On
M83's first album since 2016's
Junk,
Anthony Gonzalez sets the dials of his musical time machine for a bit earlier than the '80s influences that have dominated his music since
Saturdays = Youth. The soundtrack to his brother Yann Gonzalez's erotic thriller set in the world of Paris' late-'70s gay pornography industry,
Knife+Heart draws inspiration from the era's porn soundtracks as well as giallo film scores. The film's setting and mood are a perfect fit for
M83's skill at paying tribute to sounds and eras considered by some to be tacky or overdone, and
Gonzalez revels in creating music that blurs the boundaries between love, sex, and death. His mix of lavish instrumentation -- which includes strings, brass, harp, and strangely sacred-sounding choral vocals along with
M83's trademark synths -- and melodies that shift from wistful to decadent to ominous are faithful to the film's roots as well as his own on tracks such as "Karl," "Sauna," and "Un Couteau Dans Le Coeur," all of which blend menace and romance in beautifully over-the-top ways. Elsewhere,
Gonzalez's synths play their parts as well as any of the film's actors as they span the minimalism of the soundtrack's "Vision" motifs to the gleefully lurid territory of "La Flicaille"'s outlandish textures and "Le Tueur Homo"'s shivering chords and bubbling leads. On tracks like "Lettre Lois" and "Un Couteau Dans Le Coeur - Reprise,"
Knife+Heart calls to mind
Broadcast's music for
Berberian Sound Studio, another giallo homage that ably captured the style's contrast between dreamily pure melodies and bloody onscreen events. Unlike that album,
Gonzalez's score incorporates songs from the film's era, and they're used just as compellingly as the original compositions. Chief among them is
Pico's disco-tastic interpretation of the flamenco standard "Malaguena." Brimming with starlit synths, swaying background vocals, and castanets, it's so fabulously excessive that it could only have been made in the late '70s (some of the score's flashiest tracks, such as "De Sperme et D'eau Fraiche" and "Detective Rachid," feel like its spiritual heirs). The inclusion of
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's 2016 track "Love's Refrain" is slightly less successful, if only because its shimmering guitar atmospheres sound unmistakably like the 21st century. That it feels so anachronistic is a testament to just how completely
Gonzalez immerses himself in
Knife+Heart's time and place -- and as a result, it's just as transporting as
M83's other albums. ~ Heather Phares