City Of Clowns

5枚目となるMarie DavidsonによるフルアルバムがDeewee/Becauseからリリース。なんと長年のコラボレーターであるベルギー人アーティスト兼プロデューサーのSoulwaxがプロデュースを担当。

Marie Davidson scored her biggest club hit (and earned a Grammy nomination) with the Soulwax remix of her cheeky ode to the pursuit of success, "Work It." She moved away from club music with Renegade Breakdown, a full-length with her trio LŒil Nu, which explored jazz, folk, rock, and cinematic influences, prefaced with a spoken warning that "there are no moneymakers on this record." City of Clowns, co-produced by Soulwax and released on their Deewee label, sounds like the logical sequel to "Work It" and Working Class Woman, as if Renegade Breakdown never happened. Davidson is back to doing snarky monologues over throbbing electro-techno, mixing self-deprecation with self-assurance, and ultimately letting no one get the best of her. She pointedly decides "If Id really have to choose, Id rather be me than you" on "Sexy Clown," and gets downright vicious on the anxiety-ridden "Push Me Fuckhead" and both versions of "Y.A.M.M." Aside from clubby tracks like these, there are more experimental ones which venture into new directions. Opener "Validations Weight" has lush, almost ambient jungle synth washes and booming trap kicks, along with a more robotic style of sci-fi narration. "Statistical Modelling" is closer to Detroit-style electro, surging forward through a neon skyline while a fragment about "data streams" repeats low in the mix. "Contrarian" embraces several styles of late-90s full-throttle dance music, mixing pounding kickdrums and rattling breakbeats with acid trance synths. "Unknowing" is a confounding yet fascinating flurry of knotty, sporadic beats and scrambled vocals, with a pounding groove gradually emerging. Channeling technological paranoia, City of Clowns contains some of Davidsons most futuristic work yet, as well as some of her most commanding and personality-driven. ~ Paul Simpson

カナダ人DJ/プロデューサーによる4年半ぶり6作目がソウルワックス主宰レーベルから到着。表現の幅を広げた前作のコラボから一転、レーベルを移して完成させた本作はテクノ～エレクトロ路線のトラックとスポークン・ワードを融合させたスタイルに原点回帰している。メロディアスなヴォーカル・トラック"Sexy Clown"や先行カットのダーク・エレクトロ"Y.A.A.M."、インダストリアルなビートでアグレッシヴに攻める"Contrarian"など多種多彩に展開。充満したエネルギーをしっかり内側に宿し、実験的であると同時にポップネスを成立させているバランス感覚はやはり見事だ。
bounce (C)野村有正