Live: M83 + Porcelain Raft @ Concorde 2, Brighton January 22nd 2012

Porcelain Raft and M83 certainly share a penchant for the ethereal, even if Porcelain Raft instantiate this through a totally unpretentious set of bedroom loops and samples and M83 do so through sheer size and spectacle. The opening act, a duo fronted by London-based Italian Mauro Remiddi and recently signed to Secretly Canadian, release their much-anticipated debut album ‘Strange Weekend’ on January 24th.

Though working within a similar sound-pallete, Porcelain Raft eschew the kind of sprawling, multi-layered, synthesized bombast of M83 in favour of some gentle backing drones, live drummer and fleeting guitars. It still swirls, but in tune with a classic 60s vibe, particularly on the mildly anthemic ‘Unless You Speak From Your Heart’. ‘Put Me To Sleep’ brews a powerful mood from stark beginnings anticipated in a searing, rushing ambience. 

‘Strange Weekend’ at Secretly Canadian

M83, having broken through in the UK on a previously unimaginable scale, largely due to the strength of ‘Midnight City’, released album ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ in the UK in 2011, the follow-up to 2008’s excellent Saturdays = Youth. The show began with this creature’s atmospheric entrance before a show dominated by older songs kicked into force. ‘Graveyard Girl’ was a mysterious absence; ‘Couleurs’ a predictable highlight with exaggerated middle-techno section. The airy strides of ‘Kim & Jessie’ as second song made way for a substantial section of the middle being made up of new, abstract and essentially more minimalistic, space-age and European themed dance tracks - altogether with less harmonies and more instrumental. Not quite so engaging on an individual level, though in the context of a live show defused the sheer power of their ‘wall of sound’ in to something with a little more dynamics.

M83 “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”

• Porcelain Raft - Put Me To Sleep (MP3)
• M83 - Midnight City (MP3)

New: M83 - Midnight City

The disturbing masked creature in the photo above forms the artwork for the long-awaited new M83 single ‘Midnight City’, taken from Anthony Gonzalez’s forthcoming double LP “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” set to drop this October 18th through Naive. Though striking immediately as a little obvious, ‘Midnight City’ powers through some very simple but eerily expansive chord changes to evoke the kind of sleek city imagery and foggy synth-wave sound the band have been steadily making famous across their ten year career.

The double album was produced by Justin Meldal-Jonson (Beck, Goldfrapp, The Mars Volta), and features contributions from Zola Jesus, Morgan Kibby, and Brad Laner on guitar.

‘Midnight City’ is the first full length MP3 from “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”, following a 93 second teaser trailer released last month on Youtube which tantalises with some home studio shorts and that trademark airy ambience in the synth. Critics are already divided on M83’s potential direction come October, but a strong similarity to 2008’s ‘Saturdays = Youth’, and in particular second track ‘Kim & Jessie’, is one element highly agreeable. Download ‘Midnight City’ as an MP3, catch the M83 teaser trailer a little further down and make your opinions heard in the box below.

M83 - Midnight City (MP3)