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Review/ Le Housetear: "Course de Danse"

  Tobias

Some artists appear to think that the choice is between either staying safely within a particular tradition or making grand artistic statements. There is however a third option: Simply doing what you do best, regardless of whether anybody thinks it's cool, hip or progressive.

This, in a nutshell, is the path Le Housetear has chosen and on „Course de Danse“ and his trajectory has yielded some equally whimsical and suprising results. This impression is mainly down to the fact that this Paris-based Producer builds on a multitude of sources: Language courses, field recordings, Disco, House, Breakbeat, experimental sound art, „vox“-sounds from vintage keyboards and various cut, spliced and manipulated samples. The cliche, of course, has it that this kind of „charming eclecticism“ is „typically French“. Which it is somehow, especially in the way „Course“ awards an artistic appearance to its decidedly playful attitude on many of these tracks. On the other hand, his language is international and certainly not restricted to the idiom of his home territory: „Clique Clou“ is a coded message embedded into snippeted fragments and clinically cool beats, „Silent Cliquer“ fits the minimal-tag like a glove, while „Tompete“ lays down a scintillating soundscape filled with echoes of Dub and Soft-Jazz. The most remarkable piece, however, is „La coté de l´ouest est á Paris“, a ten-minute battle between oceanic tides, sea gulls and tentatively surging grooves.

It is here that Le Housetear, for the duration of a single track, seems keen on making a grand artistic statement, one which could change our perception of music, the arts and life in general. But for most of the time, he's just happy doing what he does best and „Course de Danse“ is not a tad less attractive for it.
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