I don't envy anyone who has to review Savage Sinusoid. The album took four years to complete, and it would take four months to write about. I was weirdly hoping I wouldn't have to. But it's just too good, of course it's on this list.
I wouldn't have a chance at describing it, but it doesn't really matter, because it only takes like a minute of listening before you get what the deal is. Start with the first minute of "Houmous". It has most of the record's components in it: accordion, death metal, Aphex Twinnery, saxophone, insane howls, funky slap bass, and next-level drumming. How's that for a fucking smorgasbord. Another random minute of this song will bring you the chicken, the opera, the triangle, the flamenco, and an absurd 8-bit outro. And this by no means the most extreme song on the album. I'm not trying to make it sound intimidating or anything, I'm just trying to get this shitty stuck-upness that we all have out of the way. The sooner you can brush away that initial 'this is awful' knee-jerk reaction, the sooner you can start appreciating Igorrr's music. And you should, because Savage Sinusoid is so full of passion, creativity and magic that I can guarantee that you'll be won over before long.
You see, this is an amazing album. In a mind-melting, reality-altering way. It's pure creativity, with no limits. Gautier Serre, the French musician behind the stage name Igorrr, loves classical music, all kinds of metal, balkan dance music, trip-hop and electronic music, and by combining them all at once he has created (needless to say) an entirely unique sound. Igorrr began around 2006 and was long a one-man show, the songs built around loops and samples. But for his third official album, Serre has expanded to a full band line-up, vying to make Savage Sinusoid entirely sample-free. That's part of the reason it took so long to complete, but it really adds to the result. It's quite stunning that this insanely intricate and hectic album is actually all performed by humans. There are some amazing making-of videos on YouTube, that are well worth watching. There's that inspiring, obsessive, Wintergatan-esque feeling to the sessions. You gain a lot of respect for the music after watching drummer Sylvain Bouvier gasp for air after laying down the climax for "Opus brain", watching Nils Cheville on acoustic guitar, Yann Le Glaz on saxophone, Laurent Lunoir and Laure Le Prunenec on vocals, Katerina Chrobokova on harpsichord, Antony Miranda on sitar, Erlend Caspersen on bass and Pierre Mussi on accordion completely shred on their respective instruments to nail the bonkers tempos on "Houmous", "Va te foutre" and "ieuD", all while Pierre the chicken (of "Chicken sonata" fame from the 2016 GoPro awards) waddles around.
"Spaghetti forever" amazingly sounds like Muse's entire discography compressed into four minutes, and it doesn't even sound forced. From the classical guitar to the "Hysteria"-esque fuzz bass to the angelic choirs, from the grandiosity of "Knights of Cydonia" to the longing violin of the Exogenesis symphony to the futuristic synths of The 2nd Law, it's all there, for better or for worse. The Montmartre-odyssey "Cheval" is stuffed with so much amazing accordion shredding and slap bass that you hardly notice it when the death metal shrieks and blast beats howl away at the bottom of the mix (that's right, death metal underneath with Parisian street ambiance on top). Picking it apart, it's absolutely stunning what Igorrr pulls off on this album. But that really doesn't do it any favors. The music works so incredibly well as a whole. It's entertaining to gawk and say "holy fuck we just got 10 seconds of this and then 10 seconds of that", but it really diminishes the overall impression. So I'm gonna shut the fuck up now and let you get on with it.
Again, the whole thing is about the contrasts. So my favorite single tracks are the longer, multi-part ones like "Opus brain", "ieuD", "Au revoir" and "Houmous". But in the context of the album, the more one-sided tracks are just as important. The Chopin-inspired ballad "Problème d'émotion" has just enough electronic weirdness to it that it's unmistakably Igorrr, and I absolutely love it. (A quick glance back at his earlier demos reveal more of this genre - I'll definitely dig deeper!) Similarly, the non-stop intensity of "Apopathodiaphulatophobie" (fuck you too), "Viande" and "Va te foutre" are little more than a crossover-metal curiosity on their own, but it's how they mix with the rest of the album that makes the whole so stunning.
I still vividly remember the first time the stutter edit melted my mind. I was like 15, the artist was electronic music pioneer BT and the song was "The Antikythera Mechanism" (generally the entire This Binary Universe album) (but really, listen to that song, all the fucking way through). Since then this effect has become annoyingly ubiquitous on dance floors across the world, thanks to dubstep and EDM, but with discovering Igorrr this year I've finally relived that mind-melting awesomeness of my youth. Maybe Savage Sinusoid will give someone else this experience, just with Bach, Aphex Twin, or Satie, or French, Balkan, Spanish, Polish or Indian folk music. I wouldn't be surprised.
