Camille Dalmais is an avant-garde, French, a cappella chanteuse. Which is the sort of sentence that should make you want to punch something. But see her perform live and the only thing you're likely to punch is the air. The songs themselves are considerably less avant-garde than Camille's means of performing them: most, played conventionally with instruments, say would be pure pop with an edge. But there's much more to it than that.
Her a cappella troupe of five boys and two girls, led by British producer MaJiKer, are stunning. Aside from an occasional burst of piano, the entire show is conjured from their bodies. The percussive sounds are one thing with their hand-clapping, palm-rubbing, chest-beating and foot-stamping the band effectively turn themselves into human drumkits. But more impressive still are the remarkable vocal approximations of real instruments, from a Massive Attack-style beatbox, to the bumblebee brass of French chanson (and both in a single song, "Waves"). Together, the group is a beat sequencer one minute and a gospel choir the next.
