Louis Lemage, rapper, singer and lyricist, had one wish: that this first album from the group Glauque would be released in the fall. “I don’t know if what I rap is really a reflection of our times, even if the songs talk about the world around us and our society, from my very personal point of view. On the other hand, it was important that it came out at this time of year, because in the spring, it seems to me, you would be less inclined to say to yourself: “I want to listen to this in the evening, all alone.” This time of year fits our sound better — plus, fall is in between, between summer and winter. »
In the chorus of Large planone of the best pieces from this first album full of great songs, Louis raps on a techno rhythm rushing into ghostly orchestrations of electric guitars: “I see the reflection of my time / I see my screen turned off / Lost like a kid as it is, I am one / Drinking glasses two by two like Gérard Depardieu / in pewter glasses”.
In pewter glasses, Louis? “It was just for the rhyme,” he tells us, smiling. Writing reflex of an aspiring rapper: “At the start of our project, none of us really listened to rap, except me,” he explains. When writing the texts, I was looking for rhyme for rhyme’s sake, to the detriment of the substance, the meaning. Musically, the project has evolved towards a more hybrid musical form, as much in the writing of the texts as in the music or in the production. »
You can hear it: three years after a first mini-album that turned heads in Europe (The Unrockuptibles headlined at the time: “Glauque is the group that the whole world has been waiting for”), the Belgian orchestra arrives with an album, People pass, time remains, which clarifies the musical personality of the group and sets it apart from the sound of Fauve or Odezenne, to whom it has often been compared because of this fusion of rock, rap and electronic music. “It was our desire to combine the text and the music as best as possible, in comparison with the EP, and to bring together these different musical genres that we like,” explains Baptiste Lo Manto.
Visiting Montreal last June to give, without fanfare, two concerts on an outdoor Francos stage, Louis, his brother Lucas (keyboards, machines), Baptiste (drums, keyboards) and Aadriejan Montens (guitars, keyboards) took a moment to discuss this first album, which we already perceive as one of the best of the French-speaking fall.
What a slap in the face these Belgians are giving us! Twelve dense and heavy songs, but with their moments of light and the right dose of groove to make us want to dance, even if that is not the goal of the group, affirms Louis: “We make music like the music we listen to,” he summarizes, citing the influence of Moderat or even by the Dutch duo WEVAL (two albums on the Kompakt label, one on Technicolor/Ninja Tune). “When I compose, I think first of the song, more than an element of an album. All creation is moving in this direction, without imagining what it will be like in concert. Well, then people can dance alone in their room while listening to it too. »
Dance, perhaps, think, above all. This quartet of thirty-somethings has their finger on the pulse of their generation, even if they ensure that their dazzling concerts attract an audience of all ages, attracted as much by the striking force of the musicians as by the words of Louis, who has this talent to describe unhappiness without falling into miserabilism, most of his texts pushing us to move forward in life despite everything that wants to hold us back from doing so.
“If Glauque is a militant group? Not really, Louis replies. That’s what’s complicated about our time: everyone has their own words, in a more or less vindictive way, and it’s seen as taking a position. Today, presenting a point of view is considered activism; Now, I don’t want to do that. It was my landlord who once told me: “There is nothing worse than someone shouting something to impose their point of view.” I hope people receive this album in their own way and that it touches them in their own way. »
People pass, time remainsby Glauque, appears today on the Écluse label.