CACA RETOUR
Obscure beats are well hidden diamonds on the Mouthmoth label.
They deal with artists whose name might mean nothing to nobody.
So whose behind Captain Stéphanie - I really couldn't tell.
I know that he or she made this nine track CD-R release full of quirky beats,
raging from breakbeats to techno like doodlings
and that they are not really ment to be for the hardcore dancefloor,
but are more usefull in an underground disco,
where dancing is optional.
Captain Stéphanie adds wacky samples of speed up tapes,
ethnic voices and other humurous elements,
which give this release a nice underground feel to it.
It's not as refined and polished as many other releases in this field.
The really do-it-yourself attitude that is needed so badly.
-Frans de Waard, Vital weekly
The good captain is bilingual in swearing, in case of public outcry.
However, he is Peter Percept; previously heard giving it laldy on Eye Man's 'Fucker' single.
There's even a track called 'Mon Groupe de Rock Fictif' which,
if my tourist French isn't failing me, means 'My Fictional Rock Group'.
Stef is part of the shadowy Mouth Moth collective
and when we're talking Mouth Moth you don't need to resort to language of the gutter
to distract your average radio playlist clerk.
An uncompromising melange of found sounds,
spliced together and hacked to pieces again.
'Overture' which opens this album, is a mess of dysfunctional beats and snatches of French conversation,
while 'The West' harks to some sort of demonic fairground ride.
And so it continues. Little ideas come and go through the relentless collection of ideas -
is that a snake charmer on 'Jans Olfrize'?
So, with the squelching glitchcore of 'La Fin Du Message'
and 'The Capiflexible' and its soundtrack to plotting robots,
it hardly needs saying that the most conventional 'tune' here is 'Pata Fuckorama',
a beat-laden exercise that tips a wink to Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire.
Even if the bleeps were in the titles you'd not hear this stuff on the radio.
But in an ideal world,
the Captain would rule the airwaves.
This is a new album on the excellent Mouthmoth label from Scotland,
sprecialising in underground electronica.
Captain Stéphanie is one of the many pseuydonyms of Andréas Marchal
and 'Caca Poussiere' (Could someone translate for me - poo dust?) is a fantastic piece of work.
It carries on very much in the Mouthmoth tradition of off centre rhythms,
bleeps and squelches, but 'Caca Poussiere' makes more use of deep bass, cut ups
and obscure samples and instrumental sounds.
The backing touches on drum and bass syles stop start rhythms,
while the melodies generally flow coherently
and whilst this takes some concentrating on to listen effectively,
it is never difficult or punishing.
There are some classic track titles as well.
¤¤¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤¤¤
