Last September, Dark Minimal Project released their third album, Pleasure is a Sin (review). True to their relentless pace, the Lille-based duo is already back with And Sometimes, an EP that builds on the album’s appeal while adding a fresh twist: dBoy, the vocalist behind JE T'AIME, makes a guest appearance on these new tracks.
Beyond the curiosity that collaborations between artists always spark, this partnership allows for a fusion of aesthetics and artistic worlds. Dark Minimal Project had adopted a harsher tone on their last album, moving toward a blend of darkwave, EBM, and dark electro that gave their melancholy a sharper edge. This time, starting with And Sometimes, we see that while this biting electronic sound obviously still makes you want to move (after all, JE T’AIME is also easy to dance to), the emotions are also more suited to rainy days. There are cold wave touches, but also dBoy’s expressive and theatrical vocals, whose laments—as raw as ever—infuse a kind of warmth into a soundscape that is usually colder.
The contrasts are striking, yet we also appreciate the nuances and the tension that arises from this interplay with Guillaume Vanderosieren’s more austere vocals. Boys don’t cry, sang Robert Smith; “she” won’t cry either, tells us the second track. You, however, if you want to, can. A few tears are necessary. The sorrow is contained and then explodes in this new dance track haunted by a contemplative nostalgia. Moreover, the remixes by People Theatre and Resilience accentuate this rhythmic approach by boosting the intensity of the tracks... the complete opposite of the new version of So Far Away, a track from Pleasure is a Sin and the only song on the EP without dBoy, whose introspective quality is here reinforced by layers of fragile, poetic synths. Heat, cold, passionate fervor, and disillusioned abandonment: DMP juggles all of this, taking us from one to the other, even skillfully blending everything together.
This EP intrigues and captivates in more ways than one. Of course, there’s always that craftsmanship, that knack for crafting catchy beats and pairing them with a communicative melancholy. But we also catch glimpses of new paths, aspirations, and possible directions for this project, which proves not only its desire to try new things and avoid stagnation but also its ability to coexist harmoniously with other strong artistic personalities... We can therefore allow ourselves to dream of other similar collaborations and experiences in the future! Whether they happen or not, Dark Minimal Project certainly hasn’t said its last word and the future will be captivating.
