It's on moments like these when the trio move towards jam band territory, especially given their emphasis on live instrumentation. The lattice-like synth work on "Poule -les -Echarmeaux" trills gently across the stereo field (despite the car crash samples in the background) and there are tasteful touches of dub in the undulating chords of "Santanin" and the lonesome twang on "Viens Joue." On "Team Nowhere," a collaboration with Hajj, who runs the dark ambient label Dawn Recordings, there are hip-hop spinbacks and trance melodies at a dance floor-friendly BPM. The Pilotwings' radio wave-surfing also turns up slightly more restrained vintages of the '80s. Its dramatic pauses and deadpan vocals land like a French parody of "Bad To The Bone." The trio's guitar and bongo-forward collaboration with the '80s French duo Robert Lapassenkoff, "Pas d'As, Badass" hits the same notes. On "Ça Sulfite (Censurée)" we get glossy vocal harmony alongside wilting guitar solos, spacey synth stabs and plenty of cowbell. Les Charismatiques is like scanning through the FM airwaves during the mid-'80s-somewhere sunny, seaside and southern European. While certainly the most extra song on the record, the rest aren't far off. Just when we find our footing, they bring in bagpipes that meld and then end with a polka outro. If you need a feel for their theatrical flair, look no further than "Le Duff & Gouren (Biniou Mix)." The song starts with chanted vocals that morph into a hair metal send-up before it all slides into a groovy new wave chug.
From the opening the Jurassic Park-meets-80s-French-beachside-discotheque to the closing credits on "Shiva dans le Jura," the Lyon musical polyglots have crafted the most wonderfully disorienting collection of eccentric and eclectic synth pop you'll hear this year. Even with this as a starting point, those early releases feel like a community center matinee warm-up in comparison to the Broadway heights they reach on Les Charismatiques, their first LP in five years (and first-ever as a trio).
Whether the pan-pipes on " 31 Septembre (On Va Tout Niker)" or the huge drum rolls on " Massilia Attack," their best songs feel like musical theatre, complete with boiling tension, plot twists and thundering climaxes. From the moment they arrived with their first 12-inch, The Pilotwings' music has been bold and theatrical.
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