Set up as a solo-project by ‘JB’ French Electro-Pop project Dekad released its debut album “Sin_lab” in 2005. This year Dekad released its fifth album “Nowhere Lines” again on BOREDOMproduct. For the very first time JB joined hands together with an extra member. ‘XY’ who next to be involved with Foretaste also set up together with JB the side-project The Overlookers, got actively involved. The work sounds as Kraftwerk mixed with EBM influences. A great and sophisticated piece of Electronics which incited me to get in touch with JB.  

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: “Nowhere Lines” is the first new Dekad album in seven years and the fifth one in the project’s discography. How does it feel to be ‘back’ and how do you see Dekad today compared to the early years and the first album “Sin_lab” (2005)?

JB: Most of the songs had been written for a long time, but the pandemic made things much more complicated.
The mix and the mastering took some time too but the result is here.

In fact this release was a real liberation. There were other projects I really wanted to focus on (the side-project The Overlookers).

When I compare the 2022 Dekad version to the early years version, I’m rather satisfied by the evolution of the sound and the vocals ! Listening to “Sin_Lab” brings me a mixed feeling of nostalgia and kindness. There were really good ideas in that album and I wish I could go back in time and make it a little different.

Q: You just mentioned The Overlookers side-project which you set up together with ‘XY’ from
Foretaste who also contributed to the new Dekad-album. How do you look back at the experience with The Overlookers and what makes the connection and chemistry between both of you?

JB: XY and I have many things in common! We share the same taste for music, movies, good food and a questionable sense of humor! Things are so easy and at the same time so challenging when you work with XY.

Easy because a single listen of a demo is enough to find the right words and the way to perform the song.

We did not even have to meet during the making of the album. A phone call or an e-mail was enough. It is also challenging because I’m so amazed by his technical skills and his song writing. I must do my best to be worthy. Spoiler alert, a second album should be out in 2023.

Q: “Nowhere Lines” seems to be inspired by uncertain times we’re living in. It’s an item numerous citizens all over Europe and the world are concerned about. What did you try to accentuate and how do you experience changing times for musicians and arts generally speaking?

JB: For the last few years, it is obvious that things are getting worse. When you see those shootings in the US, this unreal war in Ukraine, this non-stop violence everywhere… And no need to talk about our sick climate… This world is crazy!

Music, art in general is more than necessary today. I always keep in mind that I’m lucky to live in a country where freedom of expression still means something. Hopefully this is an exciting time for people who want to make music. Everything is so simpler than 30 years ago. But at the same time very talented musicians will be lost in this huge offer and will never get the attention they deserve. Many are called, but few are chosen…

Q: How did the writing of “Nowhere Lines” happened? What have been the funny moments and satisfactions at one side and elements of frustration at the other side?

JB: For the first time, I decided not to put too many pressure on myself with deadlines. I just let the songs come. Sometimes, I could stay away from the machines during several weeks, that was not a problem.
And as I stressed earlier, the mood of this album is influenced by the times we are living. This is why it is so dark.
For me, the moment of satisfaction is always the same. It is when I plug the mic and start putting vocals on the first track I wrote. Most of the time this is also a funny moment because the result is usually awful, or at least, unexpected! The frustration usually arrives when the album is finished and sent to BOREDOMproduct. This is when I start to hear all the little imperfections, the things I could have done wiser.

Q: You released a clip for the song “A Deadly Show”. Is it still important releasing clips today –especially as an underground artist? What did you try to express by the imagery (clip)? And what are the further plans now the album has been released?

JB: In my opinion, a single needs a clip. It would be a nonsense not to use a platform like Youtube or Wimeo when you know that it gives you the opportunity to reach millions of people. For the single “A Deadly Show”, I wanted a striking idea to illustrate the subject of the song. And this ‘Day of the Dead’ lady was for me a good illustration.

As for further plans, there will be a third single called “Promises” in the next few weeks. Here again, the imagery  should appeal to you…

Q: I never asked this questions to any other band signed to BOREDOMproduct, but there’s a common ‘sound’ and connection between all bands of the label. You sometimes get the feeling there’s only one single artist dealing with multiple projects. What’s the true connection and common thread between all artists? And do you feel something like a ‘label family’-thing?

JB: Well, there is a common denominator: ‘Member U-0176’! We have been working together for 17 years now and I must admit that his advices and artistic choices are always relevant. He has very set ideas about what is good and what is bad for a song. The result is here. People who listen bands from BOREDOMProduct always stress the quality of the production.

