Non-Stop je te plie en deux

Managing to sound electronic and organic at once, and finding a heady joy in the power of the rant, We Are Wolves cheerfully embrace contradictions before reducing them to dust on their first full-length, Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux. Hailing from Montreal, We Are Wolves base their music around the humble wheeze of aging analog synths and the primal rhythms of a stripped-down drum kit; the music has a pulse that's metronomic but possessed of flesh-and-blood life, while the collision of the low-tech keyboards with the report of electric guitar and bass lends their skeletal melodies a force neither would have had on their own. The low-rent rave-up of "Moi, Rythme Magique" sounds like a vintage new wave dance tune that you could actually shake your ass to, "Namai-Tabla-Cambodge (Go Tabla Go)" is a subtle but hypnotic piece that carefully builds into something truly remarkable, and while I'm not sure what sort of trouble these folks are looking for in "T.R.O.U.B.L.E.," by the end of the tune I'm willing to believe it's worth the penalty. At its best Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux is dirt simple but by simply taking its energies and influences down a few unexplored side roads, they've come up with a powerful and engaging slice of rallying music — if the Nation of Ulysses and Martin Rev had ever done an album together, it might have sounded something like this.