- Recently reformed as a trio, The Pilotwings's third album is a sometimes outrageous, but always theatrical, collection of synth pop delights.
- From the moment they arrived with their first 12-inch, The Pilotwings' music has been bold and theatrical. 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. 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). 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.
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. Just when we find our footing, they bring in bagpipes that meld and then end with a polka outro. While certainly the most extra song on the record, the rest aren't far off. Les Charismatiques is like scanning through the FM airwaves during the mid-'80s—somewhere sunny, seaside and southern European. On "Ça Sulfite (Censurée)" we get glossy vocal harmony alongside wilting guitar solos, spacey synth stabs and plenty of cowbell. The trio's guitar and bongo-forward collaboration with the '80s French duo Robert Lapassenkoff, "Pas d'As, Badass" hits the same notes. Its dramatic pauses and deadpan vocals land like a French parody of "Bad To The Bone."
The Pilotwings' radio wave-surfing also turns up slightly more restrained vintages of the '80s. 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. It's on moments like these when the trio move towards jam band territory, especially given their emphasis on live instrumentation. There's an improvisatory quality to "Tonton Snif-Snif à Bogota," where synth, guitar, and drums all compete with one another trying to figure out which instrument can take the most outrageous solo.
Back in 2018, The Pilotwings described their undying love for Yellow Magic Orchestra. What they appreciated about YMO was the fact that "they change the musical style on each track during an LP, yet everything remains coherent." Back then, The Pilotwings were still focused on flamboyant trance-inflected house, as key members of the inchoate multiverse populated by the Brothers From Different Mothers crew (e.g. Judaah and Simo Cell). Three years later that description could just as easily be applied to Les Charismatiques. Touching on everything from psych rock, new wave, trance, dub and folk, it's a unapologetically dramatic album that'll have you ready to punch the coordinates for French Riviera, 1985 into the DeLorean.
Tracklist01. Les Charismatiques
02.Ça Sulfite (Censurée)
03. Le Duff & Gouren (Biniou Mix)
04. Mazirat sous Pschit
05. Poule -les -Echarmeaux
06. Kudufion
07. Viens Jouer
08. Pas d'As, Badass feat. Robert Lapassenkoff
09. Team Nowhere feat.Hajj
10. Tonton Snif-Snif à Bogota
11. Santanin
12. Shiva dans le Jura feat. Bigoudi