Les Georges Leningrad - Sur Les Traces De Black Eskimo

  by Helen Tipping

published: 6 / 7 / 2005

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The first track on this CD, 'Missing Gary', starts with the band recording themselves messing around, before the heavy synths and drums come in, with samples of the band speaking. Les Georges Leningrad come from Montreal. They are Poney P (vocals), Mingo L’Indien (electronics and guitars) and Bobo Boutin (drums and backing vocals). They are described as demented electro-noise-post-punk and apparently make up their own language. They originally started as a performance project, using slapstick to cover up their inability to play, but as time has gone on they’ve rejected that and moved towards musical experimentation. The tracks that stood out for me as being quite good were' Missing Gary', 'Sponsorships', 'Nebraska’s Valentine', and 'Fifi-F' for the backing (not the vocals). The rest I could really live without. The tracks mentioned above vary from interesting and quite funny, to punky and quite good. Those I didn’t like appeared pretentious, as if they were trying too hard to be freaky and weird and just ended up being irritating. Maybe that’s the way with experimental and arty music. There was one track in particular which I found really boring – 'Umiarjuaq 'which was just synth programmed white noise.'St Mary’s Memorial Hall' meanwhile just sounded like someone messing around in a church hall on a drum kit, whilst someone else fiddled with a synthesiser. That took tedium to a new height. So a bit of a mixed bag this CD. Some tracks I liked and think the experimentation worked well on. On others it took the form of aural torture. I think you need bands like this who try and test the limits in an arty way. It pushes at the boundaries of what is music, and that is a good thing. Whether you want to accept what they do as music is entirely up to you, but unless you like arty, synth-based experimental music I really wouldn’t recommend it.

Track Listing:-

1 Missing Gary
2 Sponsorships
3 Black Eskimo
4 Nebraska's Valentine
5 Umiarjuaq
6 Wunderkind #2
7 Supa Doopa
8 St-Mary's Memorial Hall
9 Pekin Pekin
10 Richard
11 Fifi F.
12 Coment Te Dire Adieu?

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