Sometimes we have preconceived ideas. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. In any case, preconceived ideas are bad. Take Canal Froid, for example: just from the name ('Cold Channel'), you can guess that it will be rather cool, with a rainy cold wave vibe. You wouldn't be entirely wrong. You might therefore form a mental image of the music: something Curian with post-punk touches, vocals that chant the lyrics, a contemporary approach that is very much in vogue like so many other projects. You would be wrong, at least in part.
Things are Different Today: the EP artwork warns us. You know those days when you feel out of sorts, your headstuck in the wall, your legs floating in the air for no apparent reason, completely off balance? It usually happens on Thursdays. Anyway. The same can be said of Canal Froid's music: off balance and weightless. Admittedly, the markers are there, like the very post-punk No Sense (the track that most resembles a “catchy single” for the EP) or the slightly blasé vocals that couldn't care less about their English accent. We don't care either. But that's not how Canal Froid wins us over.
There is something atypical, mysterious, and ritualistic about the music, with hypnotic percussion and layers that envelop us like thick fog. Little by little, Canal Froid loses us in this poetic, unreal mist. With She, this sensitive voice guides us, only to lead us further astray with its ghostly echoes while the guitar wails, almost mournfully. The Dolor and Enfonce Toi take on a more pronounced electronic coldness, an opportunity to play with disturbing synthetic textures and bring to life an oppressive modern labyrinth... Meanwhile, the tribal and industrial incantations of Expanse of Darkness fascinate, while Canal Froid combines modern sounds with ancestral evocations older than day and night.
With these six tracks, Canal Froid offers a range of experiences, sometimes dreamlike, sometimes harsher. Cold wave, certainly, but with a pronounced taste for the mystical and industrial. Things are Different Today is an atypical and varied collection that is a pleasure to wander through, enjoying its refreshing and rare sense of weightlessness.
