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"A sophisticated, slick, thrillingly weird record" - The Irish Times
The Imaginary Museum is the debut album by Dublin’s Autre Monde. Released through Strange Brew Records (Junior Brother, Squarehead, Daithi), the long-player follows a run of singles and an EP stretching back to 2017. Put together over several sessions with Girl Band's Daniel Fox as producer, the album's 9 songs mark a definitive statement from a band who have evolved their earlier interpretations of post-punk/art-pop to arrive at a richer, more expressive moment, often taking folk-ish melodies and structures as a launchpad.
Touchpoints include Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Harmonia, Fairport Convention circa ‘Liege & Leaf’, Grace Jones, the Human League, Alex Cameron - and most especially the orgainsing principle to make a record “by a band who were playing esoteric post-punk in 1979 but who are now transplanted to 1986 where a hit is demanded”. It is a darkly tuneful record, dotted with moments of outright pop - see recent single On the Record with its exuberant sax break, for example (“a bright delight of a song” - Nialler 9), or the pulsating, mutating Fever in May. Elsewhere, the record stretches out confidently: luxuriating in baths of vintage synthesizers on The Operator, descending into something wild and uncertain in the final minutes of Brain Upon Your Pillow, mixing the pastoral with the robotic on Balls of Your Suit and Three Mandolins. Truly Glowing is a euphoric finale.
Autre Monde emerged from the ashes of the Popical Island collective as its headquarters fell victim to the city’s relentless purge of cultural spaces in 2017. Indeed, the first Autre Monde rehearsal was on the last day of the Pop Inn’s existence as a venue/rehearsal/recording space on Little Britain Street. They quickly gained attention for their early singles and stirring live performances, with The Thin Air insisting they were “one of the very best bands in the country”. The Irish Times noted that Autre Monde were “mining Television, ESG, Suicide and the The Slits”, and that’s about right. A murky, exploratory self-title EP followed (with 8-minute Can via Pentangle-channelling highlight Your Name still a favourite in live sets) before the band set out to make The Imaginary Museum in summer 2018. The signed to Strange Brew in 2019 in time to release the first fruits of those sessions.
The album title is taken from a line in Fredric Jameson’s ‘Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Captialism’ where he writes: “in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum”.
credits
released February 28, 2020
All music written and performed by P Cooney, P Hanna, E O’Brien and M Chester
All lyrics written by P Cooney, except ‘Saturday’ by P Hanna
Recorded and mixed by Daniel Fox at Sonic Recording Studios, Dublin.
Saxophone on ‘On the Record’ played by Félim Gormley.
Additional vocals on ‘On the Record’ sung by Naoise Roo.
supported by 14 fans who also own “The Imaginary Museum”
I can’t speak highly enough of this album and performer. Lyrically brilliant, musically original and vocally wonderful and unique. Not a bad combination, eh? I love it. Enough said. radiomartin
Effortlessly juggling mood without slowing down or stopping to question themselves, the Singaporean band give new life to an age-old indie ethos. Bandcamp Album of the Day Mar 16, 2021