Benoit Pioulard

Listening to samples of earlier self-released work on Thomas Meluch’s website it’s obvious that Précis is a quantum leap forward… if 20-year olds can safely make quantum leaps. It’s also obviously an album perfectly suited for the Kranky label canon: mass accumulator guitar (KF Whitman), quirky and hushed folk rock (Boduf Songs, Dean Roberts) and quietly affecting sound experiments (everyone else). The whole is a completed puzzle one is tempted to pick apart and admire the craftsmanship of each piece. "La Guerre de Sept Ans” is smooth and shimmering wash of guitar loops that seems nearly weightless but picks up mass with each subsequent cycle of sound. "Together & Down” is a four-cornered acoustic waltz that releases dust and stately chimes when shaken. "Trigging Back” is a hologram that sounds like the intro to an early Cure song but from the next angle becomes Eric Matthews, then a combination of the two. "Sous La Plage” is a looking glass that imagines a seaside song that Elliott Smith never wrote. Each of the pieces can be put back in any order and still magically lock together into a new, unexpected whole.