Album Review: April March & Aquaserge - April March & Aquaserge
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
April March has worked with rather a lot of other artists in her twenty year career to date and this is her fourth fully collaborative album. Indulging her beguiling take on all things French to the maximum this time she's teamed up with Aquaserge, an outfit who seem to be a side-project for members of Tame Impala, Stereolab & Melody's Echo Chamber.
Stereolab are in fact brought to mind a number of times throughout the album, as are The Free Design (a not unusual occurrence on a March album) and, on second track 'J'entends Des Voix', AIR. As ever though this is not merely an exercise in francophilia - summery psychedelic pop for discerning adults is served up in great big dollops and if you know what's good for you you'll eat up every one of the dozen morsels on your plate.
Pacing is one of the album's negative points as the jazz-inflected 'Sybarite' and wistful 'Red Life' could have done with being placed lower down the pecking order but this is a minor niggle given the overall subtle production of the entire work and the tight playing throughout (pay close attention to the drumming on 'Spirals').
Playfulness is a key element at the core of this work & nowhere is that better displayed than on the first single taken from it - 'Des Tics Et Des Tocs', with March's vocals sounding like those of a particularly knowing child and the backing track, especially that tuba-like sound, coming over like the theme tune to a kids' tv show.
You'll not be tearing up the dancefloor to the album as a whole but the garage rock (broadly speaking) of 'Love Is A Maze' and the later 'Pourquoi Parce Que' could well see you shaking a tail feather or two. From thereon to the end we're in mellower, cocktail lounge territory once more but in company like this that's the ideal place to be.
April March & Aquaserge will be released on May 13 and will be available from amazon.