2023-11-18 17:45:25
– Claw on the ears
Black Pumas succeeds with an anticipated second album. Also featuring the electro of Aïsha Devi and the ecumenical variety of Vianney.
Published today at 6:45 p.m.
Eric Burton, Black Pumas, during his concert at Montreux Jazz in 2022.
KEYSTONE/Cyril Zingaro
New soul – Black Pumas
In 2019, the duo Black Pumas roared from the Texan desert with the solid platinum voice of Eric Burton – not to be confused with another Animal, this one English, Eric Burdon. In short: the vocal honey poured over a heady neosoul cooked by Adrian Quesada’s instruments hit the mark. At the time of the “still very difficult second album” (four years later, all the same), the pair spices up their concoction with a little modernity and delivers a record more adventurous than the seventies setting of its predecessor. A few electro hums, a big pinch of jazz piano, especially compositions with a less conventional architecture make these “Diamond Chronicles” a captivating trip.
Burton’s vocal abilities remain the Pumas’ greatest asset – the opening flight immediately sets the bar quite high. He gives a reassuring tone to the often chiaroscuro atmospheres painted by his partner, inflating for example with a touch of hope a superb “Tomorrow” which might have descended into melancholy. In the jungle of such a referenced universe, Black Pumas pierces a gap that invites us to follow it. (FBA)
«Chronicles of a Diamond», Black Pumas (ATO Records)
Electronic: Aïsha Devi contemplates death
A complex personality of the globalized electronic scene, Aïsha Devi, formerly Kate Wax, pays particular attention to her mixed origins, born in Switzerland to a Nepalese father, also a musician, whom she never knew, who died young, but of which she always seeks traces, beyond death if necessary.
Here the programmatic title of this new album, “Death is Home”, where the artist’s engineered voice carries his contemplative words like a mantra: “Not Define By The Visible”, “Immortelle” or “Unborn Yet Alive”. Personal therapy program then, which our ears outside its existence can appreciate above all for the sound work, these long tirades of synthesizers, these deep bass rolls. The pace never accelerates. Always, Aïsha Devi does not fail to create a climate conducive to daydreaming, rambling, often epic, strange, almost unreal, totally fascinating. FGO
«Death Is Home», Aïsha Devi (Houndstooth)
Song: Vianney always smells good of variety under the armpits
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“What we do when we take hits, how we do it, I don’t know at all.” The pen of the most youthful of the most popular French singers of the 2020s does not weaken one gram. Even if it takes the help, or help, of a host of no less famous guests to raise, a little, the interest of this very optimistic album on the whole, also very suitable.
So Zazie, Ben Mazué, Bigflo & Oli and even Renaud lend their vocal organ, or what remains of it for some, ditto Gims, Mentissa and even Jean-Louis Aubert. There are acoustic guitars tinkling nicely, hand claps to build enthusiasm, “lalalailai”, “I’m crazy”. Vianney 2023, or how to say that, no, the world is stupid and yet, “how can we change all that? But olala. In the philanthropic song category for ecumenical youth, it is a success. FGO
“At 2 to 3”, Vianney (Soon or Late)
Francois Barras is a journalist in the cultural section. Since March 2000, he has been recounting current, past and perhaps future music.More info
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