First Listen: Ariane Moffatt `In Your Body`

First Listen: Ariane Moffatt ‘In Your Body’
By Ned Hepburn 5 days ago
We get sent a lot of tracks here at D&T. A lot of them are absolute shit. Occasionally, we’ll
get something that isn’t shit. On even rarer occasions, we get sent tracks that we actually like.
“In Your Body” owes a large sonic debt to Sam Sparro’s 2008 sleeper hit “Black & Gold,”
yet updates it with enough female sensibility to have it sound like the kind of club-banger that
could also be played in the minivan on the way to soccer practice.
Is it the song of the year; will children be singing this to eachother in the playground come
spring? No. But it’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t sound out of place in commercials, “CSI”
episodes, or your headphones. It misses the “club anthem” mark by a small but altogether real
margin, yet is entirely likeable nonetheless.
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/179698/first-listen-ariane-moffatt-in-your-body/
Ariane Moffatt Has the 2nd Best-Selling
Album in the Country
08Mar
For a Canadian artist who has recorded primarily
in French to make the Top 5 of the Canadian Billboard album chart is formidable, whether a
release is in English or French or both. Celine Dion and Roch Voisine are among the few
who were able to make such an accomplishment. Ariane Moffatt’s debut at No. 2 on the chart
with her new bilingual studio album MA (most of the tracks are in English) is even more
remarkable given that she has competition from the likes of Adele, Whitney Houston,
Leonard Cohen, and compilation album of 2012 Grammy Nominees. In short, Ariane has
cleaned up. Well done!
There is a new semi-Canadian entry on the Canadian Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this
week. American rap band Far*East Movement has recruited Justin Bieber to vocalize their
new track “Live My Life”. It has debuted on the chart at #4. Speaking of the number 4, Carly
Rae Jepsen is No. 1 for the 4th week with her double-platinum “Call Me Maybe”. Her United
States radio tour is helping the song to climb the American chart; it is #31 now in that country
and has cracked the iTunes Top 10 there. K’naan and Nelly Furtado’s “Is Anybody Out
There” is just outside the Top 20 at #23 this week.
Ariane Moffatt
MA(Audiogram)
OUR RATING:
BY: JULIJANA CAPONE
29/02/2012 4:02 PM |
Francophone pop chanteuse Ariane Moffatt has been turning heads since
2002’s Aquanaute, which earned her a strong following in the franco music
scene, along with plenty of critical lauds. Now, with her seventh full-length,
Moffatt seems intent on extending that reach into the hearts of Anglos by
singing nearly half of MA in English. The LP was produced with little outside
help and Moffat playing almost every instrument. The result is laser-focused,
showing Moffatt coming into her own as a producer — and one with a serious
affinity for electronica. MA rains and pours with synthesizer-shaped melodies
worked around vintage analogia, balancing cool, ultramodern balladeering and
Robyn-like electro throbs. If this is Moffat at her most hand-on, it’s a beguiling
place to be.
http://www.uptownmag.com/music/cd-reviews/MA-140941333.html
The POP! Stereo Review Round Up
Ariane Moffatt's Ma
Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:28:00 +0000
Canadian singer songwriter Ariane Moffatt is not what you think. If you think this
Quebecian carries around an acoustic guitar and yodels at a coffee house you'd be
wrong. If you imagine her as a French speaking chanteuse who is slinky, sexy, and
seductive you'd be on the right track. Ariane brings to mind the golden era of
chanson music but modernized for today’s world. Her album Ma is a fantastic cultural
synthesis of language and sounds.
Named after the concept of the ma, which refers to a sensorial experience of
negative space or downtime the album is a bit personal and introspective but far
from being down, negative, slow, or depressing. Oh no, Ma is an upbeat sounding
record that was put together and produced by Adriane herself and you can hear the
personal touches and sounds that each song has. While Adriane is a singer
songwriter, nothing about Ma would indicate this. The songs here feature lush
synths, atmospheric songs, and Ariane's lovely voice. This is about as close to being
a singer songwriter album as Quebec is to Florida.
Ma is a rich tapestry of sound and creativity and the fact that Adriane did this mostly
by herself is a testament to the fact that she's more than just another songwriter. If
there's one solo artist album you buy this year, I'd invest some money in Ariane
Moffatt's Ma. You can order the album here.
Ariane Moffatt's latest album a bilingual affair
Publié par Sarah Leavitt le 2012-02-28 13:15
It may be her fourth full-length album but Ariane Moffatt’s Ma – released yesterday – is the first
time the popular Quebec singer has written songs in English.
Moffatt was a guest of Guy Lepage on Radio-Canada’s Tout le monde en parle on Sunday. All the songs in Ma were written,
composed, arranged and produced by her in Montreal. She also took the opportunity to openly talk about her homosexuality
for the first time (although it was no big secret).
Ma is a Japanese concept meaning the space between two things and Moffatt explained it as looking at “the invisible space
between things, and seeing it as reality,” to the Montreal Mirror.
