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Essaie pas – New Path LP
On New Path, their second album for DFA, Montreal electronic duo Essaie pas (Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau) take inspiration from Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, a dystopian science fiction classic. The album sounds like the book reads – a voyeuristic, druggy, and paranoid narrative of existence in the surveillance state.
“I read the book a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, and it had a strong impression on me,” explains Pierre. “In our previous work we always looked to music as inspiration in our lives, but this time we felt the desire to try something different, that’s not based on ourselves but on someone else’s universe. It was going to be more conceptual, more political.”
New Path touches on addiction, loss, and the lingering strength of identity within late capitalism’s mass media paranoia. It pins down the central character’s destructive tendencies, using this as a metaphor to explore the dichotomous rupture between our inner lives and our social environment, one that is often fed and soothed by various kinds of dependences.
“I think it touches us on many levels,” Pierre continues. “We can talk about drug addiction issues, we can talk about the mass surveillance world we live in, but there’s also the experience of loss, of grief. I was surprised by how the book felt so modern and accurate to the time we live in right now. Dick’s visions of surveillance are the reality of social control today.”
Essaie pas possess a wiry, experimental take on the more leftfield end of techno music, in the way of pioneers Chris & Cosey and Cabaret Voltaire, as well as newer acts like Fever Ray, Factory Floor, and Helena Hauff. The album trades in hypnotic pads of strings, punctuated by dramatic stabs and sensual rhythmic patterns, with Marie’s tripped-out, pseudo-scientific verbiage further adding to the ambience. The world the duo have created here offers a tangled vision of tomorrow’s aesthetics, a soundtrack stacked with cold music for cold times.
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Video: Essaie pas – Futur parlé
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas today release a new single, “Futur parlé,” via DFA Records.
“We’re excited to share our new single ‘Futur parlé’ with you,” say Essaie pas’ Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. “We decided to conceptualize this one based on Philip K Dick’s work, by paying tribute to his classic novel ‘A Scanner Darkly.’ You will hear Marie’s tripped-out pseudo-scientific verbiage in the spirit of the book’s bleak but humorous dialogs, over hypnotic pads of strings, punctuated by dramatic stabs and sensual rhythmic patterns.”
Directed by Christopher Royal King, the video for ‘Futur parlé’ (premiering today on Clash Magazine) brings this modern interpretation of ‘A Scanner Darkly’ to life, merging rushes of surveillance and drone cameras, abstract digital landscapes, and facial recognition software.
“The realization of ‘post-truth’ in modern times has ultimately blurred the lines of reality and the perception of what is ‘real,'” says King. “The domino effect has created this frenetic, almost post-apocalyptic landscape and I wanted to attempt to create a narrative and world that attempts to capture the paranoia of trying to function and survive in such an environment.”
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Essaie pas -Demain est une autre nuit (Remixes)
In March of this year, Montreal duo Essaie pas released their DFA debut LP, entitled Demain est une autre nuit, which in English translate to “Tomorrow is another night”. This album has now been remixed to close out the year, bringing together some of the most exciting names in dance music, Orphx, Function, Daniel Maloso, Brooklyn-based techno producer Malory and more.
Check out the Malory remix below:
Emerging from an underground electronic avant-garde scene that also included Dirty Beaches, Bernardo Femminielli & Jesse Osborne-Lanthier, the duo stood out thanks to their dizzying combination of EBM, techno and minimal electro-pop, held together with the sing-song poetry of both members, Marie Davidson & Pierre Guerineau, delivered predominantly in their native French.
The year 2016 comes to a tidy close, as band member Marie Davidson releases a solo LP on the Cititrax/Minimal Wave label, and the duo release the aforementioned remix EP.
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Video: Essaie Pas – La Chute
Essaie pas have unveiled the official video for “La Chute”, taken from their debut Demain est une autre nuit (Tomorrow Is Another Night), which is out now on DFA Records. Video directed by Kaspar”89.
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Video: Essaie Pas – Lights Out
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas have unveiled the official video for “Lights Out”, taken from their debut Demain est une autre nuit (Tomorrow Is Another Night), which is out now on DFA Records.
Essaie pas is Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right – Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli.
Their music cannot be tied to a specific genre. It is a document of the encounter of two human beings mutually experimenting with music and sounds, and eventually falling in love while doing so. Their musical language is vibrant and varied – comparisons range from Film Soundtracks, Electronic Body Music, Disco, and Techno, with sensually-delivered lyrics exploring the themes of fantasies, obsessions, and the feeling of “The Void”.
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Essaie Pas – Demain Est Une Autre Nuit LP
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas have unveiled the full stream of their upcoming debut Demain est une autre nuit (Tomorrow Is Another Night) on DFA Records.
Essaie pas is Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right – Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli.
