CD, BOREDOMproduct, 2005
www.foretaste-music.com
“Beatiful Creatures”, the debut album of French electropop duo Foretaste is nothing less than a remarkable show of mature, accomplished musicianship and excellent production work. A stand-out album that, in addition to being the synth/electropop revelation of 2005, may well have been the synth/electropop release of 2005 as well.
Definitely not the work of a beginner electronic musician, Foretaste’s music is very rich, with crisp programming featuring a wide variety of sounds assembled into excellent and engaging musical compositions. These aren’t straightforward and simple (as often happens in this and related musical genres) but have enough variety between them and in them so that, the music, while not exactly human, does sound humanized and almost natural thanks to this complexity and variety. Naturally, the superb sound quality of this release (something that seems to be a given with BOREDOMproduct releases) also helps.
Despite the excellent compositions, what really defines Beautiful Creatures and makes them stand out even more are the vocals. “Creature XX”, the singer, has an impeccable voice and singing style: deep, clear and extremely controlled, giving the music the final humanizing touch it might need. Adding to that, the lyrics seem to be rather good as well. I say “seem” because only the lyrics to the title track are included in the CD booklet. Not that they are, in fact, needed but, judging by the songs’ contents, they might make for interesting reading.
“Beautiful Creatures”, is the most memorable track in the album, infectiously catchy at any point, it is an anthem song to be remembered (and very likely the song to which Foretaste will always be associated with). “Victim’s Heart” and “Killing Disco Machine” are also stand-out tracks, the first one potentially being also an excellent synthpop dancefloor track. Judging from “Everything Is Red Today”, the token French track, I wish there would be more songs in French in this album.
“Beautiful Creatures” should definitely be checked out by anyone with even a remote taste in good music, no matter their preferred genres, at least to get an idea of the best that the field of synthpop music has to offer.
[9/10]
— Miguel de Sousa