I would talk about a strong fellowship rather than a ‘family’ thing. We know that we can count on each other if necessary. To give you an example, if it was not for XY and XX, I would never spend hours and hours learning Foretaste songs and go onstage with them! But it is so much fun every time we get together that they could take me with them anywhere! I just wish we could see each other more often.

Side-Line also covered Dekad’s ‘Promises’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Experimental-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: After having re-released Thee Hyphen’s debut album “Incidental Tools Of Confusion”, we now get the second album. “Re.Sound” was originally released in 1996. Twenty five years later, the French project driven by ‘Member U-0176’ is back on track. The ten original songs have been cleaned up while there’s an extra bonus track featured.

Content: “RE.Sound” moves on where the debut album stopped. It remains a very minimal experience in Electro-Pop; sometimes reminding me of Depeche Mode, but without the melodies. Several songs are clearly revealing the later sound of Celluloide –and that’s not a coincidence as Member U-0176 went on with Celluloide. The vocals remain sweet, sometimes even fragile. And just as for the re-release of “Incidental Tools Of Confusion”, we get a remix of one song as a bonus cut.

+ + + : It’s amazing to see how contemporary and refreshing this work sounds today. The Depeche Mode influence is present, but Thee Hyphen sounds as an Experimental exposure of Electro-Pop. The magic of analogue sound treatments resulting in multiple effects and sweeps has something very personal. It’s not exactly ‘happy’ Electro-Pop, but definitely a sound from another dimension. There are several cool songs featured, but the more dancefloor driven remix of “Mind.Polluted” is absolutely cool.

– – – : Electro-Pop without explicit melody lines sounds maybe as Hard-Rock without a guitar solo… and that’s maybe one or the reasons this band remained rather unknown. 

Conclusion: I rediscover Thee Hyphen and their sound has an even greater impact on me today than when it was originally released.

Best songs: “Mind.Polluted Remix”, “Veiled.Words”, “Pink”, “Leaves.Me.In.The.Cold”, “Drink.In.Your.Mouth”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.theehyphen.online.fr / www.facebook.com/theehyphen

Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct Read the news on ‘Re.Sound’.

About Thee Hyphen

Thee Hyphen is the solo project of the French electronic musician known as Member U-0176, who also plays keyboards in the synthpop band Celluloide. The project works with minimal analogue electronics and releases through the French label BOREDOMproduct.

Thee Hyphen emerged in the mid-1990s with “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” in 1994 and “Re.Sound” in 1996, followed by “Organique” in 1998 and “Consolidated Green” in 2004. The catalogue then went out of circulation for years.

BOREDOMproduct began reissuing the back catalogue in 2021 with remastered CD editions of “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” and the album reviewed here. The reissue programme continued with a remastered digipak CD of “Organique” in May 2025, carrying four bonus tracks recorded during abandoned 2002 sessions, and a five-track EP titled “Digital” in January 2025.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: BOREDOMproduct brings us back in time, to one of the label’s first releases. Thee Hyphen was the solo-project of Member U-0176 who got later on involved with Celluloide and Signal Bruit. This album was originally released in 1994 on cassette and CDR and has been now remastered and released on CD for the very first time.

Content: Thee Hyphen can be best defined as Electro-Pop, but clearly an atypical format for its particular bleeps (sometimes reminding me of Celluloide) and Experimental treatments. It sometimes makes me think of an ‘outer-space’ edit of Depeche Mode. Analogue effects and subtle, metallic sound treatments are running through the work with some string parts on top. The vocals have something sweet. The last song is a kind of ‘bonus’ remix of “Into Dirt”.

+ + + : If you consider this album is nearly 30 years old, it’s simply amazing to see how visionary this album was. The songs don’t suffer from any weight of time and still have a refreshing touch because of the bleeping sequences and refined metallic sound treatments. It has been a great work to clean up all the sound impurities of the original edit to get this professional result. 

– – – : I think some parts of the vocals could have been a bit more passionate.

Conclusion: I think it was a great idea to recover this album from dust, which is an amazing opportunity to rediscover this project.

Best songs: “Into Dirt – Remix”, “Into Dirt”, “Plea Of Grief”, “This Aching Kiss”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.theehyphen.online.fr / www.facebook.com/theehyphen

Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct Read the news on ‘Incidental Tools Of Confusion’.

About Thee Hyphen

Thee Hyphen is the French electro-pop project of Member U-0176, who later co-founded Celluloide and is also active in Signal Bruit. The first album, “Incidental Tools Of Confusion”, was recorded in 1994 and released that year on cassette and CDr through Boredom Product. “Re.Sound” followed in 1996, “Organique” in 1998 and “Consolidated Green” in 2004, the last one on the BOREDOMproduct label.

