Top Ten: French Music
For a non-English speaking country that holds steadfast to its own idiosyncratic ways , French music has had an astonishing amount of influence on Anglo-Western culture. Just like love, music is an international language, and whether we understand the lyrics or not, the Western world has been consistently enchanted with and charmed by Chanson (Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour), 60s pop (Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy), ‘French Touch’ electronica (Air, Cassius), noisy nu-electro (Justice, Daft Punk), sultry chanteuses (Carla Bruni, Brigitte Bardot), and strangely sexy male singer songwriters (Sebastien Tellier, Serge Gainsbourg).
But while all of the above have marked their territory in popular music history, there are scores more French artists who may have slipped through cracks and past your ears. From funk to hip-hop, indie to blues, pop to electronica and back again, here’s a chequered guide to some fabulous Frenchies that you may have missed.
The Lafayette Afro Rock Band
Lafayette Afro Rock Band
This one is a bit of a cheat as the members of this sprawling 70s funk band originally hail from New York City. After bandleader Bobby Boy made the decision to distance the band, then called Ice, from the oversaturated US market, the band got the funk out of the States and relocated to Paris in 1970. The influence of their surroundings in Paris’ Barbès district, largely made up of North African immigrants, prompted the name change and inspired the band to produce some of the best deep funk records in music history. They remained more or less unknown in their native US, and disbanded soon after moving back to New York in 1978.
The cut & paste sample culture of 1980s hip hop discovered Lafayette Afro Rock Band’s afrobeat boogie jams, funk-rock fusions and epic breakbeats, and their back catalogue continues to be mined for gold by modern hip hop & R&B artists. Keep your ears peeled the next time you’re shaking what your mama gave ya to Public Enemy (‘Show ‘Em Whatcha Got’), LL Cool J (“Jingling Baby”), Wreckx-n-Effect (“Rump Shaker”) to spot the distinctive LARB samples.
Recommended: Darkest Light: The Best of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band (Strut Records).
Nouvelle Vague
Nouvelle Vague/Camille
What do you get if you cross post-punk and new wave anthems, with bossa jazz and breathy French female vocalists? If your answer is “something really rubbish” well you couldn’t be blamed for thinking so. On paper the concept behind the Nouvelle Vague sounds hellishly bad, but in reality it’s effortlessly charming and convincing, and manages to both respect and recontextualise hallowed tracks like The Clash’s “Guns Of Brixton”, Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass” and the Dead Kennedys’ “Too Drunk Too Fuck”.
The brainchild of producers Marc Collins and Olivier Libaux, Nouvelle Vague spawned two gorgeous albums in 2004 and 2006, with a third volume on the way which will feature actual new wave legends like Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan on vocals. Nouvelle Vague has also introduced a fine selection of young vocalists…. which brings us to Camille Dalmais, who featured heavily on the first Nouvellle Vague album. The celebrated and talented avant-pop singer showcased her sweet voice and impressive range on her 2nd album, the mostly acapella Le Fil, notable for its inventive use of vocal manipulations, and the tonal note that is the basis of every track. This was followed up with the poly-rhythmic album Music Hole in 2008.
Recommended: Nouvelle Vague – Nouvelle Vague (Peacefrog) / Camille – Le Fil (Virgin)
Para One
Para One
Electronic and hip hop producer Para One, real name Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, first made himself known as one of the beatmeisters behind French hip hop group TTC. Their accessible electro-rapping made for crossover heaven, and the group toured the globe after the release of their albums Bâtards Sensibles and 3615 TTC.
While he’s working on the new TTC album, Para One’s sonic experiments, hip hop fusions and floor-rocking mashup electro have ensured his place as a solo act in the second wave of French electronic producers taking over the world’s danceflooors at the moment, alongside the likes of Justice and the Ed Banger crew.
Recommended: Epiphanie (Institubes)
Michel Polnareff
Michel Polnareff
With permed, blond-tipped hair, large white-framed sunglasses and a dress sense that can only be described as a psychedelic dandy, Michel Polnareff was a popular and controversial figure within French pop music during the late 1960s and 1970s.
Despite a reputation for a wildly non-conformist lifestyle, he made a name for himself with his legendary melodic compositions, which eschewed inoffensive 60s yé-yé pop for stronger melodies and more risqué subject matter, like his racy 1966 hit “L’amour avec toi” (“I’m In Love With You”) which was banned from being played on French radio before 10pm.
Beset by one scandal after another – speculation over his sexuality, the suicide of his close friend, being charged with gross indecency after a tour poster was produced emblazoned with his bare buttocks, being ripped off for millions by his manager – Polnareff left France in 1975 for a period of self-imposed exile in the US, until his triumphant return in the 1990s, where he is now lauded for his contribution to French music’s pop history.
Recommended: Le Bal Des Laze (Epic)
Melodium
Melodium
Laurent Girard’s Melodium moniker has produced some of the sweetest folktronica and electronic indie made in recent years. The Angers based singer-songwriter utilizes electronics to form the framework of his songs and his sound is melodic and glitchy all at the same time, with gentle beats, violins, guitars, flutes and occasionally some filtered, dreamy vocals.
