You need to listen to M83’s icy post-rock record Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
New York City was hit by a serious snowstorm last week. And, inevitably, when I watch the snow fall, and wander the eerily quiet streets after dark, and people hide inside and stay warm, I listen to M83’s second disc, Dead cities, Red Seas and lost ghosts.
Before Nicolas Fromageau left the group and Anthony Gonzalez embraced traditional pop song structures, saxophone solos, and teenage angst, M83 released two albums of primarily instrumental music. The self-titled debut album is a bit forgettable, but the second finds the French duo drawing inspiration from the repetitive emphasis of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Dead cities is a decidedly French take on post-rock greatness, creating blankets of sound from drum machines, analog synths and heavily compressed guitars.
There is a feeling of liminality in Dead citiesa supernatural atmosphere that lives up to its name. Listening to the gently repeated melody of “Be Wild” as the track slowly accumulates layers, it’s impossible not to imagine walking through a once bustling city that is now freshly abandoned. “America” captures the panic of The Twilight Zone “Where is everyone?” as frenetic drums, My Bloody Valentine-style guitar and restless synths build to an early crescendo.
However, you can tell something is wrong from the first moment. The record opens with “Birds,” a 54-second song:
The sun is shining
The birds sing
The flowers grow
The clouds are looming and I’m flying
The computerized voice is initially bathed in digital distortion, slowly transforming into a soothing tone that seems inherently untrustworthy. There is no sun. There are no birds. And there are no flowers. The album opens by lying to you before launching into the title track “Unrecorded”.
“Unrecorded” sounds like the record’s mission statement. Analog arpeggios, driving drums, droney guitars, manipulated vocals and cinematic synthesizer strings all combine into a snowy wall of sound. Listening to tracks like this, it’s shocking that it took Hollywood another 10 years to tap M83 to compose music for a film (the 2013 film). Oversight).
M83 would eventually record shoegaze-indebted retro pop, scoring hits like “Kim & Jessie” and the classic “Midnight City.” But before that, the band explored something more cinematic and open.