The 2021 edition was restored from the original 4-track analog tapes and remastered, with the vocals stripped of their original effects, according to the label notes. BOREDOMproduct released it on CD and as a download; the label’s Bandcamp page dates the reissue to 25 May 2021, the artist’s own Bandcamp page to 25 June 2021. The ten tracks are “Into Dirt”, “Plea Of Grief”, “It’s Diseased”, “Obscenity”, “A Thousand Pieces”, “Purify”, “Dark Echo Elegy”, “Being Dead”, “This Aching Kiss” and the bonus “Into Dirt (remix)”. The label states that “This Aching Kiss” was later re-recorded for Celluloide.

The companion reissue of Re.Sound was reviewed on Side-Line in November 2021. BOREDOMproduct reissued Organique with four bonus tracks in December 2024, reviewed in January 2025, and Thee Hyphen followed with the five-track ‘Digital’ EP in January 2025. “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” is the earliest title in the catalogue.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

The fine French electronic music label BOREDOMproduct has announced the reissue of 2 Thee Hyphen albums, the band’s debut album “Incidental Tools Of Confusion” (1994) and the second album “Re.Sound” (1996). Thee Hyphen is/was the solo project of Celluloide’s keyboardist aka Member U-0176.

Both released come in a remastered and restaured version and will be released on June 25. As far as the sound of these two cult releases, we have to agree with the label which says the sound was “too cold to be pop, too pop to be electro, too experimental to be EBM and too EBM to be darkwave.”

Regarding the reissue of “Incidental Tool of Confusion”, it holds material restored from the original 4-track analog tapes and aditionally the label got rid of the original vocal effects to gain more clarity. “Incidental Tool of Confusion” was originally released both on cassette and CD-R. You’ll also notice that “This Aching Kiss” would end up on Celluloide’s records a few years later.

You can pre-order both albums right now at a very special price via the label’s webstore. Warmly recommended!

Here’s a teaser for the reissues. Read the reviews of ‘Incidental Tools Of Confusion’ and ‘Re.Sound’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Behind the French solo-project SIGNAL~BRUIT is hiding the enigmatic ‘Member U-0176’. Electro-pop lovers for sure know the man from his involvement with Cellloïde and Thee Hyphen while he’s still running the label BOREDOMproduct and the sub-division productB. Four years ago now he unleashed the debut-album “Planisphère(s)” on Sevren Ni-Arb (X-Mark The Pedwalk) label Meshwork. The work clearly revealed a retro-electro approach reminding pioneers in the genre, but still a space-minded ambient/soundtrack style. The new album “Hyperborée” has been released on productionB and moves a step further, revealing a new concept and a more elaborated and intelligent sound creation. “Hyperborée” is a truly masterpiece I can only recommend.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You this year released the second album of Signal~Bruit, but can you tell us how this project saw the daylight?

U-0176: In between two albums of Celluloide, I’m always searching for ideas, experimenting sequences and creating sounds, testing new settings with synthesizers… which we keep in store for incorporating into Celluloide’s pop format later.

Sometimes I decide to record my improvisations when I feel it has an interesting mood, though it isn’t obviously made for Celluloide.

I was reading the book “Flatland” and I had the kind of feeling that the book left a mark on the ‘atmosphere’ of what I was creating when turning knobs and improvising notes and sequences. 

So I had the idea to keep these tracks to illustrate important parts of the book with sound atmospheres and melodies… like a soundtrack for a book.

Q: You’ve been –and still are, involved with different projects such as Thee Hyphen and of course Celluloïde so what brings this new project and music experience in your artistic career? Is there a kind of specific sonic identity or quest behind this new work?

U-0176: I think it’s very difficult to write songs… so it takes a lot of energy and time to write new songs for Celluloide or Thee Hyphen… maybe it’s too much demanding for me now.

So experimenting sounds, effects, patches is more like a recreational time for me. I have no other objective than ‘feel’ the sound change when I turn the knobs.

Then organizing all these experiments into something that makes a consistent piece is a completely different work than writing a song, and I like this a lot.

Q: Signal~Bruit clearly sounds as a wink to some electronic pioneers; the creation of sounds and especially atmospheres appear to be some essential elements in the process. Can you give us a bit more details about it all and also about the way of creating this music (and sounds)?

