Demian Clav
Adrift
Cykxincorp Records/Prikosnovenie/Yajna Editions
2013
I want to start by saying that, if I were a record company, I am not sure if I would send an album like “Adrift” to be evaluated on a site called Grande Rock. Then again, no specific site comes to mind which would be more suitable for that sort of music.
But what kind of music do Demian Clav (it’s a band not just one guy, I checked) play exactly? Other people who heard some of the album described it as the french Jarvis Cocker. Even though I do hear the resemblance, I can’t say that I totally agree with such a simplistic approach. I mean, yes, on the one hand “Adrift” is an experimental album that tries to revive french nouvelle vague of the 70’s by mixing it with some aspects of the dark stuff from british indie bands (like The Pulp and -yes- Jarvis Cocker’s solo attempts). But, on the other hand, I think that Demian Clav are aiming more to become the contemporary french equvalent of Pink Floyd (in the Syd Barrett years) than the next Pulp.
But what kind of music do Demian Clav (it’s a band not just one guy, I checked) play exactly? Other people who heard some of the album described it as the french Jarvis Cocker. Even though I do hear the resemblance, I can’t say that I totally agree with such a simplistic approach. I mean, yes, on the one hand “Adrift” is an experimental album that tries to revive french nouvelle vague of the 70’s by mixing it with some aspects of the dark stuff from british indie bands (like The Pulp and -yes- Jarvis Cocker’s solo attempts). But, on the other hand, I think that Demian Clav are aiming more to become the contemporary french equvalent of Pink Floyd (in the Syd Barrett years) than the next Pulp.
I mean, if you listen to Pink Floyd albums like “Ummagumma” and “Atom Heart Mother” you will listen to strangely arranged musical compositions combining all sorts of instruments with all sorts of everyday and weird sounds. But at the same time a general british vibe throughout. The same goes for “Adrift”. There are tracks like “Eventyr”, “The Art-Scattered Surface of the Earth” and “Annonciation” which are a weird mix of music, spoken word and strange noises, and there are more conventional song-type form songs like “Edelweiss Fight” and “Living Sculpture” (amongst others), but each and every one of the tracks in “Adrift” is shrouded in french atmosphere.
All in all, I can not describe “Adrift” as a good or bad album, that is why I can’t grade it. I can only describe it as a weird one. What I mean is that I don’t think for a second that Demian Clav were trying to produce an easy listening record that one can just casually have it playing in the background. “Adrift” is the sort of album that you either love or hate. But I do think that they have failed where Pink Floyd succeeded. I find that Demian Clav have not managed to make the french nouvelle vague sound as relevant and globally acceptable as Pink Floyd managed to do with the traditional british sound.