by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

With song titles like “Hit-pop,” “Star model” and “J’aime la bourgeoisie,” on a brand new debut disc on the Saboteur label called L’idéologie des stars, you can be pretty sure that Pierre Crube and Jerôme Rocipon, the duo called numéro#, can be counted on to yammer for the glamour and freak for what’s chic. Is it a headlong dive into bloated but hollow pop culture, or a scathing attack on a society saturated by the same? Neither, actually.

“We share a love of pop,” says Rocipon. “It’s true that Pierre has a trip hop background, and likes listening to current pop production, to analyze it. But there’s certainly no critique, no investigation of anything—because everyone knows it’s artificial. It’s more that we use pop as a medium for making ourselves laugh. What we found funny was inventing pop star personas when we aren’t pop stars.

“We also wanted to show something to our generation—that it’s not that complicated. We don’t have the big, sick production, but overall, a pop project, finally, isn’t as inaccessible as all that. We wanted to show that two very ordinary people can arrive with a formula, with rather disposable pop songs, and make it work.”

That they have. L’idéologie des stars is packed with snappy melodic hooks and carefully tweaked beats and grooves. The duo manage to explore many facets of electro-pop, bringing in bits of rock, classical strings or guest rappers like Omnikrom and Red Foxx when it suits them. But at its core, numéro#’s is synthetic pop music distilled to its most basic essence.

Such distillation is the specialty of Crube, and was already during his previous incarnation in the rarified realm of laptop abstraction. “There’s a strong correlation between what I did before and what I do today,” says Crube. “Even with my experimental productions, there were hooks in there. Today, I’m applying a more standard formula—three and a half minutes, verse-chorus-verse-chorus.”

It took French ex-pat Rocipon to complete the picture, though, with a confident swagger (boosted, no doubt, by the absurdly oversized sunglasses without which he won’t be found on stage), an elegantly dispassionate delivery perfectly suited to the cooler-than-thou character he’s created, and an exceptionally deft way with words.

“The thing with Jerôme, speaking from a producer’s point of view, is that I saw his talent. When I met him, I saw a pop star waiting to happen. I saw the potential, for live shows, his voice and so on. Of course, he’s not super cute…” he laughs (as does Rocipon, a bit nervously), “but I saw the potential.”

If numéro# are criticizing anything, it’s the kneejerk rejection of pop on which self-conscious alternative types pride themselves. Rocipon’s happy to see that fading away, just in time to balance out the mainstream’s increasingly vigorous foraging beyond its own borders.

“The underground is starting to borrow techniques and things from pop music. What I find interesting is when there’s at least a minimum of content, to have two levels on which the music can be read. I love it when it’s catchy and people can dance, but it can also serve as a medium for delivering messages—as long as it’s not too pretentious, because we’re not having a sociological debate here.

“That’s been the point of numéro# since the beginning—on the one hand, to make songs that are catchy and danceable, on the other, to give people something to smile about or reflect on.”

With Ghislain Poirier, Donzelle, Guillaume & the Coutu-Dumonts, Aflyisonthewall and special surprise guest at Saboteur Ball 3 at la Sala Rossa on Friday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m., $10

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