Jaguar

Short-lived French/American duo, existed in a nebulous territory for their brief but productive run in the early '80s. Happening in tandem with post-punk darkness, no wave abrasiveness, and synth pop's frigid approach to melody,  . The group was largely the work of New York-based poet, lyricist, singer, and musician Jayne Bliss and French multi-instrumentalist Medak Mader. Early songs tend to be sharper and angsty, be it the stumbling synth pulse and metallic noisiness of "Strainer" or the muted moodiness of "Jaguar." Bliss' whispery vocals are both sinister and distant here, buried in the mix under layers of alien sounds trying to pass for pop. This mysterious veil lifts somewhat on blissful-but-caustic songs like "Le Mont Des Olives" or the post- Brian Eno melodicism of "Eve Ryonne." The sound is raw, but these songs' hypnotic layers of melody would resurface in different forms years later, the washes of guitar predicting shoegaze texture and the underwater production planting a seed for generations of lo-fi and dream pop artists yet to come.