Foretaste- Beautiful Creatures

French electronic act Foretaste seems as much a concept as an actual band; the duo refer to themselves as Creature_XX and Creature_XY, for example. This high concept affectation, however, doesn’t change the fact that Beautiful Creatures is a gorgeously dreamy synthpop album, just avant-garde enough to appeal to fans of early New Wave pioneers like Fad Gadget and Tubeway Army, but not so weird that they turn off people who prefer more accessible material. The songs range from upbeat dance numbers like “Killing Disco Machine,” which features some excellent analog synthesizers, and title track “Beautiful Creatures,” which incorporates slowed down sampled speech, to more atmospheric pieces like the French-language ambient pop of “Everything Is Red” or the jazzy but robotic “Look Human.” Like most pure synthpop acts, Foretaste display a definite fondness for ‘80s retro sounds; “That Smiling Man,” in particular, piles on the old-school synth effects, but also includes a variety of interesting percussion samples and a unique echoing piano line. While most of the songs on this album are easy to dance to, they’re also very otherworldly, with the instrumentation of “Electric Dissident” and the entrancing spoken word of “Black Fever” being particularly spaced out, but even if the music in the background is stranger than most, the gliding female vocals manage to keep things grounded in the pop arena. If you’re a synthpop fan in the mood for something that doesn’t pander to you quite as much as the usual Human League and New Order rip-offs, give Foretaste a listen and you won’t be disappointed.

Visit these creatures online at www.foretaste-music.com.