Super Parquet
Route 164/Pagans (46 mins)
Super Parquet were first profiled in Songlines two years ago (in #134); now they’re finally here with a debut album to follow their 2015 EP. They’re part of the new school of French folk that are taking things into exciting – and sometimes strange, barely-recognisable – places. Their roots are in the old music of Auvergne but, in Super Parquet’s hands, it becomes an entirely different monster. The acoustic instruments are there – cabrette (bagpipe), banjo, the boîte à bourdon (a self-invented drone-only hurdy-gurdy) – and there are samples from folk song recordings, but all of it is refracted within dark, dirty electronica.
EDM and trip-hop are taken to surreal edges with never-ending loops, unrelenting dissonances and inexorable drones, all with a whole load of acidic noise. Each part shifts and evolves gradually, creating Steve Reich phasing that plays tricks on the mind’s ear. Everyone seems to play in their own time signature, weaving together sonic tapestry while the irresistible drone carries on and on. All the while, no track drifts so far off-piste as to negate the folk at its very core.
It’s overwhelming. It’s claustrophobic. It does weird things to your brain and I love it. This long-awaited debut is not an easy listen, but it’s an incredible experience.