U-0176: Yes, I have always been influenced by lots of different electronic music and of course pioneers like Tangerine Dreams. I’ve always been fascinated by their albums of the Froese/Franke/Baumann era, and the solo works of Froese of the same period… But I’m also a huge fan of Lassigue Bendthaus or Clock DVA, and I like very much the experiments of Autechre… I just want to do something similar… not similar in sound but, trying to test new things, new ways.

Creation of sounds and effects is essential because it’s where it starts, when I have an interesting texture, I play with it and try to find the notes that work best with it. Tracks are constructed bit by bit until I get to something. It can be very long and requires a lot of post-recording rework…

Q: I noticed an important evolution in sound and production from the debut album “Planisphère(s)” and “Hyperborée”? How do you perceive this evolution and what have been the main changes/evolutions from the first album till “Hyperborée”?

U-0176: Evolution in sound is simply led by the story I’m trying to illustrate… These two albums illustrate very different stories, so they sound different.

So that’s the story beneath that influences the result. You cannot make a soundtrack for a Western film sound the same as a sci-fi movie, that’s just it.

Sound and productions are quite similar, but I probably used more digital synthesizers on “Hyperborée”, and a lot more effects, so it could have made a significant change.

Q: “Hyperborée” seems to be a conceptual album so can you tell us a bit more about it? Did this conceptual work need some kind of preparation and how did you finally achieve it?

U-0176: “Hyperborée” follows the journey of Pythéas from Massalia to the North Pole in 300 BC. This is a true story, but we lost the details from this expedition. We only know that he discovered the Northern seas, territories and people while he was trying to prove the earth is a sphere. I read several books on his story, and we’re not sure how he made it, but he did.

So I tried to imagine a possible path for this antic adventure that I see as thrilling as discovering space in the modern age.

Q: To me Signal~Bruit stands for intelligent electronic music, but unfortunately there’re less people interested in ‘intelligent’ music. What does it evoke to you and how do you as label owner look at bands with intelligent and sophisticated compositions?

U-0176: Yes, releasing albums for Signal~Bruit or Novocibirsk as we did with productionB is quite risky, but we’re not doing it for success.

I hope that we’ll find enough people to buy our records so that we can keep up the flag high as long as possible, that’s our objective.

As you can see, we stated it right from the start when launching productionB

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, experimental, minimal-electro.

Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Signal Bruit strikes back with a second album, which comes nearly four years after “Planisphère(s)” which was released on Meshwork Music. Member U-0176 –who’s also involved with the French electro-pop project Celluloide, now released this album on his own label –which is a subdivision of BOREDOMproduct. This album is a kind of conceptual work inspired from the Greek mythology and more specifically about the voyage of Pytheas.

Content: “Planisphère(s)” was a pleasant work, but this new work is clearly more elaborated. Inspired by synthesizer icons like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream ao this work is a fusion between pure retro electro-ambient music and a very own approach. The songs are instrumental edits, revealing the magic of vintage electro sound treatments. The work features 9 songs, which never stopped catching my attention. 

+ + + : Signal Bruit has seriously improved all aspects of the production. If the debut work revealed some real good ideas and cool songs, this album clearly moves several steps further. It’s a pretty sophisticated composition built up with ingenious sound treatments, great vintage sweeps and effects. I’ve been impressed by some of the deep, resonating bass lines and the minimal electro approach mixed with space like atmospheres. There are numerous outstanding tracks featured in this work, but “Baltique” and “Sirēnes” both are little sonic wonders. The slow rhythmic carrying the songs make the composition only more accessible and accomplished.

– – – : The major difficulty with intelligent electro compositions is to reach a wider audience. Therefore this kind of production remains a challenge… which I fully support!

Conclusion: Signal Bruit has released a truly masterpiece, which I highly recommend if you like intelligent, vintage electronics.

Best songs: “Baltique”, “Sirēnes”, Lacydon”, “Pentēcontēre II”.

Rate: (8½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/signal.bruit

Label: www.production-b.fr / www.facebook.com/productionB.label

About Signal Bruit

Signal Bruit is the solo project of the French musician known as Member U-0176, who also records as one half of the electro-pop act Celluloide and runs the label BOREDOMproduct and its sub-division productB. Signal Bruit debuted with “Planisphère(s)” on Sevren Ni-Arb’s label Meshwork, before “Hyperborēe” followed on productionB in 2020, its concept built around the Greek mythology of Pytheas’s voyage. Side-Line spoke with the artist twice, in a 2016 Click Interview and again for the release of “Hyperborēe”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Celluloide is a French synth-pop formation set up in 2000. Their work has been released by hometown  label BOREDOMproduct. They a few months ago released their eight full length album “Futur Antérieur”, which I experienced as their most intimate work to date. The sound remains driven by electro-minimalistic pop structures and typical bleeping sequences. Darkleti, Member u-0176 and Patryck Holdwem kindly answered a few questions about their newest sonic creation.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I noticed Celluloide this year celebrates its 20^th anniversary! That’s for sure a milestone in your career. What does all these years of involvement evoke to you? Are you planning something special and how do you see the future? 

