Owlle – France

Appropriately birth-named France Poulet is a 28-year-old musician from the French Republic who performs under the name Owlle (a feminised version of Owl). Her wise and knowledgeable debut album encapsulates everything great about modern alternative pop, and not necessary from her home nation. She is a by-product of the contemporary inspiration around her, which she grabs ambitiously and intertwines as a celebration of this exciting scene.

Her indie blog status soared, mainly due to her remix of Depeche Mode’s Heaven and a cover of The Zombies’ She’s Not There. Like her semi-naked album cover, she expresses her inspiration freely and openly. The majority of the album echoes the brave creative freedoms of Grimes, with vocals recalling Zola Jesus – strong and invigorating – and there are a number of other influences.

With a background at the prestigious School of Fine Arts in Toulouse, her artistic mindset has been nurtured, and the album starts off as immediately impressive with the otherworldly electronics of Fog, pointing towards Fever Ray whilst building up steadily like an MSMR beat. Like a Boy is her approach to dub-step, whilst Your Eyes and Free are lost tracks from Banks’ downtempo R&B album Goddess. Also noteworthy is 9, which is an admirable mimic of Polica’s distant and reverberated soundscapes. Silence and Disorder are great examples of memorable lyrical content and illustrate her widespread music consumption that extends to Jungle and Two Door Cinema Club.

The biggest highlight is the latest single Creed, which, along with it’s challenging music video, conceptualises the idea of staying true to individual belief systems. “To whom are you true/you’ve got a creed/it’s not a crime,” she semi-raps, with drum machines and a wave of synthesiser energy that runs through the veins of the track. It’s a definite ode to the playful Pilgrim from Denmark’s MØ. Both artists have a remix nature about them, an obsessive, controlling, bedroom-music-creating philosophy, and an eccentric heart, consistently moulding with beats like Plasticine. It’s a creed they should be proud of because they are in it for the creative pleasure, rather than the big bucks.

Maybe on the next album we will hear something more uniquely hers, but sometimes it’s just worth savouring the blended fusion on show.

Matt Taylor Hobbs

France was released on 17^th November 2014, for further information or to order the album visit here.

Watch the video for Creed here: