Sporting more fuzz than a Pomeranian, Pamplemousse‘s Porcelain (A Tant Rêver du Roi) shows its Grunge and Garage roots. Sporting heavy guitar distortion and ample drums (it’s a duo), these thirty-nine minutes cruise by.
A buddy of mine who heard this blasting out of my room on my fifth listen compared it to Helmet. Given my long-time distaste for Grunge (I’m plenty depressed enough, thank you, I don’t need help) I didn’t have much context for this thing. I went into it thinking Punk, and Pamplemousse provides enough to justify that.
Sporting a mostly pedestrian tempo and vocals vaguely reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne, the album opens with “More Beautiful Than Madonna,” a furry little number with some nice beats. “Smile the Num” follows, slowing to near-Pentragram tempo. Strings and drums lead the vocals with a ZZ Top consistency some bands find success with. The rest of the album sounds like the rest of the album. There’s an instrumental in there called “Instrumental” that has a few interesting riffs.
It’s perfectly amenable music, but the appropriate venue for this is as the soundtrack to some edgy indie movie, including at least one modestly filmed car chase and a showdown in an abandoned factory.
Now, the last (ninth) track, “Brick Head,” contains some interesting Prog Rock guitar tricks, giving me a send-off quite unlike the rest of the album. They didn’t abandon the fuzzy guitars, but they justify the attention, record deal, and this review. This nearly eight-minute epic outshines the rest of the album for its creativity, guitar work, and relative dearth of vocals. It’s not radically different from the first eight tunes; it’s just more ambitious and a step above, while retaining a firm grip on their sound.
Pamplemousse began in the Indian Ocean on Reuinion Island as a trio, later reduced to a guitar/drums duo, and a recent move to Lorraine, France, their sound is well-honed and sturdy enough to justify Porcelain as a fourth album. They seem to be primarily a European touring band at this point despite their exotic origins. The press kit calls the sound “abrasive,” but for those of us who’ve ever actually laid on a bed of nails, or sanded a board, enough abrasion becomes smooth.
Worth adding to your playlist if you like music to drive to, enjoy Grunge, or super-fuzzy Punk.
Buy the album here:
https://pamplemoussetheband.bandcamp.com/album/porcelain
7 / 10
LARRY ROGERS
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