M83 — Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

This 2003 debut from French duo M83 finally gets its domestic release through Mute records. Like recent efforts by Telefon Tel Aviv and Explosions In The Sky, M83 aim to find themselves through sheer sonic largesse, mixing the shoegazer wash of My Bloody Valentine with post-rock ambition and the melodic sense of seminal electronic acts like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream.

The result is undeniably powerful and often beautiful. See if you can resist a twinge of the epic when presented with the huge, pulsing synth intro of "Run Into Flowers." If it seems a little maudlin in its insistence on absolute grandiosity — the hymnal "In Church" is a bit much — the record's charming earnestness and almost spiritual reverence for the force of pure sound begs forgiveness.

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