Getting the new year off with a bang, Clémentine March’s ‘Powder Keg’ offers exactly what I want from music in 2026. It is a giant mixing pot of sounds which whilst it could be termed chamber pop takes influence from jazz, folk, Brazilian music, 90s alt-rock, krautrock and disco. Its multilingual songs are tingling with emotion and take in themes such as memory, joy and loss, ghosts and the passage of time. While the band consists of a core trio of March together with Ollie Chapman (bass) and Sophie Lowe (drums), its maximalist approach is evident from the number of guest performers including the likes of Katy J Pearson, Naima Bock, Alabaster DePlume and Dana Gavanski. Almost certainly, it is the first record I have reviewed to take its title from the lyrics to Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, inspired by March covering that song with Tapir! at the Dig That Treasure Festival. While ‘Powder Keg’ sounds nothing like the Jim Steinman penned mega hit, what it does share is an over-the-top outlook.
The album begins with the nostalgic ‘After The Solstice’ with its combination of violin and trombone, which create a highly charged melancholy, together with banjo, synths, piano and 13 credited vocalists, although March’s French accented voice is most prominent in the mix, produce a woozy sense of déjà vu. In contrast, ‘Lixo Sentimental’ is inspired by her time living in Brazil and is sung in Portuguese. Setting itself up as a parody of an affected sentimental song, it nevertheless is effectively emotional in its themes of forgiveness and mending a relationship while Rosie Turton’s trombone combined with March’s slightly wonky vocals help create the song’s richness. Continuing to provide order through diversity, ‘Upheaval’ borrows from her teen influences with a Pixies-inspired guitar romp with added ballast from the trombone, the rushed and giddy vocals telling of an encounter causing March to lose her mind. There is some notably Black Francis-like surreal imagery in the lyrics (“you picked a flower out of my brain.”)
‘Fireworks’ represents the album’s pinnacle, a glorious rush of danceability that captures the magic of an initial romantic encounter. March sings in French while Evelyn Grey of Tapir! takes lead vocals in English. Strings mimic the feeling of being swept of your feet while at times the bass and drums recall the glory of ‘Shaft’ era Isaac Hayes. During the video, there is a moment where a copy of the ‘C’est Chic’ album is displayed which gives a hint at the song’s inspiration. Dialling down the tempo, ‘Les Années’ takes its title from Annie Ernaux’s 2008 novel, ‘The Hours’, and reflects its melancholic take on the passing years, including the seasonally appropriate line which translates as “Christmas went too fast, here comes summertime.” The eery tone of Nathan Piggott’s saxophone sounds uncannily like the waves of a theremin. The titular track is a breakup / moving on song full of rueful reflection (“our dream was meant to last forever… today could be the last day of our life.” At its midpoint, a rackety guitar beckons a shift that combines trombone with strings in a breezy yet mournful way recalling ‘Too Rye Ay’ era Dexys. Inspired by seeing the ghost of her grandfather walking in the woods, ‘You Are Everywhere’ is country-tinged folk/rock, its impact heightened by a banjo and violin combination as well as the vocal harmonies between March and Sophie Jamieson.
Underpinned by a jagged guitar riff and bolstered by Turton’s improvised trombone solo, ‘Symtomatique’ is a brief snatch of surreal imagery (“Asymmetric clouds / computer hackers / Olympic swimming pool.”) As the album’s saddest song mourning the loss of a friend or lover, ‘Honestly’ sees March discombobulated, unable to sleep and mathematically challenged (“1 is 3 and 4 is 6.”) The violin scrapes, flatness of her voice and the slow pace convey a weariness. For another polar opposite, ‘Lucie’ is a tribute to March’s six-year-old niece. Reflecting her bilingual upbringing, it is sung in French and English while the bubbling synth adds to its space age disco celebration of growth. A slowed down samba, ‘Le Temps Qu’il Faut Bien’ has an exquisite fluttering string quartet score that captures the emotions of recovering from a breakup. Ending on a high with the epic, aspirational, over seven-minute long ‘The Power Of Your Dreams’ sees them moving on from a bossa nova introduction to ever-increasingly flamboyant falsettos and a thorough drum workout around which the saxophone winds its extravagant way. As a coda, the record ends with a thirty-second acapella recording of the ‘After The Solstice’ chorus, performed late at night after a party at the Total Refreshment Centre with all involved well lubricated and more concerned with spirit than accuracy.
Taking a track-by-track approach to ‘Powder Keg’ best serves the illustrate the variety on the album. The lack of consistency may be disconcerting to some listeners but there is a thrill to not knowing what might happen next. The threads that run through it are its musical ambition and March’s vocals that have a distinctive tone irrespective of the language in which she sings. It is an album that always pushes at the absolute limit of its possibilities, gleeful in its extravagant ambition.
Clémentine March: Powder Keg – Out 9 January 2026 (PRAH Recordings)
March – Fireworks (Official Music Video)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
