With two successful albums and a sold-out world tour under their belt,Paris-based L'Imperatrice have matriculated from a good-timesinstrumental act created by music critic Charles de Boisseguin to a sixpiece powerhouse whose sashaying mixes of funk and French Touch,disco and deep house now include the fetching vocals of singer FloreBenguiguiTheir new album Pulsar , is a focused but far- reaching record, the jubilanttestament of a band with plenty to say and the skills to say it themselves.Across 10 tracks, L'Imperatrice move freely and authoritatively among the soundsthey love, bridging hip- hop, kosmische, and modern pop with their mostunabashed embraces of French Touch and international house ever. Benguigui,meanwhile, boldly sings of self- empowerment by shirking beauty standards,ageism, and drab normalcy, with a little help from an exciting set of new friends.A longtime fan who had seen the band multiple times, Maggie Rogers few toParis to lead the svelte and graceful "Any Way," approaching the song with anunabashed vim. They had a similar encounter with Erick the Architect, who wasso enthusiastic about the sample- based and panoramic "Sweet & Sublime" thatBenguigui scrapped one of her own verses to make more room for him. AndItalian singer Fabiana Martone (Nu Genea) crafted the melody for "Danza Marilu"the moment she heard its disco thump.Throughout these 10 songs, L'Imperatrice espouses the rare willingness to bereal about life and its woes while also sounding like a perfect picture of joy.Pulsar opens like a window being slid open onto an unimagined world. During thetitle- track fnale, where a casual confession of suffering climbs into a mightyclimax rooted in redemption, the band intertwines dubstep, turntablism, andsymphonic strings to offer a bracing conclusion: however we are is OK.
