Bend the Rules

Anomalie is the electro-jazz pseudonym of Quebec pianist and keyboardist Nicolas Dupuis, a gifted musician to whom we owe the EP Métropole Part I & II. This time he connects with the famous Judeo-Arabic duo Chromeo (Dave 1, aka David Macklovitch, and P-Thugg, aka Patrick Gemayel), to record three jazzy-soul tracks and thus flesh out the Montreal band’s proposal, normally inclined to soul-pop and therefore to simpler harmonic and rhythmic concepts.  Fans of their generation will connect with Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Thundercat, Snarky Puppy, Dirty Loops, Cory Henry, Kamaal Williams, Janelle Monae… and older fans will connect with jazz-period Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock in his crooner suit with vocoder (ancestor of Auto-Tune), George Duke, Larry Graham, Chaka Khan, etc. Hold the bah-humbugs, the updates here are discreet, not to say tenuous, but are nevertheless an ideal avenue to revive interest in Chromeo and make us know more about Anomalie, promised a brilliant career in the new lands of jazz.