Rinôçérôse

House on the Rocks

Paris 

23/06/1999 - 

Hip 30-something duo Rinôçérôse, who are based in Montpellier in the South of France, have just released their debut album "Installation sonore" on V2 (the new label created by Virgin founder Richard Branson). However, while the U.K. has been responsible for launching the careers of some of the hottest new electro acts on the current scene, Rinôçérôse were actually 'discovered' in Spain.

Guitarist Jean- Philippe Freu and bass-player Patou Carrié, the two halves of Rinôçérôse, launched their respective careers in the early 80's, playing with a band called Les Maracas. Together with groups like Shériff and OTH, Les Maracas - a 60s-influenced pop combo - were one of the leading lights on the sparse Montpellier rock scene. After Les Maracas went their separate ways in 1993, Freu and Carrié re-invented themselves as a duo, locking themselves away in the studio to begin experimenting with electronic sounds.

Long before the release of Rinôçérôse's debut album in April '99, the independent label Elefant (based in the Spanish Pyrenees) had already released a series of Rinôçérôse EPs and a compilation of the duo's experimental house/dub/pop sound entitled "Rétrospective". As for the group's strange new name, Freu and Carrié sought inspiration in the work of Gaston Duf, the famous artist and founder of the 'art brut' movement who was interned in a psychiatric hospital. (Rinôçérôse was the title of one of Duf's best known paintings).
Snapped up by the new British label V2, the French duo are currently making their debut in the First Division of the U.K. pop scene - we say 'pop' because Rinôçérôse's accomplished instrumental album is more in keeping with current pop trends than the new French electro sound (a.k.a. le French Touch). "Installation sonore" is, in fact, closer in spirit to albums by Primal Scream or the Happy Mondays, although it does contain a few standard house tracks. The main interest of "Installation sonore", however, lies in Rinôçérôse's bending of other well-known genres. Take a listen to the wild heavy metal riff which loops above the rhythm box on "Guitaristic House Organisation", the upbeat Latino guitars on "Mes vacances à Rio" and Rinôçérôse's wacky 90's take on western theme tunes ("Radiocapte") and 70's American cop series ("Sublimor"). Meanwhile, the duo's hip designer single "le Mobilier" has also received a fair amount of airplay in recent months.

While Rinôçérôse's current sound is very much inspired by 'l'air du temps', Freu and Carrié still retain a certain amount of influences from their old group Les Maracas. In a recent interview published in the French music mag. Les Inrockuptibles, the duo admitted that "there have been no fundamental changes in our method of working … We may have decided to move away from songwriting and get rid of lyrics for the moment, but even so you don't just wave a magic wand and forget ten years of pop culture just like that! In fact, what's going on with our new sound is that guitars have simply replaced the lyrics. We've changed the singer into a six-string guitar! Apart from that we've kept a very traditional approach. We simply add a bit of house over the top of the guitars, building everything around a central composition".

With its trendy production techniques and its smooth, efficient groove, "Installation sonore" looks like being an instant hit on the 90's music scene. However, Rinôçérôse's house/dub/pop sound may not actually last the distance. But then who cares about immortality? What counts is that this new French duo, brought up on the Byrds, Velvet Underground, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, maintain their glorious open-mindedness and continue to experiment with their eclectic mix of sounds!

Rinôçérôse Installation sonore (V2/Sony Music) 1999

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Julie  Street