Melodium: Hum Hum & Bla Bla
Autres directions in music

On the half-hour EP Hum Hum & Bla Bla, Melodium (Laurent Girard) pairs five untitled tracks with three guest remixes of songs from his recent La Tête Qui Flotte. A spirit of child-like joy infuses the disc, and the experience of listening to it is much like being surrounded by gleeful sounds and toyshop melodies at an amusement park. Throughout Melodium's pieces, mechanical piano themes, clockwork beats, and carnival noises jostle for position with “Untitled 5” offering the most comprehensive rendering of his faintly melancholy style. With all due respect to M. Girard, however, it's the remixes which register most strongly. Audioroom fashions a stately take on “Interlude pour [chiens] dépressifs” while Toytronic artist Ochre (Chris Leary) merges elegant classical waltz melodies with the constellating shrapnel of funky asteroid beats during an epic 7-minute “Hellomusic” overhaul. Finally, listeners familiar with Marsen Jules' autumnal Herbstlaub won't be surprised that his “La fin de tout” remix is imbued with string-drenched melancholy.

October 2005