French Music Seen From Abroad July 2007

The Holiday Spirit

Paris 

11/07/2007 - 

Summer’s here again - although you might not believe it from the rainclouds! - and a number of chart-topping Francophone stars have already hit the road. The festival circuit has been getting in the holiday spirit with shows from Joey Starr, Olivia Ruiz and Youssou N’Dour. And David Guetta, Bob Sinclar and French pop-rock outfit Kaolin have all released new albums for the summer. Meanwhile, everyone’s favourite ‘clandestino’ Manu Chao is preparing to take international hit-parades by storm. 

Manu Chao’s fame seems to be spreading by the minute! The Boston Globe (26/6) reported that “Already beloved in Europe and Latin America, 46-year-old Chao is now making serious inroads into the U.S. market, in advance of a new album in September.” While preparing for a major assault on the charts at the end of summer, the indefatigable singer-songwriter has been impressing critics with his boundless energy live on stage. A reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer (2/7) looked on in amazement, noting how “Manu Chao did so much jumping up and down at the Electric Factory on Friday that you might have thought the stage was a trampoline.” Given his reputation as an on-stage whirlwind, Chao must have found it hard to settle down to life in the studio again. However, The Chicago Tribune (24/6) reported that "More than six years after his last studio effort, Chao is on the verge of releasing what he calls "La Radiolina"… A single, "Rainin’ in Paradize" is available now for free download from his personal Web site, www.manuchao.net.”

While the exact title of Chao’s album has still to be confirmed, a few facts are already known about its content. The Spanish news portal La Higuera (9/7) informs us that "the album was coproduced by Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys, Jack Johnson), Andrew Scheps" and Chao himself. It features "19 songs in Castilian, French, English" – and, for the very first time in his career, in Italian, according to the Chicago Tribune. The album also includes a song "dedicated to Maradona with a video clip produced by the musician and film-maker Emir Kusturica." Meanwhile, we can confidently report that all dates on Chao’s American tour, which has received extensive media coverage to date, are sold out. So it looks as if the U.S. may soon succumb to all-out Chao-mania!

Meanwhile, back to Europe where the summer festival season is already in full swing. In Liège, "the ultra-eclectic line-up at Les Ardentes has only served to boost the rock festival’s popularity." And the correspondent from the Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure (9/7) was particularly struck by French rapper Joey Starr’s performance there. "Joey Starr set the stage alight with a concert that obviously had little to do with pop-rock, but which blew festival-goers away thanks to the rapper’s sheer expenditure of energy (…) The audience on the last day of the festival was perceptibly different to the crowd in the early days, being relatively more family-oriented. Olivia Ruiz doubtless had something to do with that. Sweet, sensual and enviably svelte, ‘la femme chocolat’ appeared on stage, preceding the band that turned out to be her long-term music idols, Les Rita Mitsouko. Ruiz received a rousing standing ovation after her opening song."

Over in Montreux, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Youssou N’Dour proved to be in more militant mood. The Senegalese daily L’Observateur (7/7) reported that "The artist seized upon the opportunity presented by the Montreux Jazz Festival to speak out against the world’s guilty silence on Darfur, organising a successful protest march." The march "which attracted over 300 participants, was largely made up of celebrities, decision-makers and other opinion-formers. The African Bob Dylan (Ismaël Lo) and Claude Nobs, the mastermind behind the Montreux Festival for 41 years… were prominently placed in the front row, expressing their support for goodwill ambassador Youssou N’Dour."

Meanwhile, music fans unable to make it to the festival circuit for one reason or another, can pack new releases from French DJs David Guetta and Bob Sinclar in their bags. Sinclar has just put the finishing touches to his Sounz Of Freedom, an album the popular Swedish daily Expressen (5/6) describes as a "simple and effective" work about "eroticism and freedom." Perfect summer listening, in other words! France’s other leading turntable wizard David Guetta has been busy in the recording studio, too. Guetta, "who made a name for himself in the 1990s as one of the principal catalysts of Parisian nightlife (…) is now back in the news with “Pop Life,”" reported La Higuera (4/6). So that no-one mistakes the Guetta trademark, "the first single features vocals from Chris Willis, who appeared on Guetta’s earlier hits." Clearly another chart-topper in the making!

Those whose musical tastes veer more towards rock may prefer to sample the latest release from Kaolin. "In the mid-90s", La Presse (Quebec, 7/7), reminds readers, "these four musicians from Montluçon, a small town in central France, got together with the aim of making music about the things that inspired them. So far, a general sense of déjà vu! But countless gigs and three albums later, the foursome are arousing increasing curiosity with “Mélanger les couleurs”, an album on which "folk sounds overlap with a style of pop-rock reminiscent of that played by (another happening French pop-rock outfit) Louise Attaque."

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Julie  Street