Sébastien Tellier - Sexuality

If we’re going to go with tasteless cultural stereotypes for a moment (and we are, so break out the bérets, frogs legs and stinky cheese) Sébastien Tellier’s new album, Sexuality, is so French. 

During some of these tracks, you can almost catch a whiff of knockoff designer cologne mixed with stale cigarette smoke in hotel room upholstery. Listening to it does, at times, feel a bit like having Sébastien’s tongue in your ear.

Sexuality’s opening track, 'Roche', washes over your senses, lulling you with 20 seconds of ocean sound and light piano before a deliciously sleazy synth kicks in - and it hits home that this is the the musical equivalent of foreplay before a slow, gentle screwing. Serge Gainsbourg – a major influence throughout the album – springs to mind just as the second track is starting and this, mes amis, is when the Jane Birkinesque groaning begins. Ah, oui…

The album may be an act of musical exhibitionism, but there are qualities that create the sensation of the listener as a voyeur, tom-peeping into Tellier’s subconscious and rummaging through his extensive collection of fetishes (riding a horse over the terrain of a gigantic naked female body being one of them - see album cover for details). The music is open, honest, and pristinely filthy.

Highlights include ‘Divine’, an infectiously poppy dance track, ‘Manty’, a loop of robotic, staccato laughter interspersed with girlish giggles and previously released single ‘Sexual Sportswear’, an electric cyber-shag of a song that could easily be a missing track from ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The final track, ‘L'amour et La Violence’ is unmistakably a post-coital comedown, en Français: la petite mort.

Produced by Daft Punk’s Guy Manuel De Homem-Christo, Sexuality has the potential to be Tellier’s launch into the mainstream, drenched as it is in 80’s synth pop. However, the album’s ethos might not be to the taste of your every day electronica fan and is more likely to suit the palates of established Tellier followers. That said, it's a joy to listen to and becomes more delectable with each play. If Séb doesn’t make himself a household name with this, he could certainly compose soundtracks for blurry soft-core videos.

Polly Rappaport 
Freelance Journalist 

(http://artrocker.com/search/node/polly+rappaport)

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