The album includes both French and English songs, something Moffatt said is a reflection of her environment. “My studio is
in Mile End, I live nearby as well, the neighbourhood is bilingual and so is the music scene I’m attracted to, which is very
palpable around here," she told Hour. "I was looking for a space to compose, somewhere inspiring and luminous. I was on a
kind of sabbatical, exploring and playing around, with no deadline to make an album. I was just composing and recording
here in my little bubble, all by myself. I ended up with a bunch of songs, half of them in English, half in French.”
Moffatt is playing two shows at the Rialto Theatre on Feb. 29 (sold out) and March 1.
http://montreal.openfile.ca/blog/curator-blog/curated-news/2012/ariane-moffatts-latestalbum-bilingual-affair
New music Feb. 28: Ariane Moffatt
By Jamie O’Meara, Special to the GazetteFebruary 27, 2012
Ariane Moffatt has a new album, called
MA, released Feb. 28, 2012.
Photograph by: Handout photo , Courtesy: Audiogram
Read an interview with Ariane Moffatt here.
Ariane Moffatt
MA
Audiogram/Select
Rating: 4 out of 5
MONTREAL - On her fourth studio album of original music, much-loved Montreal musician
Ariane Moffatt employs her Mile End neighbourhood as both muse and mise en scène,
drawing significant inspiration from the close-quarters quartier that also houses her recording
studio and the nearby Hotel2Tango studio, where further engineering work was undertaken.
(“It’s a record done on foot, no cars used – it’s very environmentally friendly,” jokes
Moffatt.)
There’s an archetypally Montreal quality to the staggered French and English language
recordings here, an ease of being and doing that reflects the city at its best. It’s Moffatt’s first
kick at the anglo market can, and she takes a hell of a run at it. Here again, as on previous
releases, Moffatt deploys warm acoustic instrumentation over chill electronica, effortlessly
shifting stylistic gears, letting her pure and powerful vocals drive the whole forward with
consistently compelling results.
MA isn’t short on highlights, including the deceptively straightforward mellow-pop album
opener Walls of the World, which ends up charting a far more interesting writing route than
we are initially led to believe. First single In Your Body is a darkly tinted window on the
smokier sections of the soul, a sexy, slow-burning paean to our most primal needs. Brilliantly
integrated steel drums and itchy synth combine behind the transporting techno of the tooshort Too Late, an evocative and hypnotic, self-propelled brain bumper that sees Moffatt
weaponizing her vocals to maximum deadly, danceable effect. (Local DJ/producer Ghislain
Poirier will lead a team of remixers on this and other songs from MA on a remixed version of
the album, projected for later this year.) And the finely finessed Hotel Amour has an epic
serenity to it, the kind of profound self-satisfaction that comes at the sleepy dénouement of a
truly great day, or the quiet recollection of a best memory. We could go on …
Podworthy: Hotel Amour
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/music+Ariane+Moffatt/6217916/story.html
Tongue twisted | Montreal Mirror
12-02-27 10:22
MILE-ENDER: Ariane Moffatt
Photo by SPG LEPIGEON
R
eliably adventurous local songwriter Ariane Moffatt, who’s never been afraid to test new waters or dip into her eclectic bag of musical
influences, describes her personal interpretation of the Japanese concept of Ma, also the name of her new album, as a way of looking at “the
invisible space between things, and seeing it as reality.”
If there’s space on Ma though, chances are it’ll be filled by a large elephant, given her fourth long-player features the 31-year-old writing in English
for the first time.
The Mile End resident admits her “made on foot” album is the direct product of her environment. “The reality is there’s both French and English on
the streets around here,” says Moffatt, who alter​nated between her home, her personal studio space and Hotel2Tango—all a stone’s throw from each
other—for the making of the half-and-half bilingual album. “I switch from one language to the oth​er all the time. When I was writing for Ma, it came
out that way, and instead of blocking it, and saying ‘I can’t do that, what would French people think?’, I just did it.”
The self-professed proud Québécoise and francophile spent a spell in Los Angeles tightening her English lyrics alongside songwriter Simon Wilcox.
Although she released an all-English covers album in 2010, Moffatt didn’t really consider how shocking her first self-penned foray into English
songwriting might appear to her longtime fans until her hastily prepared set at last November’s M for Mon​treal festival.
“I only realized as I was singing the songs what I was doing to my French fans who didn’t expect it at all,” she recalls. “I was singing my songs in
English and looking at their faces—it was really the moment where I became conscious of what I was doing. Before it was just like ‘I did it,’ but
facing the public was different.” She says her fans have been supportive, and the usual cavalcade of lin​guistic boo-birds have yet to reach for their
pitchforks.
Truth be told, Ma is sequenced in a way where Moffatt’s language transitions are hardly noticeable. The middle section of Ma, which begins with
“Mon Corps” and ends with “L’homme dans l’au​tomobile,” perhaps best reflects the multifarious songwriter’s current mindset: the songs are highly
rhythmic, laced with cinematic lyrical imagery, and while not aggressive per se, contain a defi​nite pulse. “When I started, I was really concerned with
having more of a hypnotic groove. I wanted it to be physical, and I knew I wanted to have an album that wasn’t as eclectic as the ones I had done
before, going off in every style. [With Ma] I hope there’s a homogeneity with the sound.”
