#french garage

Not for Seigner the cliché of the breathy French ingénue; singing in French and English, she brings a world-weary insouciance perfectly in tune with the narcotic fuzz of the music. Her tone and mood harks back to her 2007 collaboration with VU influenced French duo, Ultra Orange on which she gave full reign to her professed love for the Stooges, Lou Reed and contemporaries like Mazzy Star.  

Her duet with Bertrand Belin “On Dansait Avec Elle” based on a slowed down ye-ye rhythm works so well because although it brings Gainsbourg to mind, it subverts roles, with Seigner as the knowing lead and Belin following pained and hang dog in her wake. More Charlotte than Serge. Elsewhere there is the motorik drive of “La Brigade des Maléfices” and “Ghost Rider” and the disembodied pop of “Springfield 61” complete with a “La La La” chorus, church bells, tambourines and a warm blanket of fuzz beneath.  

If Diabolique sometimes verges on pastiche the quartet never descend into camp. Seigner has a gravitas that grounds the songs and the band plays it full-blooded building layers of guitars, organs and sitar upon mid-tempo beats to create dense hypnotic fugs. Newcombe’s attention to detail is evident in the production and there are “aha!” moments that reward repeated listening: the percussion sounds and droning guitars on “Un Rituel Inhabituel”, the subtle name checks of The 13th Floor Elevators and the New York Dolls in “Last Picture Show” and the luxuriously analog feel of the entire record.  

L’Epee has produced an album greater than the sum of its myriad of great parts. If Seigner is front and center, Newcombe and the Limiñanas provide her with a filigreed setting. Diabolique is a trip into the underworld from which you will return revitalized and ready for the next leg.