Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp are a pretty unique band. The name translates as “All Powerful Marcel Duchamp Orchestra” and besides being a mouthful, the name also indicates the intriguing combination of classical orchestration, humour and pop sensibility that is this group’s bread and butter.
Marcel Duchamp, of course, is the father of dada-ism, which in turn begat surrealism and, possibly, the world’s very first arts provocateur. One of his early and most famous pieces is “Fountain” which was nothing more than a French-style pissoir, or urinal, turned upside down. Naturally, an uproar followed which promptly put Duchamp on the map. In one fell swoop, the artist proved himself to be witty, inventive, provocative and…
..keenly aware of the power of publicity (even as long ago as 1914 with his first readymade bottle rack).
Well, it’d be pretty near impossible to make that kind of impact in today’s art world, but Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp have certainly adopted Duchamp’s irreverence and kitschy humour. At the same time, the group are competent and presumably, classically trained musicians, from France and the UK, fourteen in all, including a rhythm section, percussion and string players.
Sauvage Formes is a smorgasbord of sound and styles, a journey through vastly different musical landscapes, going from the underground rock club to the concert hall with brief but exhilarating trips to the arts lab. The first comparison that comes to mind is Stereolab with strings, but there’s also echoes of Sonic Youth, Polyphonic Spree, and much more.
Each track is a little journey of its own, where we follow the band leaping effortlessly across genres and sounds in a dizzying and fascinating musical adventure.
Blow starts off nice and minimalist with some vaguely atonal guitar over plunky percussion and then smoothly evolves into a catchy 60s pop tune.
The Stereolab comparison seems most apt with Mes Yeux, although the cool guitar break sounds more like vintage Sonic Youth. This is a band who know their indie-rock history!
Bêtes Féroces is a Steve Reich/Tom Waits-like tapestry of tuned percussion, upright bass, Ribot-esque guitar and angelic choir over which a girl waxes poetically about the pace of modern life.
The Unknown sounds like a cross between My Bloody Valentine and Stereolab while Danser Soi – même is a personal favourite. Ebbing and flowing gently, this song is a lovely sing-along anthem featuring the combined voices of the band, percussion, upright bass, and an absolutely adorable, just barely in tune recorder solo. — folkradio.co.uk
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