Vocal

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday May 10, 2008

Bernard Zuel

CAMILLE

Music Hole (EMI)

Frenchwoman Camille plays the voice like a violin. And an orchestra. And a percussion ensemble. And a wall of kazoos. For her the voice can do, and does do, anything.

Imagine, if you can, Bjork, Jonsi of Icelandic sound sculptors Sigur Ros, Bobby McFerrin, Martha Wainwright and Maria Callas in the one body.

Then imagine that that body is running between studios, one of which is filled with squawking beasts, another with a 1920s cabaret band, one with banks of electronic equipment and yet another with a posse of hip-hop producers. Oh yes, to that you can add a wicked sense of humour, most obviously seen in Money Note, which lightly but pointedly pokes at the commercial imperative of the "Mariah note", the flagrant over-selling of the conventional approach to (over) singing.

Only then, and to be honest maybe not even then, will you get some sense of what she gets up to on her latest album.

Singing predominantly in English this time, Camille toys with standard pop song moments. But almost always it's a ruse, or at least a tease, for the sounds, the ideas and the pleasures to be found here are much, much more imaginative.

BZ

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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