Minitel Rose – Atlantique

This is the time for electronics, for pop; discos and dancehalls are furiously following pop’s beat to each pace. This is 2010 and we’re all moving to the same electronic influence but when a record misses the step; the milieu stops dead, stands dejected. Minitel Rose‘s latest LP, Atlantique, drops tracks that could have fallen in the eighties; disco has had 20 years to grow up but Atlantique hasn’t aged.

Released on K7! Records, Atlantique’s taccy-nostalgia lies flat with little meaning or substance. After the hype and promised excitement from their first release The French Machine; the empty synth of Atlantique sounds even more uninspiring, ungrateful to be listened to post-87, in the context of today.

People say to ‘take it with a pinch of salt’ but records don’t need these labels, bands shouldn’t come with condescending warnings. I want music to be good, have a control, a hold over how we dance, how we react- if a record is good why pile spoons of salt into our mouths; it’ll only make us thirsty, desperate for something better.

The simple syntax: ‘french electro trio’ is usually enough to have crowds lusting after the stereo but follow that with content such as Atlantique; the seduction flails under the mood-killing descriptive ‘retro-futurist’.

Pop is temporary, culturally moving. Atlantique’s single ‘Stay’ evades this provisional-circumstance, it still grips onto a type of Pet Shop Boy verve, it’s 80s authenticity is boring. We’ve had the 80s- I’ve heard it was good- but give me pop music for now. sickly, manufactured, often horrific but it’s today’s sound and it works. Minitel Rose have made a record for the past; it’s formula was good then and in context would have been good, really good even if it was released then- but I want now. It sounds so much better.