Michel Moers - As Is '2024

Tracks list

Michel Moers has been biding his time. As Is, the Telex legend’s second
solo studio album, arrives 33 years after his debut Fishing Le Kiss from 1991;
an interregnum as long as a full lunar-solar cycle or the reign of French King
Louis XIII from 1610 to 1643. More famously, it’s a period as potentially
world-changing as the entire earthly existence of Jesus Christ. A lot can happen
in 33 years. Or not happen, for that matter.

As Is, then, is finally here, and it’s almost certainly been worth the
wait (if you can suppress those endless hours that you spent tutting and looking
at your watch).

To compensate for such tardiness, Moers is about to make it up to you. First up,
he’s invited the inimitable Claudia Brücken along for the ride on the
wonderfully icy and quietly seething ‘Microwaves’, bringing the
Propaganda singer to the front of the mix in a way you’ve never quite
heard her before. And then there’s Belgian pop’s "Daan" Stuyven on
‘Back To Then’, a man Michel describes as having a
“cowboy’s voice”, before adding: “When I say Daan has a
‘cowboy's voice' I mean the deep voice of a man perceived as tough,
discovering his hidden child, awaiting to be healed.”

There are ten tracks in all on As Is, a wise and reflective electronic album
with delightful surrealist strokes. Recorded largely in Logic whilst often in
transit, there’s a thoughtful insularity - like diary entries, should
that diary belong to Erik Satie. The moody, Roxy-esque ‘New Friend’
takes a poetic phrase - written by collaborator Sean Christian Woods - and
repeats it until it starts to take on an almost uncanny, Alvin Lucier-like
quality once you notice.

The tracks have been written over a number of years as you might expect, with
the oldest an update on the Moers classic ‘Les Gens Sont
Affligeants’ - or people are disappointing - which comes into its own
with the technology of now, as opposed to what was on offer in 1990 when it was
first recorded. The words, too, seem more pertinent in our age of individualism:
“Everyone has some people around them who they think are
disappointing,” notes Michel. “And while the song might have been
written 30 years ago, it’s perhaps even more true now than then. We are
so selfish now.”

So where has Michel Moers been these last 33 years? He’s not been idling,
that’s for sure: “In fact, I’ve been working on photography
and architecture, and I was making music like painters do on Sundays,” he
deadpans. “In most cases I had up to ten versions of each song so it took
me some time to figure out which ones I liked.”

In reality, Moers hasn’t been entirely reclusive on the music front
either. If he beat a retreat for a time, his pioneering electronic trio Telex
recently repackaged and re-released their six studio albums as a box set via
London’s iconic Mute Records. Did working on that project reawaken
Michel’s creativity? “No, it reactivated my ears,” he says,
referring to the mixing and balancing out of sounds that was required in the
remastering of an entire back catalogue (as well as some unearthing some gems
from the archives).

Telex, for the initiated, emerged as Belgium’s first electronic band in
the late 70s at a time when you could count electronic bands around the world on
one or maybe two hands. They recorded an influential electronic dance single,
‘Moskow Diskow’, represented their country at Eurovision, and
appeared on Top Of The Pops in 1980 with a Prosac-popping rendition of Bill
Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’. “I was sitting next
to Gary Numan in the canteen for nearly an hour,” remembers Michel.
“We didn’t say anything to each other in that whole time. Which is
silly really because I’m a fan”.

Telex founder Marc Moulin, the jazz maverick who provided Telex’s groove
beneath Dan Lacksman’s electronic sequencers, is sadly no longer with us:
“The problem for me is that working with Marc was great,” reflects
Michel. “It was like a ping pong game. I would come up with a demo and he
would work on it, or vice versa. So it was great, but it has been impossible to
find that relationship again. Maybe I didn't search enough.” This too
might have had some bearing on the time it has taken to produce something,
though now he’s broken his duck, Michel expects there’ll soon be
more. This time it should be safe to hold your breath.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Michel Moers - Les gens sont affligeants (3:03) 
1.02 - Michel Moers, Claudia Brucken - Microwaves (3:43) 
1.03 - Michel Moers - Potentially (Love-Hate) (4:19) 
1.04 - Michel Moers - New Friend (2:40) 
1.05 - Michel Moers - Beau-Triste (3:21) 
1.06 - Michel Moers - Keske (Tu veux ?) (3:19) 
1.07 - Michel Moers, Daan - Back To Then (3:28) 
1.08 - Michel Moers - Pixels (3:26) 
1.09 - Michel Moers - R.E.M.I.X (3:18) 
1.10 - Michel Moers - Tu t'endors (4:50)

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