(Sul Pont, Jan.15, 2008)

It’s funny, I don’t usually get heavily into albums that are entirely instrumental. Sure, there are exceptions—Do Make Say Think springs to mind—but overall I find it has to be a really special case in order for an album of this nature to actually be engaging enough to function on a level greater than background music. It’s from this cynical and wholly subjective viewpoint that I approached J’envoie—which makes it all the more impressive that I really enjoy this EP.

Although, since I’ve already started candidly stating biases, I might as well also mention that I am really starting to enjoy Sul Pont Records in general. Just about everyone on this small Ottawa/Hull-based label seems to have a great handle on how to craft engaging instrumental music that demands to be in the foreground of your listening experience (see the previously featured Sinequanon track, “Lénine Rock,” for instance). Add to that my irrational disdain for jewel CD cases, which Sul Pont doesn’t use, and a fondness for brightly coloured energetic paintings and you could argue that J’envoie might have actually had it easy when it came to winning me over. Hmm, a bias against similar albums (-1) and a bias in favour of the packaging (+1) must cancel each other out (0), so I suppose we’re back on even footing (or as close as one of my reviews ever gets)…

Ok, useless meta-textual arguments aside, the most important thing is always the music and the shear energy and craftmanship of the songs on this EP hit me instantly. Tracks like schizophrenic standout, “Topographies,” sound fun and rousing without being sloppy and album opener, “Factory of Light (Bombardments),” hits you with a cacophonous smash right of the bat that lets you know this won’t be casual dinner music.

I especially love it when an album cover accurately depicts the music held within the package and this is definitely one of those cases, as the almost jazz-like rhythms and intricately woven piano and guitar melodies evoke the warm swirling colours of the cover perfectly—like a tornado dressed for spring. “Miami Stud” is the perfect example of this, as the intermittent drums whisk you through a windy and playful landscape of staggered piano chords and smatterings of guitar before stutter-stepping right back into the artful mess of that previously mentioned album-opening smash.

Suffice to say that the instrumental J’envoie EP is still more engaging than most of the vocal albums I’ve heard in a little while—this is definitely not background music.

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Check out a track for yourself below:

J’envoie - Miami Stud

Or grab a digital copy of the album here.