set in quirky, lo-fi and toy-like sounding mode, but his sound has evolved since the “Parthenay EP” days. The album contains 15 tracks in total and the variation on the theme is broad. As many other artists Melodium is exploring the characteristics of humanly emitted sounds, that is, vocals. Whether these explorations are successful or not are down to personal taste. A few tracks that stand out in my mind are “Mon Baromètre Mental” and “Greg Davis > Craig Davis” are productions that are as individually sounding as they’re excellent and all of them lack vocals “Interlude Pour Dépressifs” and “Gamm-recomposé” also have cinematic qualities. With “La Tête Qui Flotte”, Melodium and Autre Directions in Music adds another chapter to the story about individual sounding productions.

“Parthenay EP” is the very first release from  (Adim) comes from Melodium. Autres Directions (look in ED’s link section) is a French electronica web-zine and Adim is their web-label and they take DIY very seriously: “available records on adim can be dowloaded for free, the artists involved having agreed to that, original works and creations belong to the artist alone, cd covers are available for downloading and printing. records can thus be burnt on cd, copied on a minidisc, saved on a hard disk, etc. in the same way, anyone can create his own cd cover or print it on coloured paper… it is up to everyone to do according to one’s own wishes. DIY” The “Parthenay EP” contains eight tracks in total five by Melodium and three remixes. Starting off with “Ichtio” light beats alongside chords, lo-fi and toy like sounds, then mid-through the track breaks and the beats are mashed-up, yet they’re still light. Quirky is the word. “Terminus” has a lo-fi acoustic feeling to it, feather-light beats and very strong melody. Great atmosphere and excellent melodies in the following tracks, hard to pin-point exactly what makes these track so good, but “Pause 1″ and “Pluraple” are the best tracks on this EP. After “Pluraple” follow the remixes, “Ichtio (Remixed by Motenai & Mimao)” is a quite conventional sounding take, on the original track. “Mmiomm (Remixed by Dudley)” acoustic guitar, breaks and a healthy dose of bass, made for the eclectic dance floor maybe? “Terminus (Remixed by Depth Affect)” added basslines, sampled vocals and attempting to set the track in definite hip-hop mode and it’s working. “Mmiomm” the final track on the EP and like “Pause 1″ and “Pluraple” it got that understated and hard-to-catch quality, very nice indeed. The first release on Adim promises more and the next release will be featuring one of the remixers, namely Dudley. The debut album entitled “seasonal LP” will be carrying the catalogue number Moulin 002 and downloadable in the near future.