TEMPERPLANE (WHITE VINYL/GATEFOLD) | VINYL RECORD (LP)

LP version. White vinyl; Gatefold sleeve. Don't even try to find the meaning of Temperplane in the Webster. The word is the fruit of Jean Waterlot's imagination, an attempt to capture the momentum that lead to the release of the third album of his band Montevideo: a fantasized plane that would allow you to fly through various degrees of emotion, from where you could observe our planet Earth from above, far above. Nonetheless it's a more conventional plane that Montevideo took to record those eight songs, heading to New York to work with Joakim who established his Crowdspacer studio in Brooklyn a few years ago. The band decided to extend the fruitful collaboration with the French producer started on their second LP Personal Space in 2012. So fruitful that they also signed the record to Joakim's label, Tigersushi. After exploring more synth heavy, discoid vibes on Personal Space, Montevideo are coming back to their indie roots here, a rawer energy, without abandoning their ambition to keep your feet dancing. Here, their "psychedelic dance" vision takes on the challenge of dressing up the Beach Boys with the baggy jeans of the Happy Mondays, bringing the Pacific Ocean breeze to Manchester, spreading complex vocal harmonies all over the dancefloor. Between the band and Joakim, the communication is fluid and effortless. Like Andrew Weatherall or Erol Alkan, the studio sorcerer seamlessly mixed dance and rock acting as a producer from the recording to the mixing, beefing up the beats, adding the right samples where they were needed. "With his extensive knowledge of electronic music, Joakim filtered our ideas through the processing of his machines" says Jean. Because of their pop influences and the melting pot of cultures present in Brussels, English remains their language of choice when it comes to singing, like when they describe this "Fun House", a nightly place to lose yourself, even scarier than The Stooges' one. The song starts like Fad Gadget and ends like The Charlatans, like a tribute to the historical bond between Belgium and British pop music that dates back to the '80s (think Factory Benelux or Les Disques Du Crepuscule). Montevideo's dance-pop crossover sometimes evokes the psychedelic fumes of the Beta Band or Django Django, before taking a romantic new wave stroll in Brooklyn ("Sutton Street") or heading straight to the club ("Calypso"). Artwork by legendary studio H5.