Pitchfork

Who is Benoît Pioulard? The name sounds vaguely familiar-- is he some impressionist painter? Some cheeky dadaist? Some dude who dabbled in the New York avant garde scene in the late 1970s? Nope, just some Michigan-dwelling kid named Thomas Meluch, who only reached drinking age last year, and who happens to have recorded a gorgeous album of wistful electro-folk under that sophisticated-sounding, faux-French, accent-adorned adopted moniker.

Pioulard's debut Precís dropped on Kranky earlier this week. Its centerpiece, the lush "Palimend", floats along on a haunting chorus melody and stately acoustic strum, while against the gallop of ghost snare and some spectral moaning, young Pioulard offers an incantation to impermanence: "I always wanted you to know/ I never wanted you to go." The result: another autumnal smash and the landmark 50th addition to Pitchfork's Infinite Mixtape series.

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#0050 > Benoît Pioulard: "Palimend"
[from Precís; Kranky]
Info: [Benoît Pioulard] | [MySpace] | [Kranky]

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// Previously on The Infinite Mixtape:
#0049: Frida Hyvönen: "I Drive My Friend"
#0048: Turbulence: "Notorious"
#0047: I'm From Barcelona: "We're From Barcelona"
#0046: Christopher Willits: "Colors Shifting"
#0045: Giddy Motors: "Panzrama"
#0044: Bound Stems: "Western Biographic"
#0043: Tim Hecker: "Chimeras"
#0042: Working for a Nuclear Free City: "Troubled Son"
#0041: Fujiya & Miyagi: "Collarbone"
#0000: All Previous Infinite Mixtape Entries