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Album Review

Angil + Hiddntracks
Ouliposaliva Chemikal Underground

Article written by Ged M - Dec 21, 2008

Angil + Hiddntracks

Oulipo, or “Ouvroir de literature potentielle” (Workshop of Potential Literature) was a French movement of the 1960s whose members used constrained writing techniques. Mickaël Mottet uses the same techniques on his album, avoiding the letter E or the use of the E chord (his collaborators, Hiddentracks, have had to alter their name to fit the concept). It’s a French device but Mottet sings in a distinctively English way, sounding more like Mike Skinner and Robert Wyatt. Musically there’s jazz, hip hop and a strange inverted sort of avant-pop in the mix here, which develops the themes of the Teaser For: Matter album from 4 years ago. It’s curious and unsettling, which aren’t necessarily bad things; ‘Trying To Fit’ is like a jazzy Streets, with wonky electronica, discordant piano and a parping clarinet while ‘Took No Drugs, Had No Drink (it was all in our minds)’ has a strange detuned piano sound using a battered instrument salvaged from a clothes shop display, and some footstomping Disney-esque percussion. There's a creative intelligence burning brightly behind the album but it's never displayed too ostentatiously.

Links:
http://www.angil.org/
http://www.chemikal.co.uk/angil-and-the-hiddentracks.htm
http://www.myspace.com/angilandthehiddentracks