ULAN BATOR - Abracadabra

Amaury Cambuzat is one of those musicians who doesn't like to flood the market, who only puts out a new record when he truly has something worthwhile to offer his audience. Suffice it to say that “Tohu-Bohu” arrived in 2010 a full five years after its predecessor “Rodeo Massacre”, even though the gap was bridged by the indispensable early-years anthology “Ulaanbaatar 1993-1998”.

Today, the new “Abracadabra” shows just how high the songwriting of the French guitarist/singer (whom Italy has happily adopted since the days of Consorzio Produttori Indipendenti) still stands, effective in condensing post-rock emotional scales and walls of sound that brush against a certain noise, never pushed to extremes - the right key for marrying Mogwai-school dynamics with American noise experimentalism.

“Abracadabra” comes across as a work that's at times dark, almost shamanic (“Longues Distances”), leaving just the right amount of room for introspective moments (the first part of “Ether”) and sunset-lit prairies (the closing “Protection”), while never lacking in electric tension (“Saint Mars”), certain shoegaze coils (“Radiant Utopia”) and the fitting, typically nineties sonics (”Golden Down”).

There are two tracks in particular that define Ulan Bator's new work, namely “Coeurrida” and above all the vibrant “Evra Kedebra”, which borrows dissonances of clear Sonic Youth derivation. These will be the flashes that endure in any hypothetical definitive greatest hits of the band.

But there's no rush to compile it: after more than two decades of an honourable career, Mr Cambuzat still shows himself to the world in tremendous form. There's time yet for final reckonings…

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30/01/2016