Sebastien Tellier has, as the British music mags of the '70s used to put it, heavy friends: in his native France, he's signed to Air's boutique label, and this, his fourth album, was produced by Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Previous records have been intriguing and fitfully great mergings of modern French electronica and sophisticated chamber pop, but Sexuality is built almost entirely on the Air/Daft Punk model of vintage synthesizer sounds melded to canny pop songwriting. Unfortunately, it hews so closely to that concept that most of Tellier's own personality is lost. Nominally a concept album concerning the titular topic, Sexuality is too chilly and cerebral to be particularly erotic: even on "Pomme," the requisite homage to Serge Gainsbourg's sleaze pop epic "Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus," the anonymous female moans in the background are curiously overt in their utter fakeness. There are some very good tracks here: the light-hearted "Divine" is a brilliant homage to early-'80s synth pop built on sampled voice fragments (like most of Trevor Horn's productions for the Art of Noise, Yes, and others circa 1984) and featuring the album's most immediately arresting melody. The Art of Noise comparison is even more apparent later, on the languid "Manty," which is built on loops of wordless female harmonies and a woman's fetching giggle that make it sound like a close cousin of the epic "Moments in Love." Elsewhere, the album's first single, the seven-minute instrumental "Sexual Sportswear," sounds like Air's take on vintage '70s synthesizer records like Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene, and is as curiously irresistible as that description suggests, and the equally retro clavinet sound that drives the hushed closer "L'Amour et la Violence" is pretty swell too. But too much of Sexuality consists of rote dance-pop songs like "Kilometre" and the utterly average slow jams "Elle" and "Une Heure,": pleasant enough tracks, but with little of the wit and invention of Tellier's best work.
Yep, its another day of nose-bleeding tracks and remixes. I never thought I'd see the day, Cicada! Late of the Pier reminds me a lot of The Whip and Foals Bag Raider's Turbo Love, makes me go "Alright mate!" in the worst Aussie accent. Check out the other tracks (free for download) below and you'll know what I mean! Bag Raiders - Turbo Love Act Yo Age - The Flash (Shir Khan Powerhouse D...
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Check out Kavinsky's remix of Roche on Tellier's Myspace
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Live @ Mod Club - Toronto - 8.4.2008 - Photo by Visualbass Breakbot works his magic and turns Roche into a super slick 80s pop song. Sébastien Tellier - Roche (Breakbot Remix)
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Breakbot's remix of PNAU's "Baby" in the beginning of the year gave me butterflies, so I was totally thrilled to see he remixed one of my other favorite artists, Sebastian Tellier. Breakbot is killing it with a straight up 70's teleportal jam. The beat breaks and cutesy guitar riffs are reminiscent of any track off [...]
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The one and only Sebastien Tellier is coming back to the States. Continuing his quest for "Sexuality" (his recent album), the tour kicks off in New York on April 1st. Lemonade is supporting. We recently shared his new music video for Roche. Now, below, is a probably-NSFW teaser for a music video for the track "Kilometer." First, [...]
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 "Sexuality")
