Album review: Champion, ?1 - Montreal Gazette

Champion

?1

Bonsound

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

MONTREAL - It?s been a long and winding road for Maxime Morin. After growing up playing rock guitar, graduating to techno as Mad Max and working a successful sideline in ad jingles with his pal Beno?t Charest, the Montreal DJ was reborn as Champion with his 2004 debut Chill ?em All.

A mix of house beats, layered guitar samples (which he recorded himself) and deep soul vocals, the album came alive on stage with his five-guitar party band the G-Strings. Going to a Champion show was like going to carnival. Crowds would jump up and down to the band?s irrepressibly festive club tunes, led by giddy master of ceremonies Champion on electronics and his showstopping vocalist, Betty Bonifassi.

With Bonifassi?s departure and the addition of male singer Pilou, Champion?s 2009 followup, Resistance, took a turn toward rock ? think AC/DC with thumping club beats. While still a good time, it didn?t have quite the same magic as Chill ?em All. You could feel the effort.

Then in 2010, Champion was diagnosed with lymphoma. The music stopped, he fought, and won.

And now he?s back for more. Champion appears to be both returning to the source and venturing into uncharted territory with ?1. Like Chill ?em All, this is an album of arresting subtlety and entrancing grooves. What?s new is an audacious foray into the world of classical music.

It begins with the meditative 40 #@%&!, presumably a reference to a milestone birthday, but the music is no joke. Piano, horns and strings combine for a breathtaking statement of purpose. Pilou emerges on Requiem Dem, his voice quivering, ?I could be dead, and maybe loving it / But I?m alive so I can shine,? accompanied by a gently soaring clarinet line. Around the two-minute mark, strings and a trip-hop beat kick in and the song builds to a frenzy before fading to black.

The rebirth theme returns on Every New Now, as guest Fabrizia di Fruscia adds syncopated rhymes about heaven and hell over dramatic strings, percolating guitars and an insistent rhythm.

One of the album?s prettiest moments comes on Dat Train, a dubby outing involving atmospheric guitars and a bobbing bass line.

Almost every song tries something new, and most of it works. A Dog and a Goat is carried by a clarion call on French horn (offset by a murky beat). Half a Mile is a bluesy outing that is almost out of place, but not quite. Champion is testing the boundaries of his play pen, and they are broad.

Virginie is a hypnotic piano reflection; L?envol du ciel has a gentle string arrangement underscored by erratic electro rumbles and culminating in Psycho-style string stabs; and a closing trio of tunes brings the groove back.

Champion has fun with four bonus tracks, on which he sings and strums up mischief. He sums it up on the last song, ?359 ? Nothin? Nothin?, singing ?nothin? nothin? I can?t try? with punk-tinged attitude.

The proof is in the puddin?.

Podworthy: Virginie

Champion and His G-Strings perform with the I Musici orchestra July 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts, as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Tickets cost $64.50. Call 514-842-2112 or visit pda.qc.ca.

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/Album+review+Champion/8440296/story.html

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