While his music is sweet and laid back, and would be the perfect soundtrack to, say, lying in field, soaking up the sunshine, Girard works at an astonishing pace. He has released 2 official full-length albums in the last year alone, alongside numerous one-off MP3s, homemade CD-Rs, singles and EPs.
Recommended: Cerebro Spin (Audio Dregs)
Pépé Bradock
Pépé Bradock
When ‘French Touch’ became all the rage in the late 1990s with popular acts Daft Punk, Air and Dimitri From Paris, Julien Auger aka Pépé Bradock quietly produced many of the best works of the era while keeping himself relatively unknown in the mainstream.
With excellent productions and remixes for Cassius, Alex Gopher, and Blaze, Pépé Bradock soon developed a loyal following among lovers of deep house. A teenage funk musician who was exposed to electronic music through the rave scene, he is an enigmatic figure who rarely gives interviews and averages just one new 12” release a year for his label Ativisme. He keeps himself relevant and influential nonetheless, and remains a highly sought after remixer and DJ.
Recommended: Intriguing Feathered Creature (Ativisme)
France Gall
France Gall
During the early 1960s France Gall helped to popularize the sound of ‘yé-yé’, the style of accessible beat pop reportedly named after the “yeah, yeah” shout that could often be heard within tracks. Her first single “Ne sois pas si bête” (“Don’t Be So Stupid”) was released on her 16th birthday and soon became a hit, as did her follow-up singles, which spoke of innocence and teenage concerns.
As one of the most successful yé-yé girls, Gall collaborated with pop genius Serge Gainsbourg, and won the 1965 Eurovison Song Contest (representing Luxembourg) with “”Poupée de cire, poupée de son” (“Doll of wax, doll of sawdust”). Rebelling at 18 with “Les Sucettes” (“Lollipops”), a song full of coming-of-age sexual innuendo, her career and popularity began to decline, but she reestablished herself as a musical and recording star again from the late 70s onwards.
Recommended: Baby Pop (Polydor)
The Feeling Of Love
The Feeling Of Love
The spirit of swampy, scuzzy blues has infiltrated all the way to the small northern French city of Metz, where The Feeling Of Love take the blues and run with it into glorious noisy, punky territory with song titles like “The Way to Suck”, “Rapeman Blues” and “Dad = Eat, Mum = Die”.
Helmed by vocalist/guitarist Guillaume ‘G’ Guitare, who originally started as a one-man-band, The Feeling Of Love has expanded into a three piece that now includes Seb Normal, legendary for appearing in a seemingly endless number of bands in the French weird punk scene.
Fresh and retro all at the same time with equal parts 90s grunge, rollicking slide-guitar blues, bratty punk, and boisterous garage rock, The Feeling Of Love could very well be the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion of the noughties.
www.myspace.com/thefeelingoflove
Recommended: Petite Tu Es Un Hit (Yakisakana Records)
Readymade FC
Readymade FC
Before becoming one of French alt-pop’s biggest hopes, the abundantly creative Jean-Philippe Verdin was a student of Brighton’s College of Art, and a graphic designer for MTV.
Born in Brittany in the late 1960s, the multi-instrumentalist, composer and DJ debuted his off-kilter, dreamy pop on his 2001 album Bold. His masterpiece Babilonia followed on London label Peacefrog in 2005, rich with baroque pop, whimsical circus melodies, quirky lullaby-esque tracks and memorable guest appearances from David Sylvian and Feist.
www.myspace.com/readymadefcbabilonia
Recommended: Babilonia (Peacefrog)
Dirty Soundsystem
Not really an artist per se, but a collective made up of a record label, artists, DJs and promoters based in Paris, and which grew out of the pairing of ‘selectors’ (“We are selectors, not DJs,”) Guillaume Sorge and Clovis Goux, who have been inspiring and educating music lovers since 2001 with sets renowned for their musical eclecticism, rarities, obscurities, and forgotten gems.
Dirty Soundsystem
The Dirty crew started releasing Dirty Edits in 2006, a series of limited edition vinyl-only releases by inhouse Dirty artists Discodeine, and re-edits and rereleases of obscure disco, folk, psychedelic, krautrock, leftfield pop and soul tracks, often edited by core Dirty member Pilooski, who shot to fame a couple of years ago with his retake of Frankie Valli’s “Beggin’”.
Non vinyl junkies need not despair, as the Dirtys also release (limited) CD collections of their reedits and rereleases in the form of Dirty Diamonds, Dirty Edits, Dirty Space Disco and the forthcoming Dirty French Psychedelics (a collection of leftfield, psychedelic French pop from the 1970s). They also regularly upload free (but also limited!) mixes from their must-read blog , which show off their crate-digging skills with aplomb!
Recommended: Dirty Space Disco
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