From the combination of the adverb “tout d’abord” (“first of all”) with Guy Debord, the name of the regisseur, philosopher, writer, and founder of the Situationist International, Tout Debord is the solo project, established in 2020, by Paris-based artist Leonid Diaghilev, to summon the ’80s decadent and minimalistic DIY aesthetic of British Post-punk, French Coldwave and Soviet New Wave, stirred up by rackety slivers of Noise-Rock and Shoegaze, whilst wandering stoically into a bitter and tormented present.
Tout Debord has dropped the first single and title track, “Pensées Noires” (“Black Thoughts”) from the forthcoming debut full-length album “Pensées Noires”, due October 27, 2023, via the artist’s own label, Salle d’attente.
Lyric-wise, rather than be alone, a traumatized soul finds comfort in an endless pitch-black pool of dark thoughts.
Channeling the gothy sharp-edged paranoia and claustrophobia from Warsaw or more recently early Iceage, “Pensées Noires” deploys tight mechanical off-tempo percussive loops that punctuate the relentless dirgey throbs of a bleak rumbling and brooding bassline and a distant desolate backdrop of dry-ice synth layers, insistently torn apart by harsh jarring distorted guitar slabs and scything and searing, high-pitched wails, echoing with pain-filled unrestrained poignant agony atop haunted, anxious baritones, releasing trembling breaths of unease into a doom-laden outflow of toxic obsessions.
An eerie black and white lyric video montage by Lina Filipovich manipulates footage from Wim Wenders‘ 1974 German road movie “Alice in the Cities”, to sync seamlessly with the dreary grey moods of the soundtrack. Vintage urban street life, cast in sinister reflections, disorienting flows of motion, and thought-provoking repetitions, triggers an apocalypse of hidden subconscious fear, stirring the soul with the eternal dread and doubt of the lyrical content.
Tout Debord‘s first album. “Pensées Noires”, is slated for release, Ltd. Cassette & digital, on October 27, 2023, via the artist’s own label, Salle d’attente.
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photo by @meaganewilson
