Michel Moers - As Is (2024) [Hi-Res]

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)