M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Genre rock Publisher Mute External Links Official Site Mute Records

Let me be upfront: I am as much of a sucker for big electronic, soundtrack-ish albums as I am of anything resembling old style country music. Seeing the Ridley Scott-directed, Harrison Ford-starring Blade Runner when I was eleven years old had a profound impact on my psyche. Never before had I seen a film as stylized as Blade Runner (which it still is to this day), nor one as stark and unrelentingly bleak in its outlook on the future. The reason that film works as well as it does is because of the film's lynchpin, Vangelis. Vangelis culled the music of the film as much from the notion of the future as he did from the music of the past. His electronic tapestries butted up against the lonely big-band sounds of the '20s, which in turn were flung head on with Middle Eastern splashes on certain tracks. Throw in some sorrow tinged jazz saxophone and you've got something magical and lasting.

Vangelis started out in the early seventies, much like contemporary synthesizer-based musicians Tangerine Dream. Both artists, along with the father of all ambient music, Brian Eno, laid the groundwork for music that peeled back the curtain to our future.

From a certain standpoint, most could claim these three artists are just morose or emotionless musicians. Ones who make cold, stylized music that would be better intended more for robots than humans. But look deeper and you will see the beginnings of a new classical age. One that showcases sweeping orchestral arrangements that stir the soul and touch the heart.

This sort of music last emerged in the late '80s/early '90s, with groups as wildly divergent as My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Delerium, and The Future Sound of London. And while a strong link is perhaps hard to make between all of those artists, one thing is a constant. The creation of stirringly disparate ambient soundscapes bent on evoking a severe emotional response. While Kevin Shields' intent was to make one vomit through intense aural over stimulation, Delirium's was to soothe the listeners' soul.

And, while the English and Americans have been resting and not pushing the next wave of ambient music, the French have picked up the slack quite nicely. And none of them better than M83.

With 2003's Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts, the band blew open the doors of what is possible in modern-day atmospheric music. Nicolas Fromageau and Anthony Gonzalez crafted a densely layered album full of cacophonous sounds; a powerful album filled at once with a sense of dread and joyous hope. And though Fromageau does not participate on M83's newest release, Before the Dawn Heals Us, Gonzalez is no worse for it. In fact, he may be better off in the long run.

From the cover art, which owes as much to Blade Runner as it does the film work of director Michael Mann (in particular Mann's ode to the beauty of Los Angeles at night, Heat), to the "closing credits" salvo of "Lower Your Eyelids To Die With the Sun," Gonzalez crafts an album of beauty and horror as poetic as any other artist of any medium ever has.

Check them off one by one and each song stands alone as a testament to what a fertile imagination and an open heart can produce. Whether it's the choral treatment of "Farewell / Goodbye," with its tone perfect drum sounds, to the spacey dance beats of "Teen Angst," to the stark loneliness of "Safe." "Safe's" ending seques with sorrowful piano and background sounds of a fireworks display into "Let Men Burn Stars," bringing about a calming energy. This calmness is torn asunder by the following track, however.

"Car Chase Terror" does much with simple sound effects (cars wooshing by) and a dialogue track consisting of a scared mother and daughter on the run from a potential killer. The song's stark beginning soon builds into a combustible combination of synthesizers that hover ominously over the two women as their horror intensifies. It is a jarring song that gets under the skin and is very effective in unnerving the listener.

From start to finish there has not been as mesmerizing an album to listen to as M83's Before the Dawn Heals Us since My Bloody Valentine's Loveless in 1991. I cannot imagine an album coming out this year that will be better. If that's not praise enough for you to go out and buy this album, then I don't know what else could.