Genre/Influences: Minimal-electro, electro-wave, EBM.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Set up in 2016, “Christophe-Philippe” is the official debut album from the German trio Rue Oberkampf. The name of the band and the title of the album are clearly inspired by the French naturalized German industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf. The album features eight songs plus one remix.

Content: Rue Oberkamp is clearly inspired by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf as their songs are all sung in French. But the main characteristic is the cold and retro-like electro style of the trio. It sounds pretty minimal and analogue-like awakening good-old 80s demons. But a few cuts are somewhat harder, revealing solid EBM lines. Julia De Jouy is the lead singer, but some songs are also featuring male vocals. Most of the songs are sung in French, but you’ll also discover passages sung in English and German.

The last song is a remix of “Agitation” (a song originally featured on the EP “Waveclash”) remixed by Björn Peng”.

+ + + : This debut is absolutely sensational! It’s not that in the style and influences, but in the achievement of the songs. There’s a perfect balance between the differences influences and a cool twist between pure minimal-like electro-wave songs and harder EBM-inspired cuts. The sound treatments are simply magic. I admit I’m a freak when it comes to analogue sound treatments, but this album reveals well-crafted melody lines and great bass lines. Last, but not least the female vocals are injecting this little touch of sensuality!

– – – : I regret the album only features 8 songs and the remix of “Agitatiuon” is not that convincing. 

Conclusion: “Christophe-Philippe” is a fully accomplished opus, but still an amazing debut album for a band I can only encourage to discover!

Best songs: “La Course”, “Glycine”, “Kalt”, “Es Versucht”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/RueOberkampf

Label: https://youngandcold.de /

www.facebook.com/youngandcoldrecords