For years, French music was the butt of jokes. While
the candid pop of the likes of Françoise Hardy,
Brigitte Bardot or Jane Birkin and the poetry of Serge
Gainsbourg always appealed to the elite of British society,
the simple mention of Sasha Distel or Plastic Bertrand
would bring nightmares to anyone remotely sane. The
language, which had romantic appeal during the sixties,
became a handicap for younger artists, who found it
harder and harder to export their music to non-French
speaking countries, even when reverting to singing in
English. That is, until a new wave of young musicians
appeared, adopting dance beats and electronic sounds
as their main mean of expression. Nicely packaged as
La French Touch, artists such as Air,
Etienne De Crecy, Daft Punk or Alex Gopher paved the
way for a renewed interest in French. Since, Gallic
musicians have realised that experimentation was not
the exclusive playground of British or American artists
and have gone in all sorts of directions. Equally, new
labels have sprung out everywhere, with the likes of
Active Suspension, Musikexperience and Peter I'm Flying,
amongst others, bringing fresh blood to demanding audiences.
Already responsible for promoting artists such as the
delicious Margo, Monogram
or Playdoh, Rennes-based Peter I'm Flying are now embarking
on a mission to unleash even more new talents and help
them release some material through their new Pardon
My French series.
First in line are Cinelux, a trio officiating between
Rennes and Nantes. Originally formed by Stuntman5 (programming,
sampling, bass and voice) and Tordeonde (guitar), the
band now also features Lauphi on drums. This album features
five original tracks from the band, recorded during
two separate sessions, and six remixes by the likes
of Capitol K, Machine
Drum, Mitchell Akiyama, Tepr, Tlone and Jean De
Bristol. Cinelux's terrain of predilection encompasses
genres as diverse as avant-rock, electronica, abstract
hip-hop, krautrock and jazz, all brought together under
one roof and adapted to suit the mood. This results
in the band's music offering wide sonic ranges and revealing
interesting structures. On tracks such as Hollis,
which opens the album, or Infraland, Cinelux
inject elements of jazz into their heavy-footed post-rock,
while Une Porte or Rob are slightly
dark and hypnotic, drawing in dance conventions while
retaining a solid rock base.
The remixes bring some diversity to this record. Whether
through the electro-funk of Capitol
K's reworking of The Butter & The Milk,
the dark industrial funk of Jean De Bristol's version
of Une Porte, the futuristic jazz of Hollis
(Machine Drum
remix) or the beautiful sonic arrangements of Tepr's
remix of Rob, the essence of Cinelux's music
transpires in a variety of form, revealing its many
faces and adapting them to the contributors' field of
action.
Whether Cinelux can carry their sound over a full album
is yet to be demonstrated, but these five tracks are
overall interesting, pertinent, and Cinelux appear to
have found a niche in which to evolve and explore. When
re-interpreted, these tracks reveal different facets
to the trio's music, sometimes highlighting its complex
nature, at others turning it into playful vignettes.
3.6/5 |