Celluloide: Well, our first album “Naive Heart” was released in 2002, so we’re officially only 18… but we released our very first demo in 2000, so you are right it seems. It’s quite difficult to believe that so much time has passed, though this is a fear that we’ve expressed many time in our lyrics, nothing we can say or do will ever stop the time.

No, we didn’t think of a special thing to do, and didn’t plan anything… but now that you mention it, we’d love to see our first albums re-released as 12″ LP… that would be really a great gift for our 20’s.

Q: Let’s talk about the new album “Futur Antérieur”. The title has something intriguing while sound-wise it seems you tried to compose the songs with a different approach. What is it all about and where do you place this work in the band’s discography? 

Celluloide: Yes, this title is quite intriguing, and that’s why we like it. There’s probably one way to interpret what we really mean here… And well with such a name, the final position would be perfect in the discography.

We thought that our previous album “Art Plastique” was experimenting the limit between melodies and sound design, and wanted to take a more ‘pop’ and direct, let’s say ‘intuitive’ approach for “Futur Antérieur”. In a way we wanted to mix everything we’ve tested and developed on our previous albums over the years.

Q: I experienced “Futur Antérieur” as one of your most intimate releases to date. Is it something you recognize and what did you try to express lyrical wise? 

Celluloide: I think it’s an impression. Just like when changing a chord makes the melody sound different… Of course writing in French let us express more precisely what we have in mind, but lots of Celluloide lyrics have deeper meaning than what you think at first. I know that lots of people think that most of our lyrics are typical love songs or melancolic themes, but it might be completely something else actually… usually we hide some keys in the text to decode the real meaning of songs, just like we did for tracks like “Et Si…” or “Le Baiser Géométrique” on “Hexagonal” or “Art Plastique”. This time we decided not to give the keys…

At first we wanted to add a sticker on the album or the limited mini-album “Modulation De Fréquence”, as a joke, with written ‘unexplicit lyrics – not easy to understand’…

Q: I’ve always experienced Celluloide as a band with a particular sound-DNA, which is mainly created through the typical bleeping noises and sequences. In, which way and after all the years do you feel ‘imprisoned’ and/or ‘restricted’ through this sound? And did you ever consider doing something completely different? 

Celluloide: Well, actually we have always tried to evolve with each release, and work with new elements into each new album… and to us, we’ve always tried to move on.

I don’t think you can hear any EBM element in our two first albums, like “Words Once Said” for instance, but you can clearly hear them after the “Bodypop”-EP.

But you’re right, it’s true that we didn’t change everything at one step to do a completely different music, we evolved more gradually. Nevertheless I think we really try to reduce noises and bleeps on this new album, but I guess we can’t completely stop and we are what we are. We think that every artist is doing more ore less the same two of three songs again and again. We’re all just trying to make it not too obvious… some are managing to hide it better than others.

Q: Another typical element of the band is the artwork, which always had this styled and abstract, goniometric style. Tell us a bit more about the artwork and the link with the music and the lyrics? 

Celluloide: This abstract geometric style, strongly inspired by the early 20s century avant-garde like De Stijl, Futurism, Constructivism or Suprematism, is actually not linked to the lyrics, but to the music.

When we hear sounds, we see shapes, colors… everyone speaks about the ‘roundness’” of a bass sound or the ‘sharpness’ of a medium sequence… That’s exactly how we see our music… and these 20’s paintings are expressing it so well that we couldn’t do it better. We’ve explained all our influences and references about graphic design on our webpage: http://www.celluloide.online.fr/c-artwork.php

Q: I think you never got the international recognition you deserve! Do you think there’re particular reasons to explain this lack of international recognition? 

Celluloide: Thanks. of course when you write and record music, you want to reach the maximum amount of people, and you expect that they will like it. So we would have loved to be bigger. If we knew what to do for getting a bigger audience, we would have done it already.

