Orly
Matériau
Le Village Vert

The release of the first album by Orly, Matériau, at the end of the last year confirmed the soundness of the compilation from the French label Le Village Vert, Panorama . Indeed, after the first album of Superflu Et Puis Après, On Verra Bien, here is the confirmation of a new band, or rather a new musician. Because David Leroy (the only musician of Orly) is author-composer-interpreter of the album. In short, a man-band.

Before this album the only song released by the artist was Pour Un Mouvement, (on Panorama), a song which was a foretaste of Matériau. It's difficult to classify the album into such or such category, because there is no category for it. It looks like a marginal object between the pop releases of Le Village Vert like Superflu or Autour de Lucie. Unfortunately, this album risks going unnoticed face to face the people. David Leroy admits it himself, and he says: "In the genre where I am found, the French experimental music, I'm quite sure of doing like the other bands, that is to say a record which the public don't like".

And we can easily find some similarities with the other bands. For example, David Leroy doesn't sing on this album, in general, but simply tells the lyrics, like Diabologum with their first album. We can just listen to the third song, Tout Tend A Prouver Que Je N'Ai Rien Inventer, to persuade ourselves. As for the music it's fairly tormented, like with the song Périphérique, which is a 'noisy upside down bass'(!). Tormented, or even extreme in the meaning that there are some voluntary bad notes, like D. Leroy doesn't know how to play correctly. He explains all these facts on the last song Topologie, and specifies that he has recorded the album at home. This principle of unfinished work, at least apparently, establishes a parallel between Matériau and the first album of Dominique A., La Fossette.

With all these remarks, we can think that a lot of bad critics will come following the release of Matériau, like with the release of the song Pour Un Mouvement. Of course this album risks discouraging some people. "It's certain that some people can't cope with my music as anything but too bad", tells D. Leroy, but when an artist prefers to express his ideas rather than record a commercial album, we can only encourage him.

Copyright © 1999 Patrick Dubail