Super Parquet (2015)
4 tracks, 43 minutes
Bandcamp ∙ Spotify ∙ iTunes
Featuring albums by Dub FX and Dr Didg in the past couple days, we’ve been in a world of loops, and now that we’re with Super Parquet, that isn’t going to change just yet. When I interviewed the band back in 2017 for an article (which you can read at my other blog), they were totally clear on what was the most important thing about their music when they just kept saying “drones and loops” over and over, in a quite nice verbal representation of what they do.
In a sentence, Super Parquet’s music is a marrying of folk dance music form the Auvergne region of France with electronica, techno and musique concrète, but such a description gives only a small hint as to what the group actually sound like. They’re not very easy to listen to; their instruments all have harsh tones, from the cabrette bagpipes, banjo and the boîte à bourdon (the ‘bumblebee box,’ sort of a cross between a hurdy-gurdy and a shruti box) to the overdistorted synthesisers and the super-crunchy drum machines. They also revel in disturbing sounds, dissonances are found and dwelled upon, without the musicians ever really feeling the need to resolve them. Throughout the entirety of the first track, a harsh, sawtooth synth drone plays, first in the bass registers but slowly sliding all the way upward towards mosquito levels, and hitting every single dissonance along the way. It’s uncomfortable and they love it.
The great thing about their sound is that it’s completely unrelenting. That’s the thing about drones and loops – they will go on forever until you tell them to stop…and this is a band that don’t like to stop. They will build and build for as long as they like, raising the tension and never really letting that drop come in the way you expect. That’s taken to the extreme in the final track of this set, ‘Bourrée à Solomagne’, which is 22 minutes of beautifully agonising build up before the tension is released right at the end.
This is music to overwhelm the senses. In that way, it’s quite like the ritual music of North African Sufis such as the Gnawa or Stambeli. The band have got the ears covered, but to get that full out-of-your-mind experience, there needs to be some element of disorientation. The only time I’ve seen them live was in a huge arena in Poland. Their performance was up to scratch, but the venue was just too spacious. I’d love to see them in a small, packed club, incredibly dark except for the dancing and strobing stage lights, with heavy, incense-tinged air. I reckon in that context, this music would be a trance-inducer to rival any religious ritual.
Super Parquet is the only material the band have released so far, and it is from four years ago. They seem to have gone fairly quiet in the last year or so, and I really hope that means that they’re busy focusing their attention to the studio, creating some brilliant new album. Fingers crossed, eh? But until they come out with that one, at least we have this one to be getting on with – it’s not bad!
UPDATE: I have been reliably informed that we will be getting some exciting new recordings by Super Parquet very soon, and a whole new album by the end of the year – score! So if you like what you hear from this album, keep an ear out for their new stuff. I can't wait!
No comments:
Post a Comment