Hey friends! For the new year, and my upcoming album - Powder Keg - release, let's have a listening party together!
We put so much love and detail making this record, and I hope the result will show this.
Have a lovely December x Clémentine
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Powder Keg. You get 5 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
releases January 9, 2026
£8GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
A limited pressing of Powder Keg on bio black 12" vinyl
Includes digital pre-order of Powder Keg.
You get 5 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
After the rich international eclecticism of her debut album ‘Le Continent’ and the beguiling intimacies of her second LP ‘Songs of Resilience’, Clémentine presents a kaleidoscopic collection of songs on ‘Powder Keg’. Influenced by jazz, folk, Brazilian music, 90s alt rock, disco and krautrock, ‘Powder Keg’ explores a melange of ideas and themes, contending with memory, joy, friendship, loss, ghosts, teenage adorations, romanticism, the passage of time, the personal / political and more.
Named after a Bonnie Tyler lyric that resonated with Clémentine - found in her ubiquitous 80s ballad ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ - ‘Powder Keg’ was written in Summer 2023. Clémentine subsequently recorded & arranged the album as a trio alongside Ollie Chapman (bass) & Sophie Lowe (drums) in October 2023, closely co-producing it all with Joe Futák (producer of Heavenly-affiliated folk band Tapir!).
They’re joined throughout by an ensemble cast of vocalists and musicians including Naima Bock, Sophie Jamieson, Katy J Pearson, MF Tomlinson, Alabaster DePlume, Dana Gavanski, Evelyn Gray (Tapir!), Wilf Cartwright (Tapir!) and many more. Interweaving the artistic input of these gifted collaborators, Clémentine produces an album of warm, infectious, open-hearted music on ‘Powder Keg’.
The album opener ‘After The Solstice’ was initially inspired by a time spent touring the UK with acclaimed folk singer Naima Bock. Exploring “memory, reminiscence [and] the deja vu sensations we all experience in life”, Clémentine presents a poised, profoundly hypnotic introduction, carving out a graceful, inimitable space of her own, situated somewhere between Stereolab, The Raincoats and Cate Le Bon. The recently released live version captured at Cafe OTO only accentuates the track’s mesmeric qualities, with the violinist Magdalena McLean in accompaniment (The Umlauts, caroline, also part of the duo Magda & Clem Go Boating with Clémentine).
Following ‘After The Solstice’, Clémentine erupts into a crisp surge of punk grit and motorik momentum on the album’s next track ‘Upheaval’, a song she describes as an ode to the alt-rock music of her teenage years, an era soundtracked by the likes of Pavement, Hüsker Dü and Nirvana. It’s another display of the musical range and vitality found across ‘Powder Keg’. The video is based on a light-hearted, ingenuous premise dreamt up by director Jack Barraclough. Clémentine introduces it all with a curious question: “What if squirrels could play the electric guitar? The result, shot in DV and refilmed through a screen, was shot on a hot August morning at The Barbican Centre, London, in all its lo-fi glory.”
From headlong alt-rock / kraut-punk homage Clémentine then moves seamlessly into the effervescent symphonic disco of ‘Fireworks’. Partly inspired by Chic, Hercules & Love Affair, David Bowie’s ‘Sound & Vision’, and even Sophie Ellie Bextor's ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’, here Clémentine captures a dazzling episode of dancefloor infatuation, heightened by her striking vocal chemistry with Evelyn Gray. It becomes an anthem to savour, evoking the sound of disco lodestar Sylvester if transported to the Rive Gauche. The video is the perfect companion, a DIY montage of memories, hijinks and footage from the album’s recording sessions, all backed by idyllic visuals of fireworks lighting up a clear night sky.
Clémentine then changes both musical style and language on ‘Lixo Sentimental’, with a dedication to one of her most cherished influences; Brazilian pop star Rita Lee. Sung in Portuguese, it’s an ebullient slice of DIY jazz pop that brings to mind Astrud Gilberto and Isabelle Antena. Clémentine describes the song as “an affected parody of a sentimental song. I'm teasing myself for being too romantic for my own sake sometimes. I wrote it as a tribute to Rita, thinking she would have enjoyed it”. Rita almost certainly would have.
As this run of tracks indicates - and as the album continuously reveals - ‘Powder Keg’ is a rare kind of feat where disparate influences are mutually embraced and incorporated, from the legacy of Tropicália pioneers to the 90s American underground.
Towards the end of the album, Clémentine composes a high-spirited dedication to her niece with ‘Lucie’. Sung in both French & English, it’s an irrepressible, retro-futurist stream of winsome lyricism and Stereolab-esque synth hooks, described by Clémentine as “all joy and childhood energy”. It’s a joy shared by many of the tracks on ‘Powder Keg’.
Despite their expansive fluidity, the songs of ‘Powder Keg’ are elegantly stitched together and threaded through with Clémentine’s distinctive musical voice. Beyond the numerous highlights mentioned, there’s plenty more to discover, from beautifully melancholic, folkloric ballads (‘Honestly’) through lush samba serenades (‘Les Temps Qu'il Faut Bien’) to heartmelting pop about staying true to lifelong aspirations (‘The Power Of Your Dreams’).
Clémentine March creates an album of sweetly magnetic music on ‘Powder Keg’, filled with evocative everyday impressions and far-reaching inspirations. As Clémentine & co intone on ‘The Power Of Your Dreams’: “Each day that comes / there’s a song / and it’s yours”. Thankfully, the songs on ‘Powder Keg’ now belong to all of us.
‘Powder Keg’ is out 9th January 2026 via PRAH Recordings, available on limited edition bio black vinyl & digital formats.
London-based chanteuse, composer and filmmaker, Clémentine
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