It's tempting to feel sorry for Nicolas Fromageau. He founded the electronic shoegaze duo M83 with Anthony Gonzalez in 2001, sticking around long enough to record critically acclaimed second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts before leaving in 2004. Gonzalez then restructured M83 with new members and a new sound, beginning a steady three-album climb up the international charts that culminated in 2011's Grammy-nominated Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Meanwhile, Fromageau slowly put together the electronic rock band Team Ghost, which finally eked out a pair of EPs in 2010, now followed by debut LP Rituals. It's not exactly a Pete Best story, but if M83 stays on course, Fromageau could merit placement on future "Musicians Who Left Famous Bands Too Early" listicles.
But in fact, he's probably right where he needs to be. For all of the similarities between M83 and Team Ghost-- the epic heights and driving rhythms, the screaming synthesizers and hushed vocals-- an essential divergence in perspective stands out starkly when isolated in each project. As M83's music grows ever more affirmative and misty-eyed, Team Ghost is darker and sleazier, countering pastel nostalgia with a kind of stylized cynicism. The tension between Gonzalez's instincts for open-hearted pop songs and Fromageau's for clenched, noisy grooves energized Dead Cities, but it's almost certain that the vocal-heavy ease of access of M83 2.0 led to their breakout from critical-darling status. If Team Ghost seems unlikely to follow suit, at least it sounds like someone doing exactly what he wants to do.
It should be mentioned that Team Ghost is said to play a kind of music called Cold-Gaze, a term coined by NME and embraced by the band, which should not in any way be mistaken for a thing that actually exists. On Rituals, which minimizes the Krautrock influences that permeated the EPs, this imaginary genre amounts to electro-pop and shoegaze infused with the poisoned throb of Suicide, hints of dance music, and a lot of inflammatory alt-rock guitar. The music is consistent in its hulking proportions but eclectic in style-- there is the elastic drone-rock of "Curtains", the minimal techno of "Things are Sometimes Tragic", the ersatz chamber music of "All We Left Behind", and the ambient pop of "Broken Devices". As a singer, Fromageau makes the effectively inexpressive Gonzalez sound like Charlotte Church by comparison, and his emaciated murmur gives even the brightest tracks (e.g. "Montreuil") an undertow of dissipated energies.
Fromageau uses different strategies to compensate for his limited vocal timbre and range, at least whenever he doesn't just bury it harmlessly in the mix. Sometimes these strategies work well and sometimes they go awry, as on the Auto-Tuned "Pleasure That Hurts", which sounds a little too much like an ailing Chad Kroeger singing over serious German electronic music. It's curious why Fromageau doesn't more often use the appealingly lively and unpretentious style of single "Dead Film Star", a sticky anthem where Team Ghost fires on all cylinders without overheating-- and, admittedly, sounds most like M83. A few too many other tracks, such as "Away", compensate for thin material with sheer bluster, and they can feel unwarrantedly grueling. But there's a conviction here, and that's nothing to feel sorry for.
