The French Tourists

It appears that today, indie music is inundated with dreamy, pop records. Housse De Racket certainly fall into that category. However, unlike most of these half-hearted, nostalgic albums distributed by superficial bands, this French-based group is refreshing and produces music that people actually want to listen to.

Housse De Racket is the brainchild of Victor le Masne and Pierre Leroux, musicians that played with and used to open for Phoenix. Their new album, The Tourist, coming out on October 30^th, reflects the music of Phoenix along with the eccentric music of psychedelic bands like Funkadelic.

This album is a departure from some of their earlier music, but it still retains the funky, house pop sound from their other records. For instance, the songs “S.O.S.” and “Le Rayon Vert” would both be suitable in any trendy club that plays house music, but they also would be appropriate to play while hanging out at home with a group of friends.

While there are still songs that will make any listener want to dance, most of the songs on the record are better for brooding moods.

The Tourist takes the listener on a journey beginning with the calming ring of guitars echoing and manipulated vocals of the lead singers. The more dulcet music is broken up with an explosion of fast-paced synth rhythms and at times these beats infiltrate the last few seconds of each song before moving entirely to the next track. It is as if the band realize that the tones of the songs need to change so that the listener will not lose interest.

The end of the record is wrapped up with the instrumental song “Satellite 2” and as the guitar slowly picks up, so does the listener’s mood begin to undulate with the fading in and out of the instruments.