4 out of 5

Label: Murailles Music

Produced by: Manu Laffeach (recorded by)

The blast of surreal colors across a black and white picture of, perhaps, some type of funereal or religious rite; the album title indicative of a rootsy style either ‘salvaged’ for some other purpose, or dug up in some primeval form…

These combinations of something with history and something unclear and undefined are perfect for La Terre Tremble !!!, who, on their fourth outing, have finally defined a style for themselves that cuts across indie and folk and math influences to build something hard to define, but very them. A gentleness is the basis for these tunes: lightly sung vocals; gently plucked guitars; tapping drums; but they are anarchic in equal turn, with slashes of distortion cutting into melodies – twisting them; turning them; then releasing them – and an undercurrent of noise (horns; ambience) suggesting something looming, like the songs are always about to grow bigger than their britches. Instead, the group stews and toils, finding ways to push the definitions of rhythm instead of necessarily exploding them.

On occasion, this can be a little unsatisfying, as a song will veer towards a more tempered coda than something with direct punch; lyrically, there’s an ongoing struggle for LTT to be okay with actually painting a picture – instead, words wander, perhaps purposefully keeping up the surreality so we focus on vibes. And that’s what you end up learning after a few spins, that the band is aiming to be the U.S. Maple of indie folk; where an Alt-J might take that gentleness and give it a very graspable chorus, LTT are happy to deconstruct it, and find out how far along you can string that graspability before breaking it in two, and still keeping the song in tact.

Previously, this all got a little too wanky, but Salvage Blues nails the balance. It is never not a weird album, but it’s also not something you really sing along to, or tap your toe to, so much as get sucked in by its oddly-canted spell, like the fluttering plumage of a newly discovered creature.