Theoreme

Grounded. Not another celestial outbreak but an elevator descending slowly to the center of the earth. This is ‘Les Artisans’, Theoreme’s first album since 2016’s no-wave burner ‘L’appel du Midi à midi pile’.

Maïssa D. from Lyon, France is back with an incredible collection of songs that continues and evolves her tradition of hypnotic bass heavy mantras that mix industrial dance, robotic funk experimentalism and hallucinatory club downers.

Obsessed with the idea of literally going underground, ‘Les Artisans’ feels telluric, stemming from the soil where rhythm is dictated by pounding steps and feverish monologues. Song structures that feel like gum rolling on the tip of your tongue, half-speed Uk Jungle breakbeats that meet On-U Sound’s electronic reggae voyage (‘L’Homme À Face De Rosée’), Henry Mancini sent through a defected blender transmitting lounge noir (‘Tourterelle’) all evoke the spectral atmosphere of Les Artisans, starting with the enveloping title-track, a futuristic dub rhapsody built on a sci-fi bass structure that sways methodically. Theoreme’s music never feels rushed, and for all the synthetic aspects there is a deep organic thumping soul and an incredible knack for flow, often highlighted by futuristic jazz low end motifs (‘Les Gifles Du Pariétal’) and post-punk primitivism (‘Tertre’) eavesdropping into the 99 Records catalogue with a spark of proto-techno (‘Radionucléides’).