Robots après tout

Description

A disconcerting, obsessive, complex, provocative, and cynical work. A stone in the bitter sea that seems to say it's better to laugh at our gloomy and ephemeral lives than to mourn our fates. An album not so much a "concept" as we were led to believe, as it reveals to the initiated the darker side of the artist. Unlike his previous albums, Philippe Katerine did not work with the group Recyclers, but surrounded himself with DJ Gonzales and Renaud Letang. The style reflects this with a clear orientation towards minimalist electronic music and a much more polished production. Its title is a nod to "Human After All" by Daft Punk, because, according to Katerine, "being part of a group where everyone looks the same is an awful idea. Humans are robots and robots are human in a way." The least one can say is that this album marks a true turning point for the artist. Gone are the sophisticated atmospheres and audio collages; Gonzales creates here fine and effective music, blending groove and vintage spirit, in favor of a falsely naive and surreal universe. Half-child, half-provocateur, Katerine in "Robots Après Tout" quickly revealed himself to the public with gems crafted for the dancefloor. Drum machines replace the usual strings here. Each event in the singer's daily life is narrated in a fanciful and nightmarish way (the true story with Marie Le Pen). The tone is set. Katerine mocks everything and respects nothing. Not even what he is. But aside from the wacky and disco-house singles "100% VIP," "Louxor j'adore," and "Bordeline," which everyone sings along to, including on television, a more melancholic side is visible through "Numéros" or "78.2008." Everything is organized around a theatrical axis, elevated on stage by a true rock second wind. And those with an attentive ear will easily pick up on the distress and anxiety that characterize the entirety of the artist's discography. Man is exposed to a consumerist society obsessed with figures or numbers. Lonely souls grappling with contemporary absurdities. A kind of universal neurosis about stress, paranoia, artifice, and the collective unconscious.