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French Music Seen from Abroad (Aug. 2007)
Off to sunnier climes
Paris
31/08/2007 -
While his compatriots shivered back home David Guetta, one of the hottest DJs on the contemporary club scene, set dancefloor temperatures rising in Ibiza. The popular British tabloid The Sun (9/8) reported that “it was 4am on a Thursday morning when the 3,000+ crowd at Pacha, Ibiza, finally got what they’d been waiting for all night… Deafening cheers and claps erupted as French DJ David Guetta walked into the booth, arms aloft, to begin his legendary "Fuck Me I’m Famous night.” This reception, worthy of a rock star, heralded "an unforgettable experience" and explains why "P. Diddy, Penelope Cruz, James Blunt, Lenny Kravitz, Jade Jagger, Jean-Paul Gaultier and even Prince are regulars at the event."
Over in a quieter, more restrained atmosphere in Taiwan, French singer Damien Sargue was hoping to reach out and touch a wider audience in Taipei. The China Post (24/8) reported that “Sargue’s mother discovered her son’s artistic talent at an early age, enrolling him at music school when he was just 8 years old.” At the age of 16, “Sargue won a local song contest in Cannes” and decided to take up a stage career, abandoning his earlier ambition to become a psychiatrist. Landing the lead male role in the French stage musical Roméo et Juliette catapulted Sargue to fame, but unfortunately despite “a significant number of single releases”, his solo career has failed to take off to date. “Sargue is now hoping that his new recordings will let audiences glimpse another facet to his talent beyond Romeo.” The audience assembled in Taipei’s Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, unaware of Sargue’s romantic lead or indeed the rest of his career to date, appeared to take in his show without any Shakespearean prejudice whatsoever.
Meanwhile, that hip and happening French electro duo Daft Punk headed off to Coney Island, New York, for an American performance. The respected critic from The New York Times (3/8) pointed out that “As Kraftwerk demonstrated 30 years ago, techno-pop is best when delivered by robots.” Following in the German group’s footsteps, “the duo of French DJs Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter performs in retro-futuristic android costumes”, refusing to appear before audiences unmasked. Incidentally, consolation is at hand for those who have never enjoyed the experience of seeing the duo perform live. The American magazine Billboard (14/8) announced that “Daft Punk will in late November release a live album chronicling their June 14 Paris stop.” A major event since the duo had not played in their hometown, Paris, for ten years before that!
While over in the States the boys from Daft Punk might easily have bumped into the girls from Zap Mama and the latter, an all-girl group famous for their multi-cultural fusion sound would doubtless have enjoyed such an interesting musical exchange. On 22/8 The North Country Times, a daily newspaper servicing readers in San Diego and the surrounding area, warned music fans that Zap Mama’s frontwoman, Marie Daulne, “who sees fusion sounds as the future of pop”, “is a woman and a musician. She is not a symbol,” before going on to explain that “What Latinos are for Americans, Africans are for Europe…When Europeans want to have rhythm and sun, they go to Africa, as Americans do with Latin America!"
Meanwhile over in warm and sunny Tunisia, Michel Jonasz brought the jazz festival in Tabarka to a close. The correspondent from La Presse (18/7), noted that "with a blues that has inhabited him since childhood and the rhythm'n'blues influence of Ray Charles, which has proved to be an inspirational source for his sound, Jonasz injected his show with a major dose of his signature style." However, the show, based on Jonasz’s recent album of cover versions, left many fans cold. "Jonasz, accompanied on stage by five musicians, sang Brel, Brassens, Barbara, Piaf, Ferré, and Ferrat but, much to the disappointment of the festival audience, only one song from his own repertoire!"
Talking of disillusionment, the Ivorian reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly, now based in Bamako, warns young music fans about his experiences in France on his new album L’Africain (due out on 24 September). Tiken told a reporter from Cameroon’s Quotidien Mutations (8/8) that his new album “is about pointing two things out to young Africans wanting to go to Europe… Firstly, that Europeans don’t have the right to tell them not to leave (their homeland), because Europeans come to our country whenever they feel like it. They apply for a visa in the morning and get one the same evening or the next day. There must be a refusal rate of between 0% and 1% when it comes to Europeans applying for African visas. But in the other direction there’s a refusal rate of between 60% and 70%. That’s a flagrant injustice that has to be denounced loud and clear. The second thing young Africans dreaming of Europe should realise is that their brothers in Paris are not rolling in money. They may send photos of themselves looking smart in front of the Eiffel Tower back home, but they don’t show the bed they’re sleeping in at night!"
While tourists continue to head from North to South, economic migrants perform the reverse journey and the increasingly fraught relationship between the two halves of the globe is still the cause of much bloodshed as well as heated media and political debate. In music terms, Manu Chao - that other committed rebel with a cause – is about to release a new album set to fan the flames of revolt still further. So keep your ears tuned and watch this space!
Gilles Rio
Translation : Julie Street
11/07/2007 -
