BLVL

The gripping spleen of Parisian sidewalks contagiously permeates BLVL’s cold wave. A dense, atmospheric and contemplative music, tinged with celestial electro, finally at maturity on MARTHA. This debut album is not so much a sequel as a reboot of the EP’s Empire Of Nights (2020) and Turning Worlds (2023), as the quartet behind it sets its new identity in stone. The veterans of the Paris rock/metal scene (Dysfunctional By Choice, Mass Hysteria, Comity, Doyle Airence, Deliverance…) step forward masked, questioning the man/monster duality:

Did we create the monsters we’ve become, and do our best to hide them? Where does this ugliness that both frightens and attracts us come from? The darkness we despise and admire? Can we escape the delights of this solitary suffering that lurks at every step, slowly devouring our hypocritical civility to leave only our cursed humanity? Truth remains in art. Truth remains in the shadows. Masked, we show our true face.

BLVL’s 10 new offerings definitely widen the gap with the indie rock/electro dominance of their previous releases. Producer Charles Caste’s strong hand guides them to lands that, for the band, seemed unreachable. Its members rely on the sound that cradled their youth, participating in today’s 80’s revival. Yet the whole is vigorously anchored in its time. Where “Lion’s Claw” is a rebellious post-punk anthem, “The Serpentine Song” and “Chase The Dragon” are about languor. Luperci City” and “The 360 Holes Bird” compete with hooks, while “Dogs vs Foxes” and “Sunday Sparrow” are hazy ballads. It’s an accomplished combination of sounds, and one through which the band is finally ready to present itself.

At the heart of BLVL is the famous Place Sainte Marthe, named after Martha of Bethany, a disciple of Jesus Christ famous for having defeated the Tarasque, a chimera with many incarnations. The tracklist and the superb cover art by Førtifem provide clues to this bestiary as an artistic concept. MARTHA writes the tale, giving full meaning to the symbolism of the masks. Dark and luminous faces are grafted onto complex personalities, impossible loves, hidden lives…

Belleville is the cradle of the group and the foundation of its identity. It’s perhaps one of the last districts of Paris to have a soul. We don’t invent stories; we tell the ones that are lived there, through metaphors, people who have been there, and ourselves. It’s our way of asserting that we’re from there, and presenting the little social cinema of local life, whether happy or sad.