Images of Sigrid

It’s been nearly two years since we last checked in with French electro pop act, Poni Hoax, who caused a buzz around that time with the single “Budapest.” Following the Involutive Star EP and “Antibodies” single last year, the five-piece jumped into 2008 with their excellent sophomore effort Images of Sigrid, a collection of thirteen songs inspired by everything from post-punk to piano solos to Krautrock to Italo-disco.

Producer Joakim Bouaziz can be credited for some of the success of the record. Like Joakim’s own work, Sigrid maintains a leftfield air about it from start to finish. Take “Antibodies” for example, it sounds like a concoction burped up from the depths of the 70s after being washed down with a dose of classical sweeping symphonies. It’s like throwing Jim Morrison in front of a disco-funk group and backing them up with a full orchestra. Throughout the track there’s little electronic distortions and deviations that keep the song more interesting than your typical run of the mill pop song. “Crash-Pad Driver” pairs a chugging motorik beat with cheesy 80s pop crescendos while “My Own Private Vietnam” visits dance-rock territory.

Where Joakim’s dabbling is felt most strongly is on “Pretty Tall Girls” that begins with warped electronic notes, the constant pluck of a guitar string, and heavy garbled bass before exploding into straightforward punk backed by a banshee-like harmonies, that fall off into a murkey valley, before peaking again. Sort of like that whole start and stop thing that made grunge so fun back in the early 90s, except a little weirder. “The Soundtrack of Your Fears” is a subdued, softly sung, female-fronted track that’s probably the most standard song on the album. No single song sounds quite alike on this record, with the results being near perfect contemporary pop music. Sigrid strength lies in the way the Poni Hoax and Joakim take mismatched genres and blend them into a smooth and sexy sound.

Images of Sigrid is out now on Tigersushi and Poni Hoax plays New York on July 5th at Studio B. It’s their only U.S. date scheduled in addition to some Canadian dates.

[MP3]: Poni Hoax  ”Antibodies”
Images of Sigrid, Tigersushi; 2008