Best tracks: "Au revoir", "Houmous", "Problème d'émotion"
I wouldn't have a chance at describing it, but it doesn't really matter, because it only takes like a minute of listening before you get what the deal is. Start with the first minute of "Houmous". It has most of the record's components in it: accordion, death metal, Aphex Twinnery, saxophone, insane howls, funky slap bass, and next-level drumming. How's that for a fucking smorgasbord. Another random minute of this song will bring you the chicken, the opera, the triangle, the flamenco, and an absurd 8-bit outro. And this by no means the most extreme song on the album. I'm not trying to make it sound intimidating or anything, I'm just trying to get this shitty stuck-upness that we all have out of the way. The sooner you can brush away that initial 'this is awful' knee-jerk reaction, the sooner you can start appreciating Igorrr's music. And you should, because Savage Sinusoid is so full of passion, creativity and magic that I can guarantee that you'll be won over before long.
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| Quite a fitting album cover. Looks evil at first but quickly feels more benevolent. Like the music. Or maybe it's just me. |
You see, this is an amazing album. In a mind-melting, reality-altering way. It's pure creativity, with no limits. Gautier Serre, the French musician behind the stage name Igorrr, loves classical music, all kinds of metal, balkan dance music, trip-hop and electronic music, and by combining them all at once he has created (needless to say) an entirely unique sound. Igorrr began around 2006 and was long a one-man show, the songs built around loops and samples. But for his third official album, Serre has expanded to a full band line-up, vying to make Savage Sinusoid entirely sample-free. That's part of the reason it took so long to complete, but it really adds to the result. It's quite stunning that this insanely intricate and hectic album is actually all performed by humans. There are some amazing making-of videos on YouTube, that are well worth watching. There's that inspiring, obsessive, Wintergatan-esque feeling to the sessions. You gain a lot of respect for the music after watching drummer Sylvain Bouvier gasp for air after laying down the climax for "Opus brain", watching Nils Cheville on acoustic guitar, Yann Le Glaz on saxophone, Laurent Lunoir and Laure Le Prunenec on vocals, Katerina Chrobokova on harpsichord, Antony Miranda on sitar, Erlend Caspersen on bass and Pierre Mussi on accordion completely shred on their respective instruments to nail the bonkers tempos on "Houmous", "Va te foutre" and "ieuD", all while Pierre the chicken (of "Chicken sonata" fame from the 2016 GoPro awards) waddles around.
"Spaghetti forever" amazingly sounds like Muse's entire discography compressed into four minutes, and it doesn't even sound forced. From the classical guitar to the "Hysteria"-esque fuzz bass to the angelic choirs, from the grandiosity of "Knights of Cydonia" to the longing violin of the Exogenesis symphony to the futuristic synths of The 2nd Law, it's all there, for better or for worse. The Montmartre-odyssey "Cheval" is stuffed with so much amazing accordion shredding and slap bass that you hardly notice it when the death metal shrieks and blast beats howl away at the bottom of the mix (that's right, death metal underneath with Parisian street ambiance on top). Picking it apart, it's absolutely stunning what Igorrr pulls off on this album. But that really doesn't do it any favors. The music works so incredibly well as a whole. It's entertaining to gawk and say "holy fuck we just got 10 seconds of this and then 10 seconds of that", but it really diminishes the overall impression. So I'm gonna shut the fuck up now and let you get on with it.
 |
| This aesthetic is amazing. It's like metal Monty Python. |
Again, the whole thing is about the contrasts. So my favorite single tracks are the longer, multi-part ones like "Opus brain", "ieuD", "Au revoir" and "Houmous". But in the context of the album, the more one-sided tracks are just as important. The Chopin-inspired ballad "Problème d'émotion" has just enough electronic weirdness to it that it's unmistakably Igorrr, and I absolutely love it. (A quick glance back at his earlier demos reveal more of this genre - I'll definitely dig deeper!) Similarly, the non-stop intensity of "Apopathodiaphulatophobie" (fuck you too), "Viande" and "Va te foutre" are little more than a crossover-metal curiosity on their own, but it's how they mix with the rest of the album that makes the whole so stunning.
I still vividly remember the first time the stutter edit melted my mind. I was like 15, the artist was electronic music pioneer BT and the song was "The Antikythera Mechanism" (generally the entire This Binary Universe album) (but really, listen to that song, all the fucking way through). Since then this effect has become annoyingly ubiquitous on dance floors across the world, thanks to dubstep and EDM, but with discovering Igorrr this year I've finally relived that mind-melting awesomeness of my youth. Maybe Savage Sinusoid will give someone else this experience, just with Bach, Aphex Twin, or Satie, or French, Balkan, Spanish, Polish or Indian folk music. I wouldn't be surprised.
Best tracks: "Au revoir", "Houmous", "Problème d'émotion"
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