BANDE A PART • Nouvelle Vague

Imagine a cruise ship that's wending its way down the coast of South America. The house band has a curious set list, one that willfully neglects all musical decades except the 1980s, and even more specifically, the darker bands of that era. They draw deep from the angst-ridden songs of Echo & The Bunnymen ("The Killing Moon"), the Buzzcocks ("Ever Fallen In Love?"), the Cramps ("Human Fly"), and Bauhaus ("Bela Lugosi's Dead"), and reinvent them as svelte, bossa nova-flavored chansons. It's retro futurism at its most seductive.

Unlikely as it may seem, that house band exists. The brainchild of French duo Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, Nouvelle Vague have taken what might seem a contrived and kitschy concept and made it into something fresh. On the follow-up to their 2004 self-titled debut, Collin and Libaux's loungey arrangements continue to provide a vibrant springboard for the bewitching vocals of Melanie Pain and Phoebe Killdeer, who both sound very breathy and very, very French. If ABBA had come from Paris instead of Sweden, they might've been like this.

It's not only obscure 80s bands that Nouvelle Vague cover. U2's "Pride In The Name Of Love," Blondie's "Heart Of Glass" and Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself" get reassembled into c'est magnifique concoctions that allow you to appreciate them anew for the great songs they are.

About the group's name. Nouvelle Vague means, appropriately enough, new wave (as does Bossa Nova--very clever, these boys). And lest you forget, it was the French who invented the term new wave, back in the '50s. It seems only right that they've come to reclaim it. • Bill DeMain

[These photos first appeared in a concert review over at OneLouder (www.oneloudernyc.com)--dig what Rajeev, Jason, and Paul are getting up to there.]

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