Essaie Pas

Based in Montréal, Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau make up Essaie Pas, a Canadian duo whose sound combines dark, minimal synth pop, French pop, Italo-disco, and elements of horror movie soundtracks. Spoken and sung by both Davidson and Guerineau, their lyrics revolve around themes such as loneliness, sexuality, and fantasy, with late night being the ideal listening time. Initially appearing with several limited cassette and vinyl releases during the early 2010s, Essaie Pas went in a more danceable direction with their output for DFA, starting with 2016's Demain Est une Autre Nuit. The duo formed in the summer of 2010 and released a four-song cassette EP on their own Téméraire Records in 2011. The EP contained a rough, guitar-driven sound. Their next release, a 2012 split cassette single with Hobo Cubes, consisted of atmospheric synth drones, and the duo's Tout Est Jeune cassette settled on their minimal synth pop sound. In 2013, Malditos Records and Teenage Menopause Records co-released Essaie Pas' first vinyl LP, Nuit de Noce, which contained songs from their cassettes plus a previously unreleased song. In 2014, the French label Atelier Ciseaux released a split 12" EP by Police des Moeurs and Essaie Pas, and Teenage Menopause Records issued the duo's Danse Sociale 7" a year later. By this time, Davidson had also released two solo albums (on Weyrd Son Records and HoloDeck) that mined similar territory. In February 2016, DFA issued Essaie Pas' first widely available full-length, Demain Est une Autre Nuit. A remix EP followed, and the duo worked on their second album for DFA. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's dystopian sci-fi classic A Scanner Darkly, New Path was released in 2018. A trance-influenced EP titled Earth appeared in 2019. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi