Arlt - "Tu m'as encore crevé un cheval". Crever means to puncture, to burst. Un cheval is a horse, a pony, a stallion. So listen to France's inimitable, extraordinary Arlt and imagine a horse that slowly deflates, there in the vegetable garden. Or imagine a colt on the wide & open range, on the red sand, exploding like he has been popped with a drawing pin. Or imagine the other thing, the real meaning of crever un cheval, imagine riding a horse into the ground, riding a person into the ground, demanding so much of them that they become smaller and smaller, hunched and weary, until finally they can fit through the little doorway on the side of the hill; and they stand there in the hill's inner room, in the cool humidity of black earth, and take deep breaths; they pick up a guitar; they play a song that sounds like a joke without a punchline.

Arlt crossed the ocean and made this album in Montreal, at the dear new Hotel 2 Tango, with kingmaker sunglasses champ & mensch Radwan Moumneh. Feu la figure does not sound like Montreal. It still sounds like raindrops on cobblestone, insects in the trees, crumbs and café au lait. I hope Arlt will not take offence. There is an electric guitar that sounds like a singing saw, a shrilling kettle, and it is wonderful music that will make the buildings keel over, make mother come in with a cup of honeysuckle, a ticking clock, an old photograph of your uncle's death.

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