Le futur c'est la drogue by Christophe Clébard
There is a question that has always made me a bit anxious to answer which is how much essence
and contents you can squeeze out of the genre and its cliches.
Well, maybe we have an answer here on the newest album by Christophe Clébard.
He has been pounding on many idioms, and one of them is probably or most definitely: synth punk.
The whole production is set against synthesizers and the hypnotic beats that Chris elaborately
created here. It has a heated up atmosphere of something that you would find present in early 80’s
when Cabaret Voltaire, Soft Cell, Chris and Cosey were working.
It has the dynamics and the balance of both pop and punk but transported into some interesting
heat of synth based sounds and enough experimentation to keep it a white knuckle ride.
An excellent album for any occasion but also a great reminder that some formulas never get old and
especially when you put it into the right context.
EN
He describes himself as follows: “Clébard is brutalism.” The term suggests a raw, undecorated
frontal approach, yet his work may be better situated on the side of art brut, through a practice
without mediation or filter.
His writing, often in French (which is not his mother tongue), is free, stripped of any syntactic
rigidity. It goes straight to the point: repeated words strike like balls against a wall, revealing the
darker zones of his mind where guilt, fear, and existential anxiety coexist.
The sound composition, equally minimal, sustains a dense and obsessive mental space, a vortex in
which trance appears as the only escape. Driving drum machines, relentlessly hammered electronic
loops, and a battered synthesizer, his music acts as an outlet and unfolds within a physical, strangely
hypnotic synth-punk aesthetic that hits viscerally.
Here, the title,
Le Futur c’est la drogue, which should here be translated as The Future Is the Drug, is not to be read
as a promise, but as a statement of fact. The present is no longer an experience, but pure
consumption. Life itself has taken the form of a dependency.
The Future Is the Drug is his sixth album.
FR
Il dit de lui-même : « Clébard, c’est du brutalisme ». Le terme évoque une frontalité sans décor, mais
c’est peut-être davantage du côté de l’art brut qu’il faut situer son travail, par une pratique sans
médiation ni filtre.
Son écriture, souvent en français (qui n’est pas sa langue maternelle), est libre, affranchie de toute
rigidité syntaxique. Elle va droit au but : les mots répétés claquent comme des balles contre un mur,
dévoilant les zones obscures de son esprit où cohabitent culpabilité, peur et angoisses existentielles.
La composition sonore, elle aussi minimale, maintient un espace mental dense et obsessionnel, un
vortex où la transe apparaît comme seul échappatoire. Boîtes à rythmes soutenues, boucles électro
martelées sans relâche et synthétiseur malmené, sa musique agit comme un exutoire et s’inscrit
dans une esthétique synth-punk physique, étrangement hypnotique, qui prend aux tripes.
Ici, le titre, Le Futur c’est la drogue, ne se lit pas comme une promesse, mais comme un constat. Le
présent n’est plus une expérience, mais pure consommation. Et la vie elle-même a pris la forme
d’une dépendance.
Le Futur c’est la drogue est son sixième album.
credits
released March 13, 2026
Recorded at les ateliers claus, St-Gilles, Belgium
All track composed by Christophe Clébard
Mixed by Luc Bersier
Mastered by Frédéric Alstadt (excepted bonus track Chef y trans - allegro)
Artwork by Harrisson
Distributed by Kuroneko
Manufacturing by Kuroneko Phonogram
℗ & © moli del tro records, Brussels, 2025
www.molideltro.com
MDT014
Réalisé avec le soutien de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles - Service de la Musique
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