Maybe French lyrics didn’t help us at some point… I don’t know. We have always tried to write and produce music, graphics and videos the best we can. That’s where our limits are. We probably can’t sell ourselves much better.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Happiness Project is the French trio Christelle Fournioux (vocals), Fred Tuyeras (vocals, machines) and Cyrille Tuyeras (machines, bass). After a first self-released album (cf. “Remove Or Disable”) released in 2008 they later on joined hands together with the French label BOREDOMproduct. They released a new album (cf. “9^th Heaven”) in 2012 and a few EP’s. They this year unleashed their third full length (cf. “Mutation”), which in a way marks the return of the French electro-pop trio dealing with this typical and easy recognizable BOREDOMproduct sound. This is what the band has to say about it.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Your new album “Mutation” is the first one in six years. When did you start the writing of the new songs and what did you keep in mind from the entire composition process?

HP: We started “Mutation” as soon as “9th Heaven” was released. We had already thought about our new album. We wanted to make it clear to ourselves, that “Mutation” would be darker, closer to our native audience and more in accordance with our musical background. However, we also wanted “Mutation” to be closer to our state of mind, our spirit and our way of making music: a deeper insight into our preoccupations, a world which is constantly changing and where things often remain incomplete.

Q: The work features the contribution of label mates ‘JB’ (Dekad) and ‘Member U-0176’ (Celluloide). What have been their real impact and what does it reveal about the ‘sound’ and ‘friendship’ between the BOREDOMproduct artists?

HP: Member U-0176’s, as well as JB Dekad’s contributions to our album came from Member U-0176 himself. He wanted “Mutation” to sound differently, especially as far as rhythms were concerned. He knows we particularly like JB Dekad’s work, in this sense. As BOREDOMproduct is a family of artists, we automatically agreed with this idea. It turned out to be quite effective and we like the work made by JB Dekad on our songs.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t reveal much about our relationships within the label, as we all live in different French cities, far from each other. But we all look for the same goal: a post-production quality which fits the label’s musical style and audience. Our relationship with the other groups of the label consists in listening to their music with a true interest and a great attention.

Q: I think “Mutation” reveals an interesting twist between harder and somewhat EBM-driven songs at one side and pure melancholic electro-pop songs at the other side. Where does this duality comes from and tell us a bit more about “Mutation”?

HP: The duality which is obvious in “Mutation” comes from the guidelines we had defined before starting. We wanted to express that nothing is permanent in this world and that things switch from one aspect to another. Change, duality, mutations are part of mankind, so what better way than expressing all this through various musical styles, ranging from harder tracks to more EBM-driven songs! This is what the world is made of: as we say in our song “Mutation” : ‘Nothing’s complete’!

Q: The lyrical content clearly has its importance. What did you try to express and what have been the main sources of inspiration?

HP: Sources of inspiration have been numerous: from Japanese mangas to Sci-Fi movies, from personal experiences to a more philosophical approach of life, from Tim Burton’s world to daily-life concerns. Our lyrics are meaningful because they carry out the perceptions of life we have. We do not really try to pass any message, but we simply want to share our ways to face reality, our concerns about the world. We wanted each song to be a chapter of a broader ‘Fairy Tale’, which would be about Humanity.

Q: You contributed to the ‘tribute’-compilations to Etienne Daho and Martin Dupont. How was it working on these cover versions and especially considering both artists are French ‘icons’?

HP: The songs we decided to cover “L’Adorer” by Etienne Daho and “Just Beacuse” by Martin Dupont were really chosen with a lot of care. Both are our favorite songs by these two French artists. But here too, we wanted them not to be just covers, but actual ‘re-creations’ of these two songs. The intention was: if we had created them, personally, what would they sound-like? So we tried to stick to their original tunes, as much as possible, but we also added musical features which were not in the original versions. Well, we assumed it worked pretty well, didn’t it? 😉

Q: Today most of the artists are releasing new work at regular basis while Happiness Project is the entire contrary. How comes and what are you doing in between 2 productions?

HP: We have been building up our musical world with accuracy and precision. In a sense, we are ‘slow music makers’. We do spend a lot of time thinking about each instrument (even if they directly derive from keyboards, except for the bass-guitar and some of the drums, performed by Christelle) and how we can make them all coincide with our lyrics.

Moreover, we live far from each other and the time dedicated to music is always tight, intense and spread out. Also, before releasing a new album we want to be sure that it will meet up with our first intentions. The thing we can assure you about our next album, is that it will come out, within the next two years! The recording hasn’t started yet, but a lot of new materials are ready and we should be starting soon!

