Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche... rolls off the tongue to us monolingual heathens, no? I only ever studied German and Indonesian in high school, so I had to get Google translate to tell me they're called With The Sun Coming Out Of His Mouth in the Queen's fuckin' English. They're French-Canadian and released this, their second album, on the Constellation label, in 2017. I bought it at the time and revisit it every six months or so for another enjoyment-based spin and reappraisal, and said appraisal always reaches the same conclusion: it is one motherfucking GREAT record.

I believe I've tried to justify an enthusiasm for various wares on the Constellation previously in this blog, earlier on in its Instagram days via a review of Eric Chenaux's album from last year, Say Laura. Perhaps I'm being overly defensive and I shouldn't feel a need to justify ANYTHING in these digital pages, but if you've dismissed the Constellation label as a hive of unlistenable and pretentious French-Canadian post-rock, then you've only received part of the picture. Sure, there is much on the label that interests me little, but the pockets of goodness are really worth an earful. I'm speaking of Jason Sharp, Off World, Eric Chenaux, Jerusalem In My Heart, Sandro Perri, Matana Roberts, Automatisma, Colin Stetson et al. And, of course, Ave le soleil sortant de sa bouche (can I just abbreviate that to ALSSDSB? Thank you).

I'd be surprised if this outfit exists anymore, or perhaps they're just taking an extended break, but this album, Pas Pire Pop, I Love You So Much, with its striking cover art, is a sonic-visual treat. Heavily influenced by Krautrock, Afrobeat and various practitioners of the post-punk idiom, they are not your typical Constellation fare, or what people regard such fare to be (moody, ominous, slowly-building post-rock?), but instead lively, fun, light on the cerebral hi-jinx and very listenable. 

The A side - yes, let's discuss it as an actual record - has two pieces, "Trans-Pop Express" and "Alizé Et Margaret D. Midi Moins Le Quart. Sur la Plage, Un Palmier Ensanglanté" (phew!), starting proceedings with a dramatic, choral sound that weaves its way into a steady, Can-like rhythm throughout 21 minutes of music. The B side is a suite of sorts, one track divided up into smaller ones by the name of "Tourner Incessamment Dans L'eclatement Euphorique de Soi / Road Painting Ahead" (good lord... have mercy), an extended 20-minute piece that has a rich, funky psychedelic sheen with steady Fela-like rhythms. And yes, you could state the case that listening to a bunch of French-Canadian ex-punks playing psychedelic Afrobeat isn't as good as the real thing and indeed a pointless activity, but that can't take away the fact that whatever it is ALSSDSB are doing here, it's GOOD. Real good.

This recording doesn't sound like too many other records I own, just snippets here and there to remind me of other acts, whether it's the 'punk-funk' of The Pop Group or the Afro-disco rhythms of, say, William Onyeabor, though I'm probably throwing you off the scent just mentioning these names. It can be difficult, as we get older, to buy contemporary albums which resonate and actually get regularly revisited a number of years after purchase, but this is one such record for me.