love : temper

temper (kranky, 2008)

"Four Stars (****) - Temper's arrangements swirl, flutter, and sparkle like a just-shaken snow globe...Pioulard is equally
gifted at creating uniquely outdoorsy sound worlds as he is at crafting hook-filled songs."
All Music Guide

"Album of the Week: The noises are more intriguing, the ambiguity of instrumentation seems even more compelling, and
Meluch shows off an even stronger handle on songwriting."
Treblezine

"Breathtaking...[Temper is] the product of resourceful and masterly design."
Dusted

"A remarkably effortless cohabitation between bedroom electronics and wistful songwriting...Pioulard has a knack for
embedding subcutaneous melodies well below the minor-key guitar strum."
The Wire

"Another stroke of success...it progresses upon his flexibility to manufacture new and startlingly unique methods of play."
Obscure Sound

"This album stands alone...it buries deeper, becoming more personal than you could ever explain in words.
You just find yourself telling everyone you meet that they should experience it too. 9/10"
The 405

"Few mix pretty and dark quite so well."
Stereogum

"Pioulard's distinctive process of melding opposites into a unified whole is a rare talent and one that will always be welcomed."
Skyscraper

"Hazy and haunting...some of the best songs I've heard this year."
Gorilla Vs. Bear

"PICK: With remarkable subtlety, he has delivered the holy grail of experimental pop music: a set of songs that are as hummable
as they are impossible to classify."
eMusic

"Four Stars [****] - the patient listener will be richly rewarded by Pioulard's beautiful arrangements and careful presentation.
[Temper] provides an experience both strange and wonderful."
Chewing Gum for the Ears

"From found sound to drone noises, Pioulard beautifully integrates countless elements with traditional folk music. The end
product is multi-dimensional, adventurous, gorgeous and completely mesmerizing."
Lycanthropy

"It’s a precious darling of a thing, and indelibly soothing...Temper rides a familiar floe out to some indeterminate,
dark place in the middle of the ocean and then disappears."
Cokemachineglow

"Sublime...There is no doubt that [Pioulard] is one of Kranky’s finest artists and for a label with that much talent,
that’s saying something."
Unfinished

"Effectively dissolves the boundaries between ambient and electro-folk until we can't imagine they were ever separated."
XLR8R

"[Pioulard's] songs are compact packages that still contain hours’ worth of clockwork ticking, birdsongs, underwater
breathing and heartbeats. It’s a bedside album that will sit perfectly next to your dream journal and wave generator."
Exclaim

"A many-layered affair, an engaging concoction of delicate electronics, birdsongs, and tape experiments that resonate
with impossible harmony."
Boston Phoenix

"A brilliant, dark essay in feeling down and out-there...It's a top listen, perfect for an autumnal reflection."
Incendiary Magazine

"Subtle and delicate...Resonating with rich detail and misty moods, Temper ultimately recalls the jagged wash
of phantom rural landscapes."
Earplug

"However disparate its geographic points of reference, Temper is an artistically consistent, tonally temperate record...woven
[from] strands of instrument and machine, pop and art, beauty and noise."
Pitchforkmedia

"Richly textured melodies crack and fizzle with enough beauty and hazy romanticism to make your heart sigh...If it's
emotionally charged, hushed atmospherics you're after, Pioulard has the required va va voom."
Metro

"The sound of being in someone else's head, quietly walking around for a minute in the washes of thought. Excellent."
Other Music

"Short but perfectly-formed songs with melodies fighting to escape through the layers of feedback and sonic effects that
are smeared over the surface."
Mapsadaisical

"Delicate electronic fuzz and layers of extra instrumentation swirl around the center in elegant symphony...when listening
to Temper, one feels a storm is quietly brewing."
Panpot

"An album made for getting lost in...The result is something wintry and crystalline that both demands and supports
dreamlike exploration."
War on Radio

"[Temper] displays a wide range of musical influences, from electronica and dream pop to drone and folk...The overall feel
is one of gentle acoustics crashing gracefully with rain-soaked beats."
Broken Face

"A one-man exploration of intimate guitar 'n' vox bedroom pop, found-sound textural experimentalism, Laurel Canyon folk rock,
and processed percussion impressionism, Temper is captivatingly capricious and, for all its vagaries, completely coherent."
Portland Mercury

"The Benoît Pioulard sound exudes a ‘60s vibe that's hard to deny...a lovely album and a more-than-credible follow-up."
Textura

"Elegant pop songs combining acoustic and electronic sounds...with ethereal atmospheres and intimate cinematic images
close to a surreal and naïve world."
Loop

"Lush, flowing, and really quite lovely...Highly enjoyable music for sunny days."
Goatsden

"Gorgeous...another unique and often-beautiful release."
Almost Cool

"Take a moment to properly procure this album, leave the confines of your home or office, and venture into the world to
enjoy it in the setting it deserves - nature, as seen through the filter of your eyes and ears."
Reax

"An immensely satisfying listen."
Litany of Echoes

"As haunting and delicate as anything Paul Simon, Nick Drake or Elliott Smith attempted at the peaks of their careers."
Vanguard

"[Like] an all day Jesus and Mary Chain jam during a power outage in Petoskey...put on some headphones and wander
around your city for Temper’s 38 brief minutes. Every shadowy alley will be illuminated."
Splice Today

"Eine schöne Folk-Pop Platte mit einem tollen Sound abseits des Gewöhnlichem, immer wieder gespickt mit kleinen
Melodien von einem anderen Stern. 8/10"
Tinnitus

"Notable...otro muestrario de guitarras acústicas, melodías oníricas y ruidismo shoegaze pop. 8.5/10"
Avant-folk

"Both pleasingly catchy and subdued at the same time...A beautifully serene life journey that Meluch invites you
to take along with him."
Raven Sings the Blues

"Schöne Platte...8/10"
Creative Eclipse

"Joliment ficelé...La palette instrumentale de Pioulard lui permet de s'aventurer dans une série de petits paysages
impressionnistes où l'on verrait Brian Wilson trinquer avec Terry Riley et Christian Fennesz."
Le Temps

"Temper può senz'altro considerarsi uno stadio di accresciuta maturità di un artista in grado di rappresentare il prototipo
di una modernità al tempo stesso cantautorale, pop, folk ed elettronica."
Onda Rock

"Takes the promise shown on his debut, adding and subtracting in all the right places...Temper is as intimate as you’d
want an album to be at this time of year."
Fresh Cherries from Yakima

"Like a collision between Iron & Wine and Boards Of Canada...there's a quality of musician and recording aesthetic
in perfect harmony."
Boomkat

"De sfeer is donker, hypnotiserend en bovenal bijzonder fraai. Elke luisterbeurt ontdek je meer geluiden in deze rijk
gedetailleerde, maar ingetogen CD."
Caleidoscoop

"Temper is defined by the way that found sounds, field recordings, and the voice and guitar themselves are manipulated
to make a dreamy and shapeshifting haze of sound."
Refinery29

"El equivalente a una pequeña figura humana paseando por un paisaje extraño. Un ejercicio en bellos contrastes,
con recompensas en cada vuelta."
Flaming Milk

"Un colchón de folk y electrónica crujiente en línea con nuevos valores conocidos o por conocer como Koen Holtkamp,
Samamidon, Nico Muhly o Grouper."
Playground

"En engagerande vacker och berörande skiva som innehåller några av årets bästa låtar."
Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits

"Stunning...Easily the best in this genre that I've heard so far this year."
Revolution 9

back

nest