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

“Planisphère(s)“ is the debut album from the brand-new French project Signal~Bruit. The full length has been released on the brand-new label Meshwork Music, which is driven by X Marks The Pedwalk member Sevren Ni-Arb. Behind Signal~Bruit is hiding ‘Member U-0176’ who’s running the label BOREDOMproduct. He’s also involved into Celluloide and once started under the Thee Hyphen moniker. Signal~Bruit is something totally different revealing a retro-electro style that might remember to electro pioneers like Jean-Michel Jarre, Clock DVA, Jacno ao.

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: What inspired and motivated you to set up Signal~Bruit?

S~B: I don’t know exactly… it just happened. Sometimes when I’m in the studio, I don’t feel like writing a song or recording something with a structure… I’m just in the mood of hearing the sequences running and so I let the sound grow… So that’s what I did, and I don’t know why, this time I started recording, with no specific idea in mind.

Q: This new project is quite different in sound compared with other bands you’ve been involved with like Thee Hyphen and Celluloide. Can you tell us a bit more about the sound properly speaking? 

S~B: It all started from the need of turning knobs and nothing more… just to feel the music with the hands like when you play guitar. it immediately affects the sound depending on your fingers position. I started this way: turning the knobs and pushing the faders until it has an hypnotic feel on me. I actually didn’t think of releasing anything at first, I was just trying to please myself.

Q: “Planisphère(s)“ makes me think of a ‘sonic bridge’ between early electro pioneers like Jean-Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk ao… and a more personal and contemporary electronic approach. How would you analyze this album and its influences?

S~B: I guess all my influences, are present at different levels. As I didn’t intend to make it public when I started, I guessed I didn’t try to show anything. I just let the music flow, and my mind float. So of course, electronic pioneers of the Berliner school like Tangerine Dream come into mind, but also the minimal electronics and melodies of Jacno, repetitive sequences of Clock DVA and sound textures of Duet Emmo. But I’m also listening to Atom TM or Autechre so it probably has an influence too.

Q: I noticed you’ve been inspired by the book “Flatland“, which you tried transpose into music. Tell us a bit more about this concept and the way you worked on it? 

S~B: The word “Planisphere(s)” is an attempt of translating and explaining at the same time the title and a key part of the book. While recording my electronic experimentations, I was reading this fabulous book of the XIX century by E.A. Abbot and I suddenly asked myself if I was unconsciously recording the feelings I had when reading the book… or the book gave me ideas on how structuring my electronic ‘divagations’ into something more constructed with a progression and an atmosphere. So I re-organized the recorded tracks into something more ‘logical’ with the story of the book in mind and make them take shape this way.

Q: You also produced videos of all songs on the album that can be watched by using 3D-glasses and, which totally fits to the concept of the “Flatland”-book. How did you get this idea and how did it happened?

S~B: “Planisphère(s)” is a very visual project. Images come to mind when I listen to the sounds, so I wanted to transpose these images all along the album. I finally produced automatically triggered geometric animations for all the tracks, which somehow illustrate the ‘story’ of the album, or at least the moving atmospheres. And it goes to 3D stereoscopic vision on the 4th track “Revelation”, because that’s what happens in the story. I don’t think I could explain it more clearly. It think this has to be seen not explained. I hope it will be released soon, but it has a different planning than the CD release so keep watching the Signal~Bruit youtube channel.

Q: I personally experienced your album as an antidote to the current electro-underground productions, which all sound similar and without a real creative spirit. What’s your perception as an artist and label-owner about the current scene? 

S~B: I have no real statement about that. I think we all try to do the best music we can. Some people can make brilliant things at the first try,  some don’t and never will and in the middle some have good ideas or miss the point. It happens to all of us when we try to create. That’s why for BOREDOMproduct we release a very few albums. We always try to work and rework the tracks with the bands. We’re not just releasing the demos as they are when they go out of the bands studio.

I think it’s important that a label plays a role of advising the bands, adding production when it’s necessary, re-organize tracks if needed. It’s an important help for the band, which I’m afraid most of labels don’t do anymore today because artists don’t accept critics and labels don’t have time and budget for this long work.

Q: An interesting aspect about this album is that it will be the first release ever on Meshwork Music while you’re still running your own label (BOREDOMproduct)! How did it happen and what do you expect from a new label like Meshwork Music? 

S~B: When I was about to complete the album I realized that BOREDOMproduct was not the label for this type of music. So I searched for a label that could understand what I was trying to do, and that could market it properly (I had no idea how). Then I read on Side-Line the announcement of a brand new label who ‘wants to push the boundaries of electronic music to a new level’. Not that I am pretentious enough to think I will push any boundaries at all, but at least the label was open minded enough to give a listen to the whole thing!

