My love for French post music has never wavered over the years, played in no small part to the constant turnover of incredible bands that have been releasing really solid material, album after album. Whether its post rock, post metal, post hardcore, post black metal, the French have a flair and a deep understanding of creativity and originality. I could write a role of honor and name drop ten bands right off the top of my head, but that’s for another day. Today I want to firmly lay all the attention on a band who hail from Bordeaux, France, and have just released their sophomore album, Le bruit des nuages.
La Drache, have just released four tracks for us all to immerse ourselves in, each one as captivating as the next. With each track weighed heavy in emotion, and cloaked in a dark soulful veil, La Drache’s music comes from a very personal place. On this ONE TO WATCH review, I want to discuss the opening track on the album, L'Aurore.
Delays and reverb bounce off the opening cords, as a beautiful slow tempo drum pattern weaves and writhes its way through the opening sequence. Trance inducing and near psychedelic, the music meanders through a cacophony of plucked guitars and a rumbling bass guitar. When the shackles do come off the track those plucked strings begin to shred and conjure up a delicious riff that gets swallowed up by some lead guitar foreplay, before releasing a beautifully melodic but harsh piece of post rock that almost tips the scales of black gaze as those warm fuzzy guitars fill the air. Retreating back into itself once more, the music fades a floats on a sea of soft cymbals and gently played cords right to the end.
In hindsight, this should really be a full album review, such is the diversity and array of textures found right through these four tracks. But either way, you now know of La Drache, if you haven’t already! The next step you need to take is head to their Bandcamp page and support the artists! Brilliant!