Montag
Alone, not Alone
Carpark

Montreal composer Antoine Bedard's stylishly retro electro-pop is the latest in a lineage that can be traced backwards from contemporaries like M83 and Cyann and Ben, to modern forerunners like Stereolab and Air, to the French pop singers of the '60s. Montag inhabits the aesthetic more fully than many of his counterparts-- M83, for whose albums Bedard composed string arrangements, traffics in outsized versions of classic French pop's minimal melodic phrases, but lacks the slightly ironic remove; Air plays up the kitschy qualities; Stereolab emphasizes elegance and detachment but lacks warmth. On Alone, Not Alone, Montag has achieved a cunning equilibrium between distance and immediacy by covering the range between elastic, swooning electro-pop and concise, considered standoffishness.

A neon climax can be found in “Perfect Vision” with the aid of Stars vocalist Amy Milan. With the ability to keep a more ambient musical tone throughout the album without becoming wallpaper, the perfect place for this album may very well be Sunday mornings when the world is in slow motion, the sun shines lazily through your window, and your coffee tastes the best. I find a niche with active contemporaries Múm, Worm is Green, Monade (Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab), and finds its French roots with Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy. Let the French-Canadian Invasion begin. . .it’s a beautiful thing. -- DA Johnston