And indeed… I sent a rough version, with no proper mix and unfinished versions to André who was really enthusiast about it. Some critics replied a positive way as well and especially about the second track (“Chromatistès”) that had to be re-organized. The final album has been reworked and mixed the way I wanted.

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro, electro-ambient, minimal-electro.

Background/Info: “Planisphère(s)” from the French solo-project Signal Bruit is the first release on Meshwork Music. This new German label was set up by Sevren Ni-Arb (X Marks The Pedwalk) while behind Signal Bruit is hiding ‘Member U-0176’ who’s running the French electro-label BOREDOMproduct while he’s also involved in the band Celluloide.

Signal Bruit was inspired by the book “Flatland – A Romance Of Many Dimensions” originally released in 1884 and written by Edwin Abbott Abbott. The main idea of the book deals with ‘a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures, where women are simple line-segments, while men are portrayed as polygons whose social status is determined by their regularity and the number of their sides, with a circle considered ‘perfect’ shape’.

Content: I’m always fascinated by concepts and especially about the way they’ve been transposed into music. The sound universe of Signal Bruit evokes some electronic pioneers. There’s a similar passion for evasive electro-space atmospheres and refined bleeps. Some of these bleeps might remind me of Celluloide, but complexity of the composition might also evoke Clock DVA. The work is pretty minimal, but will ravish sound freaks by the resonating bass lines and the global vintage format of the work. Notice by the way all of the tracks remain instrumental.

+ + + : Signal Bruit has constructed an interesting sonic bridge between early electronic pioneers and a more contemporary and especially personal sound creation. It’s a kind of sonic architecture that has been progressively built up till reaching a climax entitled “Révélations”. I like the minimalism of the composition and its rather atypical sound formula.

– – – : This album is a well-crafted composition although not exactly the most accessible one. This is not the kind of music you’ll hear in clubs, but which needs a few attentive listening before you’ll really seize its substance. Conclusion: “Planishpère(s)” is an atypical and ambitious work revealing a creative composer who clearly avoids  composing cheap clichés. This is a ‘difficult’, but deeply artistic creation.

Best songs: “Révélations”, “Prométheé”, “Chromatistés”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.facebook.com/signal.bruit

Label: www.meshwork–music.com / www.facebook.com/meshwork.music

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Content:

Read the news on ‘A Perfect Picture’.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, body-pop.

Content: Dekad is back on track and will soon launch their new album “A Perfect Picture”. The French synth-pop formation strikes back with their first album in 4 years and this EP will give you a real good idea about the new stuff.

The CD-format of “Poladroid Extended” is a strictly limited edition of 300 copies, and features 4 extra songs than the digital format.
The title song has been featured by 2 remixes. The “Remix” is a mind-blowing song driven by a hard-danceable kick and a strong bass line. It sounds pretty minimal and a little bit EBM-flavored as well. Notice by the way that the backing vocals have been sung by Foretatste’s XY. The “New Beat Mix” sounds even better and is a smasher. The big kick and body-pop vibes are absolutely irresistible while this version also reveals impressive sound treatments.

“Tied Up” is another song that has been remixed twice. This song features backing vocals by Darkleti (Celluloide). The “Remix” is a noticeable song for its vintage approach of body-pop music. This song again reveals great sound treatments and effects. The “Retro Mix” has been remixed by Celluloide’s member U-0176, but is a little less captivating.

New songs “Searching” and “Slowmotion” has been remixed as well. Both songs clearly are not the main attention grabbers although they confirm the genius minimalism of this electronic formation.

I have 2 more songs to mention, which possibly are exclusive songs featured at this EP. “Ta Vie” is a fascinating cut, which already carried by danceable, dry kick while some warm-like synth parts run throughout the composition. I also enjoyed the somewhat sexy vocals sung in French. “No Mystery” is the other song, which finds its apotheosis in the elevating chorus injecting a real boost to the track.

Conclusion: With such a great EP I can only, but be confident to welcome the 4th full length by Dekad. This band reveals a great vintage approach of electro-pop music, which is the main trademark of their label.

Best songs: “Poladroid – New Beat Mix”, “Poladroid – Remix”, “Tied Up – Remix”, “Ta Vie”.

Rate: (DP:8½)DP.

Band: www.dekad.online.fr / www.facebook.com/dekadmusic

Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com