The 2kDozen 500: #39 - Francois & The Atlas Mountains, "E Volo Love"

Some suave desert wanderer or something. I suppose where America has the South West, France would have the Maghreb and the Sahara. The echoing blank patch on all the maps where the stars are that bit nearer and the nights that bit quieter. Francois Marry is also of a Fence Collective persuasion and a Domino signing and has played trumpet with Camera Obscura. And anyone who plays brass has real soul, don't they?

There's a swish of Sebastien Tellier strings, several liberal daubs in fact. "Les Plus Beaux" has a stirring desert throb of a drumbeat and soft call & response and some shivering backing vocals. I'm sure it's been beneath the sweep of Jools Holland's chubby boogie-woogie paw a thousand times already; but it's ace. And my French is non-existent, but does the title mean "the more beautifuls"? I like that title.

"Piscine" sounds very French, very boulangerie. (What the fuck am I talking about here? My lazy, lazy mind.) What do I mean by that? I think it's the stabbing keyboard sound - it comes across as very cabaret. At least at first until it lifts off from the pavement cafe and swoops into the greater cosmos, assuming the form of some sleek houseship. It swirls like a cup of coffee do, or a Werther's original in the factory.

"Edge of Town" moves across a breezy sticklebrick beat. Something about "lazy resurrections"? I like the sound of that. Lots of achey, romantic titles - "Bail Eternal", "City Kiss", "Buried Treasures", "Muddy Heart" - and the swoonsome melodies and trembling instrumentation to go with them. A lick of sax. Loping bass. Broody, broody tunes and Francois sliding up and down the sounds. "Slow Love" starts out with a touch of the disco before the low-strung strings get their fingers into things. Maybe the bestest of the tracks.

"The pleasure I'm taking with you/I hope it will last through/And you hope that too." Quelle sauce!

Rating: You Can Take The Francois out of Bordeaux...