BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - January 2017

ALCEST
French heavy metal explores the furthest reaches of influence
James Olson
France’s Alcest have arisen as one of the
more unique acts within the broad and
ever expanding world of heavy rock/
metal music. Blending elements of
black metal, shoegaze, folk, and dream
pop, the music of Alcest is described
by the band’s songwriter and vocalist/
guitarist, Neige as otherworldly,
spiritual, and introspective. Over the
course of five albums, the band has
developed a sound and style that is
encompassing in the singularity of its
exploratory vision. Each record is a
journey for listeners.
Their latest release Kodama
shows the band simultaneously
exploring new territory and returning
to a more aggressive songwriting
style. Shelter, their previous release,
was distinguished for having a much
more clean and melodic sound rooted
almost exclusively in dream pop
and shoegaze. “[We] needed to go
for something more personal, more
contrasted, louder drums, that was
darker too [on Kodama]. In a way, each
Alcest album is composed in reaction
to the one before, and that’s not
something that we actually plan,” Neige
explains. “Kodama comes back to some
of the older aspects of our sound, like
the screaming vocals and the length
of the songs for example, but I would
Photo by Andy Julia
say that it also has a lot of new elements
that could be considered as a heritage
of Shelter.”
There is a strong influence drawn
from Japanese culture throughout
Kodama. The album’s title itself is a
reference to the classic Hayao Miyazaki
film Princess Mononoke and the cover
was heavily inspired by the works of
Takato Yamamoto. Neige explains that
this influence runs even deeper in this
new release as Asian scales were used
to write guitar melodies for certain
songs on the record. “We wanted to
integrate these influences in a way
that feels appropriate to the context
of Alcest. The goal wasn’t to go fullon
Japanese, it wouldn’t have sounded
right. I would say that it just gave an
overall feel to the record, an identity,”
Neige says. “The reason why I always
was attracted to Japan is because it’s
so different from Europe, on every
level. It’s almost like another world for
occidental people.”
With Kodama topping many best
of the year lists for a variety of major
music publications and a world tour
under way, Alcest have set themselves
apart as one of the most creatively
invigorating acts within rock and metal.
Alcest play The Rickshaw Theatre with
Creepers and The Body February 4, 2017.
illustration by syd danger
A guy walks into a department store to
buy a new jacket. He spends $100 on it. He
doesn’t really want to spend it, but he kind
of has to. He’s going to a show later and
he wants to look half decent. He doesn’t
know much about the bands playing but
177 people are “going” and another 240 are
“interested” so logic would suggest that he
also be in attendance. Hours pass, the night
beckons and our hero arrives at the show.
Four local bands. $10 at the door. Fuck that.
He complains. He tries to get in free. He
considers sneaking in the back. Eventually,
reluctantly, he pays.
I find this discrepancy in priorities to be
fascinating. Why is it that someone will buy
an item of clothing for $100 that costs $1 to
make and could very well have been made by
the underpaid hands of an exploited child in
an impoverished country, but scoff at paying
$10 to watch four local bands? Or balk at
paying $1 for an album on Bandcamp that
might have cost thousands to record, done with
equipment that cost thousands to buy, playing
music that took weeks or years to master.
Before you write this off as a sensational
hyperbolic guilt trip, don’t. Because 1) I am
as guilty as anyone. In fact everyone is to a
certain degree. And 2) It is not hyperbolic.
That’s what makes it interesting. The
investigative depths required to truly
uncover the societal reasons for this reality
require more time and space than a column
or even a thesis can provide. So what I’d like
to do is merely pose the question in the
hopes that people will at least think. Why
is it that music is held in such relatively low
regard on a monetary scale?
It pains me that essentially the only
way to carve out a living in this industry,
aside from having a foothold in large scale
events, is through the profits from alcohol,
putting a price tag back on music
From the desk of Mitch Ray
which generally won’t find their way into the
hands of musicians at all. Much is dictated
by bar profits, and it is a direct result of the
reality that the $10 standard for a small
show doesn’t bring in enough money from
the door alone to cover all of the entities
involved in making an event happen. If you
tried to quantify hours spent in this line of
work, the rate of pay per hour is obviously
not even close to minimum wage for the
vast majority of those involved. It’s a world
of underpaid musicians, aided by underpaid
organizers, graciously documented by
unpaid photographers and unpaid writers
who contribute to publications that exist
entirely from advertising money. Musicians
give you so much. How can you tell them
their music is worth less than a can of pop?
I feel it would require a massive shift in
values for things to balance themselves out
on this front, which is a stretch even for the
most idealistic of dreamers. What we can
do is contribute as much as possible, inform
those who are misinformed, and when the
arts are undermined by external forces we
can collectively stand up for those artists.
Until music is treated like an asset rather
than a nuisance, little will change. You are
not a terrible person for buying clothes. As
a friend of mine once put it, unless you’re
living off the grid and off the land you are not
exempt, so we are all somewhat complicit in
the perpetuation of this standard. I’m not
asking you to sell your belongings and max
out your credit card on Bandcamp, I’m just
asking you to think about it next time you
scoff at paying $10 for a show.
Mitch Ray puts on events and manages
artists under the name Art Signified. He also
co-runs an art space in Vancouver known as
Studio Vostok located at 246 Keefer.
16 The skinny
January 2017