Album Review
Choses Sauvages – Choses Sauvages III
Montreal’s Choses Sauvages have won many awards at home for their blend of new wave/ post punk and dance music. After some well received festival sets last year in Europe they are set to become much more well known in the UK. This third album blends several genres to create a musical style that is bright and vibrant, featuring some amazing bass lines.
The nine tracks on this self-produced album are generally short and with a focused feel. The lyrics are, of course in French, but the music is universal. And there is plenty of variety as the various instrumentalists in the six piece band show their talents.
Opening track Fixe features ethereal vocals and swirling synth sounds mixed with strong guitar chords. Recent single En Joue has a much more guitar based sound, its solid chords and strong vocals giving a much harsher feel. Chaos Initial features a female vocal that adds another element of variety to the sound, while Deux Assassins alternates between hard edged guitars and meandering synth lines.
The closing Big Bang is the longest track on the album at over five minutes. It is almost entirely instrumental, based around a techno sound with moments of jazzy play over a solid rhythm, ending with a lovely atmospheric synth coda. It’s a very smooth way to close a very good album.
Choses Sauvages are musically very talented and have fused a number of different styes to create a musical approach very much of their own. In places this feels very 80s new wave, with echoes of Devo and early OMD, but it never sounds dated. The combination of dance and funk influences give this a more modern sound throughout. And those bass lines anchor the different sonic approaches quite beautifully.
Release date: 28 March 2025
Label: Audiogram