Duraddict

c.cedille
en lecture
2010
Genre: Indie-rock, indie-pop, j-pop

Emily Connor. Her name sparks rage across the Internet for numerous irrelevant reasons and a couple of legitimate ones. She’s a spunky chick who became infamous after accusations of scamming out her YouTube viewerbase out of thousands of dollars. I don’t know the entire story, which is confusing and crosses paths with 4Chan numerous times, and while I normally cannot enjoy the music of people I cannot respect, there’s something very special about the defunct indie-pop outlet c.cedille. And who am I to judge? At times, 4Chan, um… overreacts to certain stimuli. And what I read in forums on LiveJournal doesn’t necessarily add up to the truth. There are always three sides to every story, but in Emily’s case, there seem to be thirty-seven sides to her long and drawn-out battle online. She appears to have a private Tumblr account. If you see this, Emily, hello! From a fan of your voice. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

c.cedille was a duo comprised of two musicians, one Emily and the other a man named Serey, based out of Montreal. The two of them hit up Japan for a brief period of time, just sticking together long enough to release a surprisingly competent debut record, en lecture. The album never took off, most likely due to rising tension between the brainchild (Serey) and the front-leader (Emily). But despite immense creative and personal problems within the band, it lead to some highly inspired musicianship. I, unfortunately, have yet to acquire a physical copy of this short, forty-minute LP (which could even be retroactively called an EP if The Cool Kids had anything to say about this), so I really am not quite sure of production or songwriting credits, but from what I understand, Serey was the one with the golden pencil and ear for melodies. Emily steps in to provide a calming and capable performance that tickles the listener like a sex kitten (without actually playing a sex kitten). They evoke the same emotions found in the music of Stars or Mates of State, male/female harmonies that are sure to drop your blood pressure.

en lecture is an album of soft sounds, quite beats, subdued strings and a lush vocal production that highlights the talents of both of the now estranged band-mates. Although the video for lead single hidamari was… amateur to the least, the song is still a catchy J-Pop tune that could have been a hit if marketed correctly. Unlike the glamorous imagery found in their contemporaries, c.cedille is remarkably stripped down to the essentials, something even Emily’s fiercest of loathers have to admit. Regardless of her questionable past, the girl has a remarkable talent, even when bouncing between Japanese and English lyrics. I’m not sure exactly how fluent she is in this language, but her pronunciation certainly isn’t anything to laugh at.

While not every song on this LP (EP?) is a winner, it does enough to establish and musical identity that sadly will never be polished. I’d very much welcome a reconciliation project between Serey and Emily Connor for a second c.cedille record, but I highly doubt that will ever happen. Emily is currently singing in a new band, oh sunshine, but there’s a certain spark found on this album that I haven’t found in oh sunshine. This lowercase crap is killing me. And LibreOffice isn’t happy about it either. Anyway.

c.cedille can be found on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. You can also find a hard copy on YesAsia.

Download: hidamari, fuminsyou, Popsicle Yellow Scooter, IDENTITY

honey&clover (Eng.)
hidamari (JP)
fuminsyou (JP)
IDENTITY (Eng.)
Cities of Dragonflies (Eng.)
lord save the queen (JP)
You'd better (Eng.)
Popsicle Yellow Scooter (Eng.)
Deliver Me (Eng.)
Make Way, Make Way (Eng.)

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