Anomalie (Nicolas Dupuis)
Métropole

I believe that for many, certainly not for all, but not for a few either, music not only accompanies our life but also accompanies specific moments of life itself. Associating a song with the precise moment as the soundtrack of our journey is quite common, just as associating a certain artist or certain artists, belonging to a similar musical genre, is part of a necessity for our emotional state due to the proximity of musical themes and mood.

This has always been my belief, so for fun, during a recent complex period of my existence, I said to myself, “let's arm ourselves with foresight and try to reverse the current, let's break the pattern.”

So, I type “dance” on multiple musical sources, a genre I generally appreciate little, to be honest, and among many proposals, listened from 30 seconds to some tracks, I end up listening to a full album from 2017, never heard before (neither the album nor the artist), but not entirely dance. Let's say more dancetronic.

From a state of emotional detachment and apathy towards almost everything, an adrenaline charge gradually awakens in me that I did not estimate could be found again in a short time, so I begin the search for everything related to this individual.

The individual in question is Nicolas Dupuis, the birth name of the Canadian artist “Anomalie” (Anomaly, for those who lack the imagination for translation), also the namesake of the coach of the Madagascar football team. He was born in Montreal, a city also known for the automobile circuit and the 1976 Winter Olympics, studied classical and jazz for over 15 years and became a well-rounded pianist and producer.

Sometimes a one-man band, sometimes accompanied by musicians on tour, the Canadian is one of the emerging artists branded by Spectrasonics and ROLI in Quebec and its surroundings, and with “Métropole” he is at his fourth solo work (Anomalie 2013, Odyssée and Sleigh Ride, 2016). The fifth, “Métropole – Part II” was released in 2018.

Dancetronic yes, but also jazz, funk, classical, and quite a bit of hip-hop.

There is ingenious complexity in the work behind and during Anomalie’s live performances, which he assists with pre-recorded music during solo shows. Drum Pad, Bass String, launchpad, second and third keyboard, samples, musical references from Stevie Wonder to Bach, a truly rich texture paired with each track.

Listening to this album, virtuosic, with a spacy and refreshing sound, rekindled the dormant curiosity, the chained instinct towards research and knowledge (not just musical), allowing me to exit the condition in which I was slowly becoming lethargic.

Mystifying it all, it was like falling into the crocodile pit in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and being saved by Mazinger Z. Trashy, but effective.

I do not have a certain answer on “why”, but certainly, music is a powerful weapon, often underrated, a therapy, often little explored, a component of our lives, sometimes forgotten.

It’s difficult to say which track prevails over another; my advice is a complete listening, as it should result immediately pleasant (or unpleasant for those who do not conceive such a style) and quite brisk for a total of 22 minutes. To my personal taste, “Le Bleury”, “Velours” and “Métropole”, I can define them as the most recognizable and therefore characteristic tracks of the EP, but it is truly a pleasant experience, a complete meal of finger food, bites to take down in one go, that continuously feed the taste buds, without ever tiring them.