Télépopmusik: Genetic World

There are going to be a lot of people who fall head over heels for France’s latest electronic export, Télépopmusik. After all, Genetic World has recieved an abundance of praise overseas from such mags as DJ, who gave it five stars, and NME, who said that it was “perfectly genetically modified house”. But so what? After listening to Genetic World myself, I can’t help but feel that this whole electronic French export thing is getting tired by this point. Another one to fall into the line already established by Air and Zero 7, Télépopmusik offers very little in the way of originality. So if you’re ready for another trip down smooth, hypnotic groove lane with female vocals and scratchy vinyl sounds peppering the mix, then dive right into this one.

The group consists of Fabrice Dumont, Stephan Haeri, and Christophe Heiter. Together, they create monotonous trance-lite ditties that also incorporate such guest stars as Angela McCluskey and Brit rapper/poet Soda-Pop (of Dirty Beatniks). It is McCluskey who sings on the hit single “Breathe”, an effortless bit of electro-pop that sure sounds great the first time you hear it. But it doesn’t manage to go anywhere, content to pool up in a slow, hypnotic groove that works best on a dance floor and feels meaningless anywhere else.

It is also McCluskey who provides the annoying vocals on the tracks “Love Can Damage Your Health” and “Animal Man”. NME said she has a Billie Holliday style to her singing, but really it sounds more like a cat mewling incessantly in the middle of the night. In another way, it feels like Télépopmusik is making a bid for hipness the way the Propellerheads did with Shirley Bassey on “History Repeating” from their Decksndrumsnrocknroll album. But the music isn’t that entrancing or exciting. This could truly be pure space age bachelor pad music, as McCluskey sounds like she’s going on the nod with all styles of pulsing and droning synths and a limp beat accompanying her on “Love Can Damage Your Health”. She almost sounds like Macy Gray on “Smile”, but more often than not she sounds as if she’s doing her damndest to just get the words out of her mouth, so mush-mouthed is her delivery.

When Télépopmusik isn’t trying to reinvent the birth of the cool, it attempts to do a little Daft Punk or Kraftwerk. The title track is incredibly annoying with its repetitive “genetic world” vocal loop fucking up the stress of the syllables. “Gin a tick world” is what it comes out sounding like. Another less-hazy track, “Dance Me”, featuring robot female vocals, sounds like it would do great as the soundtrack for a commercial about cellular phones or cars. And while Soda-Pop’s remix of “Da Hoola” attempts to get funky with the refrain “Let’s do the hula!” and some electric guitar, the scratching is pretty bad and the rapping second rate. And how many times do these guys have to use the swirling, calliope-like keyboards?

Apparently a time or two more, as the grating “Let’s Go Again” features the same keyboards once again. Maybe part of the blame can lie on member Christophe’s stoner tendencies. According to rapper Mau, “He’s the most stoned motherfucker I’ve ever met.” Goes a long way to explain the listless noodling going on in this track. But what to make of the absolutely horrible vocals? If only I knew.

From there, it’s the terrible strains of “Trishika”, which sounds like the kind of drugged-out silliness Angelo Badalamenti likes to put in to David Lynch’s movies, and “Yesterday Was a Lie”, featuring — again — Angela McCluskey purring her way through another excruciating, mind-numbing torch song featuring plenty of strings and piano. Move over, Harry Connick, Jr. And hey, if that’s not good enough for you, then dig into eight-plus minutes of “L’inertitude D’Heisenberg”. I guarantee that there are going to be a whole lot of people who fall for “Breathe” that are going to be scratching their heads and letting the rest of this album collect dust.

But that’s the problem with all these groups. They have a gimmick, and not much of one at that, and then try to eke out an entire album with lesser variations on the gimmick. The album closes with a remix of “Breathe”, even. And it should also be noted that the US version of Genetic World had a few songs lopped off that were included in the European release. Will it matter? Probably not. I can’t think of the last time I was this bored with listening to an album, but Télépopmusik made me want to doze off a number of times, and not in the good trance sense of the word. Hype and “Breathe” will sell this album; the rest of the miserable tracks won’t. Perhaps it’s time to just move onto something fresher when it comes to these hipster import groups.