La Mécanique – Dernier Voyage (CD Album – Cold Transmission Music)
Genre/Influences: Cold-wave.
Background/Info: La Mécanique is the sonic brainchild of Canadian musician Francis Nothingwater. He set up this project in 2016. La Mécanique was featured on a few samplers and has now released its debut album “Dernier Voyage”.
Content: One of the project’s particularities is that all songs have been sung in French. It’s not that unusual, but it definitely creates a particular touch. Sound-wise the songs are driven by good-old cold-wave elements mixing deep bass lines, melancholic guitar playing and electronic arrangements. A few songs have something catchy.
+ + + : La Mécanique has found a comfortable home to release its music. This band totally fits to the Cold transmission spirit. There’s a perfect balance between guitar and electronics although the songs remain first of all driven by the dark-resonating guitar play. The obscure lyrical content creates a perfect twist with the music. I enjoyed the electronic treatments reinforcing the darkness recovering this work, but still injecting a mysterious touch.
– – – : The sound formula is quite similar for all tracks so in the end this album is maybe missing a little diversity, but I’m not complaining.
Conclusion: One of the album’s songs entitled “Isolation” perfectly stands for the atmosphere hanging over this work: this music stand as a sonic metaphor for solitude and depression!
Best songs: “Ballade D’Ennui”, “Lingchi”, “Blablabla”, “Isolation”, “La Tempête”.
Rate: (8).
Artist: www.facebook.com/lamecanique
Label: www.facebook.com/coldtransmissionmusic
About La Mecanique
La Mecanique is the project of Canadian musician Francis Nothingwater, who set it up in 2016 and signed to Cold Transmission Music after appearing on label samplers including “Zeitgeist Vol. 9”. “Dernier Voyage” is the project’s debut album. Nothingwater discussed the all-French lyrics and his DIY approach in a 2019 Click Interview with Side-Line, and followed the album with “L’Oubli Des Origines” on the same label in 2022.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
