Philippe Doray / Asociaux Associés* – Nouveaux Modes Industriels

Reissue is coming on Souffle Continu Records..Pre orders ere open

Philippe Doray is an obscure French musician. We know very few things about him except that he has produced two records, including the excellent 'Nouveaux modes industriels' on the equally obscure label, 'Invisible Record'.

Recorded in Montpelier between may 1978 and january 1980, 'Nouveaux modes industriels' is a mythical album completely in french. The cover alone is intriguing. There is a radioactivity logo on an almost metallic grey background. It cannot be more obvious ; this album is dangerous ! The most brilliant piece is 'Que dit le chef', a sort of industrial funk sung in french but good luck to understand the lyrics. An extraordinary treatment makes the lyrics almost unintelligible, which is a bit sad because they are quite surprising (they are written on the inner sleeve). The album is filled with experimentations, not always successful but always startling. Every instrument, even the sax, is played in a style that creates rough and brutal landscapes. With their effective and pure industrial esthetic, 'Musique pour résidences secondaires' and 'Le petit hérisson jaune' —both instrumental pieces— generate very strange musical landscapes. 'Page de magasine' begins with a superb sound that chills the blood. The text alludes to a guy sitting on a beach while turning the pages of a porn magazine and who is about to masturbate. It is one of the most interesting pieces I’ve heard on that theme and, while we hear seagulls in the background, the text is unbelievably poetic. 'Pas de service après vente' is a long instrumental dub version of 'Que dit le chef', filled with an orgy of electro-acoustic and discordant sounds. The more it evolves, the more it gets anarchic and deconstructed, like if someone wanted to kill the album’s «big hit». 'Nouveaux modes industriels' is an album so literally rare that you may never be able to find it.

© Alain Cliche 2016