4 out of 5

Label: Epicericord, GED, Araki

Produced by: Guigui

What are they doing over in France that’s providing this ongoing stream of genre breaking, math-y, kraut-y, indie-y, everything-y indie rockers? I realize that “France” is a big place that can likely be subdivided, but I’m okay with referencing “America” as a totality and saying we’re not up to the task of producing as many oddball bands as consistently as the other red-white-and-blue be-flagged country. We – we steadfast USers – may have invented some weird signatured outre music, but its gotten swept up in weird trends along the way, making for pockets of short-lived growth and then silence. Meanwhile, I can name half a dozen labels in France (who – not coincidentally – co-release like 90% of each’s output) who cater to acts like Chafouin of various subgenres. Meanwhile, in the nine years prior to ‘Trucs,’ the band has been maintaining Japanese idol-like musical verbosity, averaging about a release a year, which does count this as their ninth. Yeah, their sound is flexible – there have been different band configurations along the way – but it’s not a wholly revolving door; meaning the band sounds like Chafouin every time out, and the material is leagues away from being phoned in: Trucs, as with all of their albums, is another legit effort.

And it’s a lyrical one. Not literally – though vocals occasionally poke through, if mostly as distant rhythm atop surging guitars and pattering drums – but in the sense that the entirety of the album flows, “singing” its melodies to your ears, whether in a lighter, flightier style, or when songs show their angled teeth, and whip out odd time signatures and blasts of distortion. There are many callouts here, from latter-day (but pre-breakup and reform) Don Cab; to the machine-like momentum of Turing Machine; or the careful touch of Pele; but – perhaps unsurprisingly – I think of some of the French acts I hinted at, like La Colonie De Vacances, or even the brutal broken sounds of Chevreuil. It wraps back and around that musical lyricism, though: Trucs starts out as a trickle, becomes a stream, and then becomes a surging river, broken apart by stones and other blockades and reforming on the other side. As such, the “trickle” of the album is somewhat less defined, song-by-song, with the first three tracks similar enough to be mistaken for one another at a glance. Your ear is never bored, though, and once the flow picks up, you’re tuned in: you hear all the rest of the sounds in the stream; the division between loud and quiet becomes grander; the barrage of noise swirled into the mix constantly excites.

Trucs is another grand release from Chafouin, constantly shifting in form and approach, but always delivering something that feels true to their sound. Their ninth album comes across a bit tepid at first, but it’s a purposeful calm before a comparative storm – and one that makes you appreciate that calm all the more.