Population II
À La Ô Terre

Yet another necessary recovery of an album released last year (which we will remember, yes, as one of the worst years of our lives, but musically woe to those who complain).

The Population II come from cold Quebec, they are a kind of power trio, they sing in French, they are clearly inspired in their name by a cult album of the '70s acid guitaring by Randy Holden, but they seem like a reincarnation of the early Pink Floyd, the ones just orphaned of Barrett.

I've always wondered what it must have meant for Waters, Wright and Mason to find themselves as heralds of the nascent psychedelia and with a captain (albeit a half-crazed one) firmly at the helm, having to steer a ship in the midst of a storm, with the captain swimming trying to hunt Moby Dick. From those fears, and thanks to a different guitarist, but with a great personality like Gilmour, many post-Barrett masterpieces were born. All those tracks that lie between dawns with flutes and dark sides of the moon, which many do not adequately explore but are full of ingenious songs. The first, written on the fly by Waters in total self-esteem crisis, was called “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” and is the bleach version of the colorful Barrettian dream: a haunting, muddy, and menacing lullaby that flows restlessly and subcutaneously for 6 minutes that seem like an eternity.

I'm not saying that Population II is worth any incarnation of Pink Floyd, but when I listened to “Ce n'est rêve” I couldn't help but think of a more muscular version of Set The Controls... as mentioned above. But it's the whole album that, even though it sounds damn '60s, doesn't mimic the atmospheres but feels and makes them its own, such that it results in being fresh and addictive in an absolutely “modern” way.

It's hard to describe the best tracks, let's say that the guys play with spaces, expanding them with retro farfisa organ carpets, and compressing them with fuzz outbursts and various tribalisms, sometimes in the same piece (“Les Vents”, “Attraction”) or by incorporating moments into short successive tracks (the combo “L'offrandre” and “La Nuit”).

It might be obvious, but a nice chapeau is entirely appropriate...