Les Friction’s Debut Album Review
Released on January 24, Les Friction’s debut album of the same name has been available for two months now. Thus, it is high time for a review.
Preceding the release, Helmut Vonlichten and Nihl Finch went on journeys all over the world. Their objective was to find suitable components “using the retrosonic process. This process was used by the Vonlichtens for the ES Posthumus records and involves printing specific elements to different formats to capture and enhance their aural essences.” In the course of a year, they collected all the essentials and formed what is now known as Les Friction.
The result of Helmut’s, Nihl’s and vocalist “Paint’s” joint forces is a bundle of nine very diverse tracks. This diversity was already manifested in the tracks that were published prior to the album release. First, we received “Torture”: a quite emotional piece of music. Then came a disturbing sample cut from “Louder Than Words”, and last in the line was a dynamic sample of “Here Comes the Reign”. This led me to wonder: will this musical variety form a satisfying and unified album?
In contrast to most albums, all the tracks are interlaced with an overarching story. A story that was originally conceived by the creative minds behind Les Friction. It tells us of travels to other dimensions, and the travelers’ struggle to return home. The subject of this tale is a fresh and untouched one, and we are confronted with a unique and abstract concept. This background story means that the tracks more or less follow a certain order mostly sticking to the chronology of events.
The atmospheric mood of the tracks is well attuned to this story, taking turns between emotional, sad, relentless and uplifting, not just from one track to another, but even within the tracks themselves. Therefore, I recommend listening to the tracks in the given order.
Sonically, Les Friction has a strong orientation towards rock. This is undeniable, but accompanying the guitars and drums are classical instruments, which – together with choral additions – provide an orchestral impact. The slight influence of romantic pop elements are also present.
Enough of these abstractions, for now. Let’s have a closer look at some of the featured tracks, and discover some of the album’s facets.
And we start… at the beginning of the album. “Louder Than Words” is not solely a disturbing piece, as described above. In fact, this track provides a variety of sounds. It ranges from an attentive introductory chorus, across the concerted play of sinister strings and percussion, and a remarkably nice guitar performance in the middle of the track, to the final vocal outburst, or better call it a transmission “Coming in louder than words”. The voice of Paint, calm as well as vigorous, never loses the lead.
After an intense opening, Les Friction strikes up with emotional and uplifting tracks, before carrying on with more relentless cues. “World on Fire” proceeds with the dark and severe tunes initiated by the previous track “Here Comes the Reign”. The lyrics present the same attitude: the metaphor is a “World on fire with a smoking sun”. The synthesized decisive beats excellently interact with the vocals, and the electric guitar at the end is brilliant.
If you’re now wishing for more joyful tracks, I recommend “Sunday”. The strings perfectly fit together with Paint’s chant – yes , chant is the right term. This piece of music builds up almost majestically. A variety of instruments adds up to this elated composition, including the sonority of guitars and trumpets, and — if my ears do not utterly fool me — even the sound of what might be an accordion. Few artists are bold enough to combine these instruments and chanting, and even fewer are good enough to make that fusion work as well as it does here.
We finish this review with “Come Back to Me” (feat. Emily Valentine). Until now, I haven’t mentioned one of the very present instruments on this album. I’m referring to the piano play, of course. The piano comes to the forefront for the thoughtful moments most of the time. For this track the instrument definitely delivers the best introduction and backing for the soft voice of Emily Valentine. “Come Back to Me”, the last track of the compilation, is a symbiosis of the emotional, sad and powerful parts of Les Friction. The beginning of the track truly inspires some hope for this tragic tale (“Do you hear me?”). This is where I see the climax of the album. Though finally a happy ending of the story is not granted. But not the story’s ending itself is unsatisfactory. Instead I was a lot more unsatisfied that the last part of the track is not repeated a second time.
To be clear, Les Friction is not a continuation of E.S. Posthumus. Although we may recognize the style of E.S. Posthumus in some instrumental parts, Helmut, together with Nihl, fulfilled his desire “to evolve into a new sound”. Les Friction takes us along a fantastical journey rich in variety and Paint substantially contributed to give the compositions the spirit they deserve. In conclusion, the album definitely is a pleasure. However, you may have to spend some time getting accustomed to this new dimension of sound. My verdict is that it’s time well spent.
The album is available to the public for purchase through iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp and CDBaby. For licensing information, contact Les Friction.
I have listened to all of these tracks to more than 30 times. Truly splendid.
Though, favorite is still Louder Than Words. The choir in event embodies all possible epicness of trailer music.