Foretaste – Happy End! (Album – BOREDOMproduct)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: The previous Foretaste-album was released in 2016. The sixth album “Happy End!” got preceded by the EP “Lost: Run!” which let us discover three songs that are featured on this new opus. “Happy End!” has been composed and accomplished during the disastrous pandemic year of 2020.
Content: Does the title of this album reflect a positive plot of the pandemic? That’s at least what this album seems to indicate, but sound-wise it doesn’t sound at all as the most ‘happy’ work from the French formation. The songs are darker, sometimes even a bit Experimental while some sound treatments remind me of a ‘poppy version’ of Die Form. This is pure, retro-like Electro-Pop recovered by doom atmospheres, but created by delicate and sensitive sound treatments. Just a few songs are more danceable, the main part of the tracklist remaining more Experimental and filled with total minimalism. One track (cf. “Robotic blues”) sounds a bit Cinematographic and is mainly sung guest singer JB (Dekad) while the female vocals by Creature XX remain the lead.
+ + + : Foretaste didn’t repeat themselves although you still easily recognize the band’s typical sound. This is robotic-pop music, which is more into Minimalism and Experimentalism than ever before. I’m not surprised the best songs of the album are the ones, which are a little bit more danceable (cf. “Lost For Seven Years” and “Happy End!”). The main strength of the band is the very unique and intelligent composition. Foretaste is not exactly a band you can compare to another, but they clearly sound in the purest tradition of BOREDOMproduct and their label mates of Celluloide.
– – – : “Happy End!” is not what I would call the most accessible work from this formation. It’s more sophisticated and still into Experimentalism, which will maybe not catch the attention of a wider audience.
Conclusion: “Happy End!” is an album without compromise; it doesn’t sound happy at all and yet you are quickly going to like the dark Electronic moods of Foretaste.
Best songs: “Lost For Seven Years”, “Happy End!”, “Pure Madness”, “In My Game”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.facebook.com/foretastemusic
Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct Read the news on ‘Happy End!’.
About Foretaste
Foretaste is a French synthpop duo of Sylvie Billy, who records as Creature XX (also known as Terrorist XX and Lover XX) on vocals, and Pierre Atoch, who records as Creature XY (also known as Terrorist XY and Lover XY) on programming. The duo releases through BOREDOMproduct. Foretaste released the album “Space Echo” in 2016. The EP “Lost: Run!” preceded “Happy End!”, the duo’s sixth studio album, released in 2021 on BOREDOMproduct.
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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.
