Bertrand Burgalat

Bertrand Burgalat is a French Renaissance man of music — a producer and musician who can combine ’60s kitsch with bossa-super-nova and spin it into a lush foggy valley of sound that you can see with your eyes. He’s worked with Air, Pizzicato 5, and Einstürzende Neubauten to name a few, and Burgalat's experience shows. That’s the magic, there seems to have been little restraint in the production suite, making Portrait-Robot so over the top with effect that it can sound mucky, the songs getting lost in the sounds. The vocals contribute to the mud, turning it into the rich, sickly-sweet icing of a chocolate cake. There are a number of beautiful numbers that strike a balance between the elements of composition that’s almost too pleasurable. The ethereal hip-hop groove in "Vestibule D’ombres,” and instrumentals "Sun-Dials” and "Examien de Conscience” both come to mind as favourites. This is sugar-coated golden pop, purely organic synthetics with extra cheese and sugar on top.