Essaie pas’ music cannot be tied to a specific genre. It is a document of the encounter of two human beings mutually experimenting with music and sounds, and eventually falling in love while doing so. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone with new methods and technique, aiming to communicate that which is unspeakable. Their musical language is vibrant and varied – comparisons range from Film Soundtracks, Electronic Body Music, Disco, and Techno, with sensually-delivered lyrics exploring the themes of fantasies, obsessions, and the feeling of “The Void”.
Marie explains, “The title comes from a joke we made when going to bed one morning, talking about our plans for the next evening.” Pierre adds, “Night is a place of freedom, a place where fantasies and obsessions are not tied by moral constraints. It’s also a time where the feeling of loneliness is stronger and when emotions and memories arise, whether you are facing it or running away from it. I think the tension and sense of urgency on the record comes from that dichotomy.”
Tracklisting:
Demain est une autre nuit
Dépassée par le fantasme
Retox
Carcajou 3
Le port du masque est de rigueur
Facing The Music
Lights Out
La chute
Buy it here!
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Essaie Pas – Retox
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas is comprised of Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right – Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli. Essaie pas was born on a hot summer night in 2010 – the mix of drawling guitars, français mumbles, and minimal electronics caught the ear of DFA Records, who booked the pair to open for Factory Floor on their first North American tour and who’re now set to release their debut album, Demain est une autre nuit (Tomorrow Is Another Night) on February 19th.
Essaie pas’ music cannot be tied to a specific genre. It is a document of the encounter of two human beings mutually experimenting with music and sounds, and eventually falling in love while doing so. Their musical language is vibrant and varied – comparisons range from Film Soundtracks, Electronic Body Music, Disco, and Techno, with sensually-delivered lyrics exploring the themes of fantasies, obsessions, and the feeling of “The Void”.
Listen to new single “Retox” here on soundcloud. Essaie pas’ Demain est une autre nuit is out on DFA Records on February 19. Watch the video for ‘Le port du masque est de rigueur’ here.
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Video: Essaie pas – Le port du masque est de rigueur
Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas is comprised of Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right – Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli. Essaie pas was born on a hot summer night in 2010 – the mix of drawling guitars, français mumbles, and minimal electronics caught the ear of DFA Records, who booked the pair to open for Factory Floor on their first North American tour and who’re now set to release their debut album, Demain est une autre nuit (Tomorrow Is Another Night).
The origin story of -Demain est une autre nuit- begins when the band returned from their first European tour to find that they had lost both their studio space and apartment. La Brique, their studio, practice space and renowned underground music institution, had fallen victim to the city’s rapid gentrification and closed permanently. Conflicts with their wacky landlord had also left them without an apartment, leading them to return to Montreal’s winter without many prospects. They lucked into a temporary practice space during the off-hours at the offices of Le Filles Electriques, an independent interdisciplinary festival producer. This space soon became Pierre’s studio, and Marie’s home.
The many corridors of the empty industrial building provided a way for Marie to work out in the frigid Montreal winter nights, running “everywhere possible, listening to techno, acid, and italo disco, being mutually inspired by the space and the sounds.” Eight months later, Demain est une autre nuit was born.
“This environment influenced our music,” says Pierre, “The sounds are more clear and open, the production has more depth, on a full frequency range.” Their living conditions on tour were another major influence, “Staying at different people’s places around the world for a whole year accentuates the feeling of being a stranger wherever you go, even in your own town, but also creates a feeling of being part of an international community, opposed to a scene that exists only in one city.”
Essaie pas’ music cannot be tied to a specific genre. It is a document of the encounter of two human beings mutually experimenting with music and sounds, and eventually falling in love while doing so. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone with new methods and technique, aiming to communicate that which is unspeakable.Their musical language is vibrant and varied – comparisons range from Film Soundtracks, Electronic Body Music, Disco, and Techno, with sensually-delivered lyrics exploring the themes of fantasies, obsessions, and the feeling of “The Void”.
Marie explains, “The title comes from a joke we made when going to bed one morning, talking about our plans for the next evening.” Pierre adds, “Night is a place of freedom, a place where fantasies and obsessions are not tied by moral constraints. It’s also a time where the feeling of loneliness is stronger and when emotions and memories arise, whether you are facing it or running away from it. I think the tension and sense of urgency on the record comes from that dichotomy.”
Essaie pas’ Demain est une autre nuit is out on DFA Records on February 19. Watch the video for ‘Le port du masque est de rigueur’ below.
Tracklist:
Side A
1. Demain est une autre nuit
2. Dépassée par le fantasme
3. Retox
4. Carcajou 3
Side B
1. Le port du masque est de rigueur
2. Facing The Music
3. Lights Out
4. La chute
Demain est une autre nuit will be released on limited edition orange sunrise colored vinyl, CD, and digitally. You can pre-order it here.
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