Announcement to artists: Experiments with multiple styles, always with an individual approach. Alarm bells among the critics: On. Because new sounds are seldom created. Instead, albums degenerate into collections of sketches. Everything touched upon, nothing carried through to the end. However, the situation is different with the French trio Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay. They belong to the thinkers who finish their experiments as they have proven on their previous albums. Moreover, only what fits together for them comes together on the ten tracks on their fourth joint album, »Transcodex«. (Fortunately, it matches the audience’s expectations of what belongs together!) As a result, it sounds like an experimental soundtrack to an art house thriller over long stretches, mixing pop, dub, electronica and jazz. With sometimes clear swings in one direction or the other. (They reduce »Ghost Song« so much that it sounds like a Pixies song that has been turned down). »Dactylo Horns« drifts into atmospheric sound worlds where a trumpet runs riot. »Catafalque« mixes dub and a little dada into a rhythmic eardrum-biter over a period of several days. The experiments flow in here and there, but do not set the tone, do not push the album over the top, which makes »Transcodex« more open, accessible and honest than the trio would probably like. The only point they may not have thought through until the end. But that only makes a good record better.
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