|
Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Breaking The Fourth Wall [Circus Company]
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Glaniskanis |
Guillaume Coutu Dumont has been unstoppable over the past three years. Since releasing his debut album, Face À L'Est, on Montreal's Musique Risquée label in 2007, the Montreal-born Berliner has released a steady stream of EPs, remixes and compilation tracks for Circus Company, Musique Risquée, Oslo, Cocoon and many more.
He's also kept up a nonstop touring schedule, wowing crowds the world over with a dynamic live show that never sounds the same twice. Throughout, he's developed one of the most distinctive styles in contemporary house music-a deep, powerful and original fusion of Afro-Latin percussion, instrumental melodies, soulful vocals, and intricate rhythm programming. Now, with his new album Breaking the Fourth Wall, he takes another big step forward.
From dark-and-stormy basement jams to Ethiopian-tinged fantasias, from Afrobeat to ambient house, Breaking the Fourth Wall finds Guillaume venturing far beyond the limits of 4/4 boompty-boompty. He set himself the added challenge of making the album sound as much like the work of a live band as possible. To do so, he availed himself of a close community of musician friends, beginning with dOP, recording in their Paris studio. (In a sign of a true two-way collaboration, they'll feature their own version of the resulting track, "Can't Have Everything," on their next album, re-titled "Assurance Vie.") Dave Aju recorded the vocals for "On the Lips" in his San Francisco studio. Switzerland/Zaire's Dynamike, whom Guillaume met at the Montreux Jazz Festival, brings an Afro-beat feel to "Radio Novela." Guillaume's longtime collaborators Marc-André Charbonneau, Sébastien-Arcand Tourigny and Nicolas Boucher all feature on various tracks, playing guitar, saxophone and Rhodes. Even Guillaume's brother, the photographer and video artist Gabriel Coutu Dumont, turns up on guitar on "Discothèque." Together, these and other ferociously talented musicians help translate Guillaume's musical vision into a living, breathing, collective effort.
But it all holds together as a remarkably coherent listening experience, while remaining far more varied than your average 12" single. While the DJs will have plenty to keep them busy, between driving cuts like "Mindtrap," "Can't Have Everything," "Hélicoptère" and "Walking the Pattern," the album takes many turns, slipping into a slow 6/8 shuffle on "Discothèque" and digging into a kind of dub-cumbia on "Radio Novela"; "Intermede" and "Unwelcomed" both explore murky atmospheres swirling with organ and sampled acoustic instruments.
It's that acoustic element that gives Breaking the Fourth Wall such uncommon depth. Muted synthesizers and unobtrusive drum machines are the glue and staples holding together a panoramic collage of saxophones, congas, piano, Rhodes, Hammond organ, choral passages, preachers' vocals, brushed drumming and more. ("Hélicoptère" is the lone exception, with its grinding techno arpeggios.) It's all polished off with killer hooks and vocals you might call subliminal, they burrow so deep into your head.
The title Breaking the Fourth Wall refers to dissolving the imaginary boundary between actors and audience. That's a concept Guillaume knows well: his live sets are all about demolishing the division between stage and dance floor, absorbing up everyone present into an all-encompassing funk organism. Now he takes the concept even further, blurring the lines between sampling and composition, between machines and acoustic instruments, between the nightclub and the living room. Put it on and witness a new musical world coming sharply into focus-no 3D glasses required.
And keep your eyes peeled for Guillaume's new full-band live project, featuring keyboards, saxophone, vocals and more: Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts feat. the Side Effects will make their debut at MUTEK this spring!
Release date: May 3rd
Label: Circus Company
Catalog number: CCCD007
Tracklist:
01. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Mindtrap
02. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts feat. dOP - Can‘t Have Everything
03. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - 32 Tonnes De Pigeons
04. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts feat. Dave Aju - On The Lips
05. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Intermède (Breaking The Fourth Wall)
06. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Discotèque
07. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Unwelcome
08. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Hélicoptère
09. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Walking The Pattern
10. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts feat. Dynamike - Radio Novela
11. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Décennie
Listen to All Tracks |
|
|
| Haak |
| Samples sound pretty awesome. Looking forward to it. |
|
|
| Frenkieee |
| Love the artwork. Gonna listen to the samples now. |
|
|
| woscar |
| I just soiled myself. |
|
|
| enydo |
| I really love the artwork, hopefully the music satisfies as well. I'm sure it will. :) |
|
|
| Schadenfreude |
| can't wait until Mutek.:) |
|
|
| Clovis |
| Given the amount of original music he has now his live set must be off the chain... |
|
|
| Kismet7 |
Samples sound great, and sounds like music that DJs could actually turn around and use in their sets and share with their crowds. If i'm going to buy an album, i'd like to be able to have something worth listening to, and that I could take pieces from and use in a set. I have plenty of the ambient stuff producers put in their albums already, that metaphorically say "look I does ambients, I more artist." lol. Though I do love a good ambient piece or two in an album.
Guillame is turning to be one of my favourites, the more I hear from him. One of a small group of Producers, whose quality vs quantity ratio are very high, great discography.
Dope cover art. |
|
|
| Clovis |
| Guillaume is just a ing immensely talented guy. He's far more musically inclined than most and has a great ear for a variety of sounds, which translate into his music. The man spent a fair amount of time in africa playing in drum circles...pretty deep. |
|
|
| Kismet7 |
| Indeed the mans craft is up there, setting high levels... |
|
|
|
|
