Many things get lost in translation but music usually has the reverse effect, which is why you’ve got punk bands in Peru, metal bands in Manila and Ska bands in Skopje.
MNNQNS (pronounced Mannequins) are from the medieval French city of Rouen, and have a bold and unambiguous declaration for us which language cannot confuse: they hate rock n’ roll.
Lead singer Adrian D’Epinay has provided some much needed elaboration on this pretty comprehensive philosophy: “I like pop, punk or experimental electronic music a lot more…This is why there are these strange sounds and transitions that come in and out during the album: drones, ambience, drum machines etc.”
D’Epinay also draws inspiration from his experiences whilst studying in Cardiff, and Body Negative to this extent is a Franco-Welsh blend that veers between the atmospheric and the confrontational. It could certainly not be accused of fitting inside anyone’s box.
There’s a little further confusion caused by the singer’s nasal sounding, estuary English drawl, but over a dozen tracks that little irony is soon forgotten and the early moments deliver suitably on the promise of disorientation, all fifteen instrumental seconds of the titular opener car crashing into the abrasive squeal of NotWhatYouThoughtYouKnew.
This pattern – of elements juxtaposed and a band rattling cages mirthfully because they can – is Body Negative’s clearest early impression. At times they seem to be happy framed as noisy edge lords, as on the cyber-thrash of Urinals or the wonky, dub funk of Drinking From The Pond, the slightly confrontational whiff of artistic aggression and machismo incidental fruits of their process.
To counter this, D’Epinay and co. prove that they’ve also got the goods to be more than competent stars in an Anglo-centric indie scene in rude health, with Fall Down, Double Visions and Desperation Moon all down pat treatments that Camden janglers old and new would be especially proud of.
Sometimes however the intensity makes for the sort of jolts which wearing hi-vis is required, Wire (Down To The) never relenting post-punk that hardly catches breath, but the real MNNQNS are at heart a major chord away from being expert, Gallic shoegazers, as the wistful FX-padded Stagnant Pools and She’s Waiting For The Day both pull us back from the precipice and hold everyone more familiarly close.
Listening to Body Negative is like receiving a clear signal which occasionally becomes scrambled. Adrian D’Epinay’s bold statement about hating rock n’ roll pays no price for it; that ancient thing is hardly likely to mount a riposte. The accompanying notes talk about passages of chaos, but the emotions here are always in control, a soak for bottling up anger, but also any joy too.
It’s a record that, despite the jockeying, is much more of a sheep in wolf’s clothing, a French band steeped in Welsh culture who sound like an English band who want to make someone care.
It’s a niche play. But then again, what isn’t?
