You can say what you like about French producer David Grellier, but it’s hard to call him lazy. To the casual listener, ‘Heritage’ will come across as mechanical, repetitive and even monotonous at times, but to leave it there would be missing the point. College represents a thoroughly measured approach to making music, where capturing an aesthetic is the most valuable thing.
Think neon, think futuristic, think camp, think ‘80s, think the 2011 thriller ‘Drive’, starring Ryan Gosling. Grellier’s contribution to that soundtrack, the stunning A Real Hero, is one of the peaks of the whole synthwave/retro electro movement, a scene that imitates a decade that was anything but musically understated.
Despite that, in a lot of ways ‘Heritage’ is a minimalist affair. Unlike contemporaries Kavinsky or Grum, who incorporate modern house into their electro sounds, College is single minded in his pastiche.
The album is entirely instrumental, despite Electric Youth’s vocal charms being a chief factor in A Real Hero’s success, and it flows in a robotic manner, with most songs boasting the same structure: throbbing 4/4 basslines and repeated patterns of new wave synths in various guises. Yes, the effect is very cinematic, but there is nothing melodically memorable to break things up.
But, the aesthetic still works. Every track sucks the listener into the spacious atmosphere it creates, with the slow-burning, one-paced style creating a sense of immersion. As Tempête Magnétique revs into gear, you can envision yourself as Gosling, naff jacket and all, driving through bright cityscapes at night. The likes of Frontière and Départ might seem pedestrian on first listen, but in the right context they are pure escapism.
What ultimately holds ‘Heritage’ back is not its vision; it just lacks the big hitters. Though College is a master of the format, his songwriting has been better and other artists have already started to take his style and run with it. The likes of Miami Nights 1984 and Lazerhawk both released similar LPs last year, and both had catchier tunes. As analog synths become trendy again, more and more artists are hopping on the revivalist bandwagon and College needs to step his game up to pull away from the competition.
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