We can see it coming a mile off: there will be clans. There will be those who say 'behelvehell', those who say 'blvlvlvv' as best they can, and the creative types (we can see you pronouncing 'Hoggog' for Ho99o9) who will venture into absurd gymnastics such as 'Blul', 'Bulle', or who knows what other oddities they might find. BLVL means Belleville. The artwork by the duo Førtifem was a clue, and the title of this first album is another: MARTHA, like the square and rue Sainte Marthe in the 10th disctrict of Paris. Their universe is resolutely urban, and the band, who hide behind masks but are said to be veterans of the French metal and hardcore scene (with former members of Dysfunctional By Choice and Mass Hysteria for example), take a welcome synthetic turn on this first album compared to their first EPs.
Their alternative rock has cooled down, and BLVL are riding the nostalgic wave that has led musicians closer to the metal scene to seize on Cold Wave and 80's synthesizers. With Luperci City, you can feel that the could easily tip over into a heavier, more doomy vein, but it remains at a respectful distance, somewhere between Hangman's Chair and Depeche Mode. You float above the asphalt but are irresistibly drawn back down to pavement level. BLVL seem to choose sides later on: echoes of Dave Gahan's voice regularly haunt the album (The 360 Holes Bird, A Night with the Devilfish, both seductive and dangerous).
But BLVL aren't into backward-looking fetishism either: the electronics are actually closer to Perturbator's recent works than a copy of what was done forty years ago. So much the better. The resulting atmosphere oozes melancholy and nocturnal chills, while the tone takes on a sometimes epic scale when the tracks take flight (The Serpentine Song). The contemplative, dark mood is disturbed by the glow of the streetlights, keeping BLVL in a nuanced balance: you don't really know whether to dance or mope, but you're used to doing both at the same time. And then there are the clever ideas that give MARTHA its variety: the vocoder on Dogs VS Foxes, the finale of Black Widow's Addiction that propels The Cure onto a retro space dancefloor, the sobbing guitar on Bat Calls Without Walls, or Vincent Mercier (who played bass with Mass Hysteria and also sings with Ruin of Romantics... a band that includes musicians from Hangman's Chair and Perturbator) takes to the mike on Chase the Dragon, adding a new density...
Getting lost with BLVL in the streets of the 10th district, one of the last with a soul if you believe their words, leaves time for introspection but also its share of adventures, like so many encounters. MARTHA meanders between the buildings while hovering above the rooftops in the Parisian night, and it's ultimately this delicate balance that seduces, this mix of opposing emotions, the ethereal beauty the band gives to everyday life, the light it casts on its shadows and the rock'n'roll groove that warms up the synthesizers here and there.
