Album / Artist: Diabolique / L'Epee
Label: A Recordings

Reviewed: 10/12/2019
DJ Stace

General Comments / Release Notes
If you were going to come up with a list of perfect pairings, Anton Newcombe (Brian Jonestown Massacre & Emmanuelle Seigner (actress, singer) might not come to immediate mind, but they should. A druggy, sexy and perfectly crafted debut album, with flashes of Velvet Underground brilliance, the reference is obvious (VU & Nico), but well-suited. One of my favorite records of the year, I’ll be listening to this one for forever.

From Label: “A stellar combination of the talents of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe, cinematic femme fatale Emmanuelle Seigner and ice-cool pop provocateurs The Limiñanas (Lionel and Marie Liminana), L'Epee transcend artistic and traditional borders.
Their creative energy has been channelled into their extraordinary debut album. Named in tribute to Mario Bava’s 1968 cult classic ‘Danger: Diabolik’, it’s a musical masterclass where elements of garage, ye-ye, sleaze rock, cult soundtracks, sci-fi, spaghetti westerns and girl-group pop noir are combined with the cut-and-thrust zeal of a band bursting with ideas and energy. All delivered by Emmanuelle in a sultry Gallic drawl which will send a frisson of recognition through anyone familiar with her iconic roles in, among many others, Frantic, Venus In Fur and Bitter Moon (all directed by her husband, Roman Polanski).”

FCCs: None

RIYL: Brian Jonestown & Related, Velvet Underground & Nico, 70’s B-Movie & exploitation soundtracks.

Play: All, especially 3,8,10

Tracks:
1. **** Une Lune étrange 4:54 - Cool shuffling rhythm leads with warbly psych guitars over the top. E’s vocals in English. BJM guitars, everywhere. Psych rock anthemic.
2. *** Lou 3:42 - Midtempo, trancey, Black Angels-style repetitiveness, in a great way. Droning with E’s French vocals.
3. ***** Dreams 3:16 - Uptempo single from earlier in the year. Still great. GoGo boots and oillamps. Byrds-like guitars. French vocals.
4. **** La Brigade Des Maléfices 4:37 - Uptempo, driving with a cool guitar riff, throughout. E’s narrative vocals in French.
5. **** On Dansait avec elle 3:35 - Midtempo. Insistent tablas on the intro. Classic BJM sound, with droning bass and guitar, tablas very sitar-like guitars & keyboards. Male vocals in French, with E’s on backup. Very cool.
6. **** Ghost Rider 5:49 - Midtempo. Beginning rhythm is almost krautrock. Spaghetti western psych guitar greatness. E’s vocals in English.
7. *** Grande 2:56 - Midtempo Droning, with tablas & sitar/guitars. Another with classic BJM sound. E’s repetitive, chanting vocals in French.
8. ***** Springfield 61 - Midtempo, driving beat, cavernous, jangling and glorious with every goddamned bell they could find within 20 miles of wherever they recorded and Emmanuelle’s “lalas.” Lyrics in french.
9. **** Un Rituel Inhabituel 4:18 - Starts with a great echoing, buzzy, droning guitar riff and E’s breathy lalas, leave it very nearly an instrumental. trancey psych wall of sound ensues. Arena Psych, with lasers at the end, abrupt ending.
10. ***** Last Picture Show 3:08 - Uptempo driving rocker with great buzzing guitars walking up and down on the interludes, E’s desperate and fiery vocals in English.