Moderne / L’Espionne Aimait La Musique

Moderne

Moderne / L’Espionne Aimait La Musique

 

2009

  • Front Cover
    Front Cover
  • Inside Sleeve - Left
    Inside Sleeve - Left
  • Inside Sleeve - Right
    Inside Sleeve - Right
  • Back Cover
    Back Cover
  • Poster - Side A
    Poster - Side A
  • Poster - Side B
    Poster - Side B
  • 1.
    Indicatif
    0:00
  • 2.
    Séduction
    0:00
  • 3.
    Histoire Ordinaire
    0:00
  • 4.
    Electronique
    0:00
  • 5.
    Vers L'Est
    0:00
  • 6.
    Rock'n Roll Stars
    0:00
  • 7.
    Sans Signalement
    0:00
  • 8.
    Switch On Bach
    0:00
  • 9.
    Mercenaire Solitaire
    0:00
  • 10.
    Judo-O-Dojo
    0:00
  • 11.
    La Romance
    0:00
  • 12.
    Qu Elle Me Caresse
    0:00
  • 13.
    Eldorado
    0:00
  • 14.
    Video Idéale
    0:00
  • 15.
    L'Homme D'Affaires
    0:00
  • 16.
    Dilemma
    0:00
  • 17.
    Mode
    0:00
  • MW017

A limited edition release of Moderne’s two full length LPs: Moderne (1980) and L’Espionne Aimait La Musique (1981), remastered from the original analog reels and pressed on 180 gram audiophile quality vinyl. The gatefold artwork features photographs of the band, and is printed on heavyweight 350 gram double white board, with a matte laminate and black inner sleeves. The release is accompanied by a double sided 18” x 24” poster featuring an interview with the band on one side, and photograph on the other.

Moderne formed in Tours, France in 1979. The band consisted of: Gérard Lévy, Thierry Teyssou, Bernard Guimond, Dominique Marchetti and their videographer Patrick Millerioux. After releasing two albums and two corresponding 7” singles between 1980 and 1981, nothing was heard from Moderne and aside from the release of “Switch on Bach” (on the compilation So Young But So Cold in 2004), very little has been heard from this band. Moderne remains notoriously hidden in the past, and their albums and singles have become collectors’ items. The albums were recorded in their Tours studio and mixed by Joschko Rudas and Henning Schmitz at Studio Rudas Düsseldorf, the same studio Kraftwerk used for Man Machine (1978). The production is exceptional. This is French new wave at its best. Check the sound samples here. Check the images samples: front, inside, and back. *Order directly from Minimal Wave and receive a CD version of the release in a matching jacket.

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* Denotes bonus track(s) available only on a CD / Digital version of this release, if a CD / Digital version of this release is available

 

All sample clips are 30-90 seconds in length

Reviews

     

    Yet another Minimal Wave treasure, on the platter this time around are French robots Moderne, a group active from 1979 until 1981, who released a handful of singles and two LPs before biting the dust. OM customers may know Moderne via the inclusion of their track “Switch on Bach” on the somewhat infamous So Young But So Cold compilation of French cold/new/synth wave from a few years back. If your appetite was whetted, here we find both of the band’s two long players (1980’s Moderne and 1981’s L’Espionne Aimait La Musique) reissued in full. So how’s the music? In a word, fantastic. The most obvious comparison would be a French Kraftwerk circa Computer World or The Man Machine (the albums were in fact mixed at the same Dusseldorf studio Kraftwerk used to record The Man Machine back in ‘78), but I get reminded quite a bit of groups like Marc Moulin’s Telex or many of the artists for which he wrote and produced songs, like Lio and Miharu Koshi. The music is lean, economic, and incredibly catchy, with more warmth than the usual Teutonic textures of this sound, and as such the results are beautiful. There are dancefloor killers (“Sans Signalement,” “Sé duction,” “Eldorado”), some lonely bedroom laments (“Histoire Ordinaire”), and spades of cinematic flare, particularly on the second album. These records had been absurdly rare for quite some time, so I went completely bonkers at finally being able to hear both of them when they were first reissued last year after only knowing the singles for so long, ensuring Moderne a spot on my Best of 2009 list.

     
    Mikey IQ Jones - Other Music - April 5, 2010

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