2009年01月24日
PLATIC D’AMOUR
PLATIC D’AMOUR
Music would you expect from a band with a name like this? Aural vignettes of French pop? Gentle songs, ideal for Sunday afternoons in autumn? A band with the ingredients that influence and seduce the cult Japanese labels? Music for photographers or fashion designers? Birkin meets Gainsbourg? Bardot meets Katerine? Francis Lai’s grandson and grandaughter? Plastic: English. Plastique, French. Plástico, Spanish. …d’amour: French …of love, English … de amor, Spanish.
Love is made of plastic, bubblegum or plasticine. It is soft and yummy.
Plastic d’amour comes from Madrid: Alberto is a musician and Blanca, who sings and writes the lyrics, speaks French.
Well, all of you might be right. The records of this promising duo are a simple pleasure populated with emotional and bouncy, not-particularly-assertive pop songs. Despite singing primarily in French (except some English in The funny thing & Songs and Books) Blanca and Alberto are two talented and cosmopolitan Spanish musicians (and restless tourists). Of course the creative formula is implausibly and firmly rooted in 60”s French pop heritage, but their records are both modern and classic. I wouldn't call Plastic d’amour retro or derivative. Their sound is broad enough to accommodate nods in a number of directions; dreamy piano arrangements; bossa nova smoothness; eighties Crépuscule tender electro pop; jangly bass and guitar sounds. In short the formula is a simple equation, but executed extremely well. And without all the dance paraphernalia a la Bungalow or any kitschy hype parts.
Tracks:
http://www.siesta.es/pags/disco.asp?codigoSiesta=148
Olivia and Nicolas?
Olivia: instead of bearing children, Plastic d’amour deliver records with baby names whenever possible. This is their most striking work to date. Plastic d’amour have conjured up a remarkably fresh, forward-looking sound with a distinctive melodic sensibility and a rich emotive register. “Olivia” also succeeds at capturing a certain feeling of transcendence; it is not pop that relies on kitsch or clichés to get its point across. Songs weave their way through the pros and cons of love, anger, grief, bittersweet days gone past, bucolic and urban settings and moods of the sort that exist in poetry and nouvelle vague.
After Olivia (siesta 178) a new common name, Nicolás, appears in 2006. He is indeed the adolescent brother of a well grown Olivia. Some people say that he is a clumsy and thuggish juvenile guy compared to fragile Olivia. Nicolás seems to have an uncertain future versus the well-programmed life of fortunate Olivia. He might need a tutor.
Three years have passed since Olivia left home and now Nicolás enjoys to be in the limelight. This album signals a new level of maturity for the venerable Madrid ensemble and a good opportunity to expose Blanca Lacasa and Alberto Matesanz from the band Plastic d'Amour in their birthday suit: brutality (Le réveil); raw nudity (Plus rien); light psychedelia (Détour) and pleasant darkness (J’ai peur). This is an extremely listenable album and the more listens you give it, the more you find to love.
Naked guitars run throughout their music whereas there is a solid and elliptical sonic architecture that shows scattered moments and confusion. Nicolás is somehow a playful and maverick person, exactly like debonair Blanca and Alberto. Alberto is behind other projects such as Mate and apart from being a reputed architect he is a bright and fecund inhouse songwriter at Siesta (Escarlatinas, Cristina Georgina, Bel Divioleta). Blanca is a pretty journalist and a true talented lyricist. Her lyrics are poignant and heartfelt.
The record is a fascinating ragbag similar to the private room of Nicolás, a farrago. And Plastic d'amour proves to be one of the brighter stars of the international pop underground in recent years. They have unquestionably a distinctive approach to pop music, effortlessly building a pleasant, floating, insulated tiny world you get lost in right away. A very good place to be.
After Olivia (siesta 178) a new common name, Nicolás, appears in 2006. He is indeed the adolescent brother of a well grown Olivia. Some people say that he is a clumsy and thuggish juvenile guy compared to fragile Olivia. Nicolás seems to have an uncertain future versus the well-programmed life of fortunate Olivia. He might need a tutor.
Three years have passed since Olivia left home and now Nicolás enjoys to be in the limelight. This album signals a new level of maturity for the venerable Madrid ensemble and a good opportunity to expose Blanca Lacasa and Alberto Matesanz from the band Plastic d'Amour in their birthday suit: brutality (Le réveil); raw nudity (Plus rien); light psychedelia (Détour) and pleasant darkness (J’ai peur). This is an extremely listenable album and the more listens you give it, the more you find to love.
Naked guitars run throughout their music whereas there is a solid and elliptical sonic architecture that shows scattered moments and confusion. Nicolás is somehow a playful and maverick person, exactly like debonair Blanca and Alberto. Alberto is behind other projects such as Mate and apart from being a reputed architect he is a bright and fecund inhouse songwriter at Siesta (Escarlatinas, Cristina Georgina, Bel Divioleta). Blanca is a pretty journalist and a true talented lyricist. Her lyrics are poignant and heartfelt.
The record is a fascinating ragbag similar to the private room of Nicolás, a farrago. And Plastic d'amour proves to be one of the brighter stars of the international pop underground in recent years. They have unquestionably a distinctive approach to pop music, effortlessly building a pleasant, floating, insulated tiny world you get lost in right away. A very good place to be.
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