Various Artists - 'Nouvelle Vague Present New Wave' (District 6) Released 28/05/07

Marc Collin and Gilles LeGuen are two members that form part of European collaboration Nouvelle Vague, a band who may not be commonplace in the minds of ‘Joe public’, but who have been gathering a mounting underground appreciation for their quirky, yet strangely fascinating blend of musical styles. With their popular first album entitled ‘Nouvelle Vague’ the band showed their ability to reinterpret tracks in an appealing bossa nova style.

Entitled ‘New Wave’, the duo’s sublime compilation album takes the new wave style of music from the late 70‘s, early 80‘s inspired by the post punk rock movement and mixes it with other genres such as funk, reggae, pop, ska and glam rock thanks to some astute planning and foresight. The term ‘New Wave’ itself is a bit of a musical hot potato and the source of some confusion, but it is thought to have originated as a name to describe the so called ‘New Wave’ of talent entering the music scene some thirty years ago.

The album features tracks from an array of artists like Gary Numan, The Stranglers and Duran Duran, and exposes their manipulation and experimentation on already well known tracks with obvious varying degrees of success. What is refreshing on this particular album also is the inclusion of tracks from lesser known artists which gives a nice balance to this compilation. Reintroducing the sounds of sub genres like electro-pop and the New Romantic Period with a flurry of synthesiser dominated drum and bass lines and keyboard laden melodies running throughout, the listener is transported back to a time when bands had attitude and refused to embrace the simplistic, loud, fast paced playing style of the earlier counterparts.

If you weren’t party to the sights and sounds of the period or just want to sit back and reminisce, this album will be sure to please. Searching the net may bring to sight a large number of alternative albums covering the period, but with Nouvelle Vague the difference is clear.