Centenaire – 2-The Enemy CD
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Centenaire – 2-The Enemy CD
Formed in the early days of 2006 by three semi veterans of the indie rock and electronic music underground in Paris (Damien Mingus aka My Jazzy Child, Aurélien Potier, Axel Monneau aka Orval Carlos Sibelius) somewhat tired with the electric sound, Centenaire initially dreamed itself as a chamber folk trio, playing acoustic guitar, charango and cello... First and foremost for pecuniary reasons (and rehearse at home, drinking tea), then for the artistic crave of playing hide-and-seek with the complex schemes of baroque music, silence, the Penguin Café Orchestra, Yes, Delta blues, Pentangle, Mark Hollis or, in a simpler manner, to tell tell-tale stories directly from mouth to ear. After having initiated the hype of home concerts, Centenaire put on weight with the arrival of multi-instrumentalist Stéphane Laporte (Domotic), of a drum mini-kit and of an electrical organ, and considerably extended its musical grammar (from Sonic Youth to Tortoise) with every new retreat to the countryside. Now comes The Enemy, and you can hear clearly that the boys in the band went deeper into the forest. They wandered in quiet, silent glades, met with strange trees with weird ramifications and beds of electrical brambles: in seven tracks and half an hour of music produced with the help of sound engineer extraordinaire Miguel Constantino (Papier Tigre, Talibam) and mastered by Alan Douches (Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens, Mastodon...), Centenaire bring in mind at different moments the celestial pop of The Beatles or The Sea and Cake, Elliott Smith s tetchy folk music or This Heat s storms of steel. Here and there, a sequel of chords will remind you of Yo la Tengo, a vocal line will evoke the Canterbury School of progressive pop. Yet the most important questions remain: is it soft or violent music? Trivial pop or sheer melancholy? It s hard to say; just as hard in fact as it is to attach Centenaire to other musical scenes, both in France and abroad. One sure thing, though: whether the music is acoustic, electric or electronic, nothing frightens them. So don t believe Centenaire when they sing « I found a way to be like you » : they re just not alike any other band in the World.