Rue Oberkampf
Wehmut
Young And Cold Records
Rue Oberkampf’s read on darkwave has long been informed by chillier sounds from the past. Even when they’ve been at their most club-focused on recent records like Essenz and Liebe, the debt that their earliest work owed to early minimal and coldwave was still apparent. But even taking that into account, after capping the first ten years of their work off with a singles retrospective earlier this year, their new EP Wehmut still stands out as a marked deviation from their extant catalog, moving away from crisp club missives and heading into far softer and more reflective territory.
Over the course of opening cuts “Tonight” and “Come On Moon” the focus is on atmospheric, misty pads intermingling with crystalline arpeggios, while low tempo beats serve more as sonar pings casting through the fog than as firm foundation. Factor in vocalist Julia de Jouy’s lilt and you have a decidedly ethereal mood shrouded across all six cuts (and one which by design or by accident sounds a good deal like the softer side of early Minuit Machine).
Despite the focus on atmospherics the arrangements here are generally simple and direct, counting on the cumulative effect of the sound design to build and maintain mood. That plainly delivered style perhaps works best on pieces which put the focus on de Jouy’s vocals, like “Blanc Poney”, where the melancholy reverie of her drifting melody is framed by a subdued wash of pastel synths and a slowly building but muted beat; the result’s a throwback combo of classic French coldwave and the likes of Orbital in their chiller forms.
Wehmut isn’t a total ceding of the dancefloor – “Come On Moon” could likely work as a bit of a cool-off track in a modern darkwave set – but even at a brisk twenty-five minutes it feels like an extended foray by Rue Oberkampf into sounds which have informed but never wholly guided them. Whether that journey is a detour or the beginning of a very different second decade for the project remains to be seen.