Considering Moffatt wrote the songs by her lonesome in her studio space, it’s not all that surprising Ma is her most deliberately focused album yet.
Located on Gaspé Street (although gentrification may soon find her on the move), the space contains all of her instruments, a picture of Muhammad
Ali adorning the wall and a truly gorgeous view of Mount Royal. “I have memories of the sun mov​ing across the window, and when I would lift my
head up from my computer, the sky would be completely black. I’d still get out, but I loved being here, working for a few hours in a row without
stop​ping.” ■
AT THE RIALTO THEATRE ON WEDNESDAY, FEB. 29 (SOLD OUT) AND THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 8 P.M., $38
Short URL: http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/?p=29714
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Ariane Moffatt: Mile End state of mind
by Kevin Laforest – February 23, 2012 HOUR COMMUNITY
Ariane Moffatt: "It's an album in the image of the reality we live in"
Photo: SPG Le Pigeon
On MA, Ariane Moffatt embraces the bilingual nature of her Mile End
surroundings
Already a staple of the franco scene thanks to Aquanaute (2002), Le Coeur dans la tête (2005)
and Tous les sens (2008), which impressively all won the ADISQ’s Pop-Rock Album of the Year
award, Ariane Moffatt returns with MA, a new LP which has her singing in English on more than
half the songs. Already set to play at CMW and SXSW next month, the singer-songwriter seems
intent on conquering the rest of Canada and the U.S. Or maybe it’s just the influence of her
surroundings…
"My studio is in Mile End, I live nearby as well, the neighbourhood is bilingual and so is the
music scene I’m attracted to, which is very palpable around here," she says, sitting in that very
studio where she created MA. "I was looking for a space to compose, somewhere inspiring and
luminous. I was on a kind of sabbatical, exploring and playing around, with no deadline to make
an album. I was just composing and recording here in my little bubble, all by myself. I ended up
with a bunch of songs, half of them in English, half in French. I went to see my friend Jean-Phi
Goncalves to see if he wanted to work on them with me, but he said, ‘No no no, go back to your
studio, do it yourself!’"
Moffatt did just that, handling producer duties and playing almost every instrument on MA. She
did get some help from engineer Pierre Girard and she momentarily left her creative space to go
record some more at Hotel2tango and Studio Planète, but this remains a project she did
practically entirely on her own. She thought of maybe splitting her songs into two records, one in
English, one in French, but ultimately decided not to. "It’s an album in the image of the reality we
live in."
Fans of Moffatt know that her live shows tend to turn into big dance parties, since she performs
remixed versions of her songs, but this time around, the album tracks are already very electro and
beat-heavy. "There might have been a desire to break out of the mould, to make music like the
one I enjoy," she says, mentioning that she was really into LCD Soundsystem at the time. "When I
had friends listen to what I was doing, they kept telling me how electro it was, but I didn’t realize
it. I was here with my Jupiter-6, my old analog synths, my programming… It just happened."
In a few days, Ariane will be joined on stage by Lisa Iwanycki (Creature), Pat Sayers (Winter
Gloves), Serge Nakauchi Pelletier (Pawa Up First) and Jonathan Dauphinais (Beast) for her
launch shows at the Rialto, in Mile End. Where else would she be?
Ariane Moffatt
At Théâtre Rialto
February 29 (sold out), March 1
http://hour.ca/2012/02/23/ariane-moffatt-mile-end-state-of-mind/
Canada
Ariane Moffatt, 'In Your Body' -- Song
Premiere (Free MP3)
Posted on Jan 18th 2012 1:30PM by Joshua Ostroff
SPG Le Pigeon
Ariane Moffatt is an award-winning, platinum-selling Francophone artist from Montréal,
Quebec who is skinny-dipping into the Anglo music scene with her latest electro-pop number
'In Your Body,' a woozy synth-drenched ode to sex addiction.
As Moffatt tells Spinner in inimitably French fashion, the song is a "short movie-like journey
of an obsessed and skin-addicted character for the object of her desire. Circling her prey on
her old bicycle, spying it to find the entering doors of it's body and hide between the flesh and
the bone. Poor mad Aphrodite, she can't seem to control her sexual compulsions. When the
sun comes out, you decide if she won or not."
(No, we didn't run her French-language quote through Google Translate.)
'In Your Body' is officially released on Jan. 24, but Spinner is offering the world premiere of
the track a week early -- and as a free MP3 download.
Her upcoming album 'MA,' which will be in both French and English, is coming out Feb. 28
on Audiogram.
Listen to 'In Your Body'
Buy 'In Your Body'
SPG Le Pigeon
http://www.spinner.ca/2012/01/18/ariane-moffatt-in-your-body-song-premiere-free-mp3/