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desireless operationofthesun loeufdudragon
Artist: Desireless and Operation Of The Sun
Title: L'Oeuf Du Dragon
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 31st May, 2013
Label: Urgence Disk Records



Album Review

DESIRELESS, for those who don't know, was one of rare French artist to have an international major hit back in 1986. It was the song ‘Voyage Voyage’ that has been covered a lot all over the world. This song was Number 1 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia to name a few and even managed to climb to number 5 in UK. For personal reasons and also usual conflict with Major Record Company, her respectable career never managed to follow up this success. But at least she carries on, releasing albums whenever she wants without any pressure and tours a lot in France. The band OPERATION OF THE SUN, the project of Antoine Aureche (well-known for his project TAT), approached her a while ago for a common project. They released most of the songs in 2012 on their website and an extended version with additional remixes is now available.

They actually tour together and it was a real achievement for them to be programmed at the WGT festival this year. The album starts on high note with ‘Sertao’, playing on the contrast between hard rhythms and synths to back up DESIRELESS’ more delicate voice. More than 20 years after, the voice is intact and still very interesting. ‘Le Sel Sur Tes Mains’ and ‘Joue’ follow the same path with dancey rhythms and this unique tone of voice. The downside to the album comes with ‘Uchronia 2012’. I hardly find any interest in that one, sorry. Poor synth sounds, no real melody, I switch directly to the next one. ‘John’ was DESIRELESS’ second single back in 1988. Without achieving the major storm of ‘Voyage Voyage’, it was a decent hit: Number 5 in France, 37 in Germany and managed to enter UK Top 100 at 92. This new version is probably the most beautiful piece of the album. While the original was more dancey and new wave, this one goes into a more ambient direction with ethnic percussions and a delicate singing to it. Superb!

I won't say the same of the new version of ‘Voyage Voyage’. OK, ask OMD to re-record ‘Enola Gay’ or VISAGE to revisit ‘Fade To Grey’... I'm not sure they will manage to supersede the original either. This new version starts with DESIRELESS’ vocals passed through vocoder... which sounds really like a cheap dance club remix to me. At least, the chorus is more attractive with natural voice, guitars and a stronger beat. But overall, I'll go back to the original song straight away. The last song, ‘Les Petits Poissons’, is... weird. More an atmospheric interlude (1”34) to be honest with synth pad notes here and there, experimental sounds and not a lot of vocals.

5 remixes end up ‘L'Oeuf du Dragon’ - remixes by Stolearm, Oil 10, Electrosexual, Bak XIII and People Theatre... Only 2 of them are really worth it to be honest: ‘Joue’ by Stolearm gives a strong treatment to the song with hard guitars and heavy beats as well as People Theatre for a club enhancement of ‘Sertao’... that ends up on 2 minutes of more atmospheric mood and a very nice piano melody. Overall, not a revolutionary release but contains some pretty good moments, and it's most of all a great opportunity to hear this unique voice.


Tracklist

01. Sertao
02. Le Sel Sur Tes Mains
03. Joue
04. Uchronia 2012
05. John
06. Voyage Voyage
07. Les Petis Poissons
08. Sertao (Remix by Oil 10)
09. Joue (Remix by Stolearm)
10. Sertao (Remix by Electrosexual)
11. Le Sel Sur Tes Mains (Remix by BAK XIII)
12. Sertao (Remix by People Theatre)


Line-up

Desireless: Vocals
Antoine Aureche: All instruments


Website

http://desirelessoots.wix.com/dragon


Cover Picture

desireless operationofthesun loeufdudragon


Rating

Music: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10


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