Laudanum - As Black as my Heart

We had called it Vocomotiv. The principle was bloody stupid. 2 taperecorders face to face. Whereas the one plays the playback I prepared (for instance, the 4 first seconds of Daniel Balavoine’s "Sauver l'Amour" repeated fifty times or so), the other one records with the ambience mic what my mates and I have decided to repeat on top of it (one chose Queen’s "magiiiic", another chose a "one one" heard somewhere else, and another one a loud "NOOO"). Then the result’s played whereas we record new vocal patterns in superposition. Etc. One or two times not more, because of loss.
It was in the 80s. We made this way tracks that amused us, in pure kludge. No gear. No multitrack, no sampler... but ideas.

Maybe this experience will make me enjoy Laudanum, 15 years later. That is in 2002. Matthieu Malon, who has to his name a good French pop debut album, seeks to clone himself into electro with English words. He’s got ideas and gear. Laudanum’s born this way. With the 1st EP ("Afternoon (To Dorothy Parker)") he sets the bar very high. I’m not at all keen on the genre, but it’s so pretty clever that I endorse it straight away.
4 albums later, Laudanum’style has developed, evolved and grown...
This 4th album was long to come indeed, after a 8-year break (which almost was definitive) followed by a 5-year gestation. But the musician from Orléans didn’t do things by half, for he will not release one record, nor 2, but 3 records one after the other, in steps of 2 months! Wow!

Let’s look into this 1st part and its black color. As much as his heart, he says. Imagine the atmosphere!
There, Creature Laudanum wakes up from a long sleep and it’s still got energy ("ReZisTanz") Then comes the introspective "Self", a good piece of which the repetition of the title word reminds me of "Wrong" from Depeche Mode but also, looking at the litany based on the 1st syllable, "Zeig Dich" from Rammstein or "Left Handed Right Mind" from... Laudanum.
With its quickly addictive crescendo and its insane piling of sounds, "I Want the Horizon", probably the most danceable, it’s perfect hit single material.
"The Trophy Room" looks like "Elle Chasse Mes Rêves" from the same Matthieu Malon, which creates an unexpected – and certainly unintentional – connection between the sides of his work.
The synth waves blow warm, it feels good.
Yet you need to wait till the 5th track ("Cold Comfort") to hear beautiful melodic singing, almost crooner, which reminds me of me Atlantic Popes. And what a sax! It’s time for me to reveal this album is riddled with collaborations (on mic+words, most of the time), thereby getting reacquainted with Your Place and Time will be Mine, Laudanum’s 2nd album de Laudanum, whereas the instrumental developments with extra series quotations ("Lost Together") get reacquainted with System:on, his debut album.

As a film-lover, after having watched Interview with the Vampire, he had called it Laudanum. This wasn’t bloody stupid.