Search - Hylozoists :: La Nouvelle Gauche

This Nova Scotia band is, perhaps, an inevitable byproduct of the popular (at least among indie music fans) instrumental wave pioneered by Chicago acts like Tortoise and the Sea and Cake. Followers of those experimental sound engineers, as well as the High Llamas and Stereolab, will find familiar textures recombined in new ways on La Nouvelle Gauche. Mixing the exotic--theremin, vibraphone--along with the more conventional guitars, bass, and drums, and including a sprinkling of horns, the group takes liberties with familiar pop structures to come up with playfully ironic tunes. The vibes on "Theironchef" provide a setting for space-junk sound effects, "Details@five" sounds like quitting time at the xylophone factory, and "Reprise" builds to a dramatic theremin freak-out. Compositions flow and ebb seemingly with no particular destination, though at times the Hylozoists--which includes members of the Sadies and By Divine Right, among others--get everything just right, as when a deep, bassy synth takes "Theironchef" to another level. While it may lack for standout tracks, La Nouvelle Gauche wouldn't be out of place in any hipster's 21st-century cocktail-jazz library. --Shawn Conner