3 out of 5

Label: Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi

Produced by: Brice Kartmann (recorded by)

An expressive, rich A-side collabo track somewhat unevenly paired with more experimental works on the B-side makes fair use of the physical LP format for separation, but nonetheless impacts Probables’ replayability.

Percussion maestro Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy – Tachycardie – teams up with a whole gaggle of folks on the A-side’s 1000 Fois Bonjour Depuis Le Vignemale, merging a harsh, crisp beat into waves of musicality – keys, strings, guitars, vocals – that are brought in so precisely and carefully that it’s easy to miss when the endeavor essentially gives way to all out noise. That progression is key, obviously: allowing the ear to discern melody from the chaos; then Geoffroy cuts us off, dropping back to mainly percussion.

While I wish the song was a bit more circular in how its end ties to its beginning, it’s a rich tune, and rewardingly bridges the gap from Tachycardie’s experimental side to his danceable side.

This dichotomy is perhaps put to the test on the B-side, which features several comparatively short abstractions of percussion – tippa taps pulled apart, stitched back together, with electronic buzzes and atmospheric notes mixed in. Eventually, though, this all finds a pace, and morphs into an all out electro beat – no caveats – for its final minutes.

This is definitely interesting, but doesn’t exactly make the exploration beforehand “right.”

Probables presents a juxtaposition of approaches to composing – one rather linear but layered; one more sparse and initially chaotic – that succeeds in totality as an experiment. But we’re here to listen to this stuff, I think, and less so study it, making the impact of that linear side much greater than the other.