RECORD REVIEW: TRISTEN “Mars en Marche” (Bleeding Gold Records)

http://bleedinggoldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bg061-mars-en-marche

                Around the time that I got this record, a local promoter in Connecticut posted a show for an artist with the same name.   When I clicked the YouTube video link, I found out it was this poppy, sort of Gwen Stefani popping bubbles type of sound that made me question what I had gotten into here and why Bleeding Gold was putting this out.    Luckily, that TRISTEN is from the US somewhere and this TRISTEN is actually French, so they are in fact not the same artist.

                What begins as synth pop/new wave takes us into a musical journey that I might compare with something from the past and say that TRISTEN could quite possibly be the French version of The Beatles.  Joy Division and Depeche Mode come out right away, but as this continues it gets more toward the acoustic side of rock ala Radiohead on that one album I liked by them.    There are occasional female backing vocals, though most of the vocals are male and sung in French.    It brings out Kimbra somehow on the fifth song but it’s not overly poppy. 

                As it gets faster in pace and can become head nodding electro pop rock, I begin to hear the drum machine and feel like the best way to describe this would be by combining the best qualities of Spoon with those of Neon Trees.    Regardless of how you might feel about either of those two bands, the outcome is nevertheless smashing.