The rock and electro review 2007

From Air to Yüksëk

Paris 

31/12/2007 - 

2007 was a bumper year on the French rock and electro scene, offering everything from new albums by big-name stars (Manu Chao’s Radiolina) to hot new dancefloor revelations (Justice) and promising new rock talents (French glam outfit Fancy)! However, while French electro continues to do well in export terms, Gallic guitar rock fares rather less well on the international scene. 2007 was also marked by the loss of Fred Chichin, the guitarist half of France’s favourite indie rock duo Les Rita Mitsouko.

We kick off this year’s retrospective on a low note, commemorating the death of guitarist Fred Chichin. Fred struck a gangling, spiky-haired rock figure, usually positioned somewhere towards the back of the stage, staring moodily off into the distance while punky diva Catherine Ringer grabbed the limelight upfront. But it was Fred who made the headlines on 28 November when he died of cancer. Fred had been laid low by hepatitis in recent years which had delayed the release of Les Rita Mitsouko’s latest album, Variety. The 12-track album, one of the duo’s best to date, was released in an English version as well as a French one, Fred and Catherine having ambitions to break onto the UK market.

Talking of conquering international markets, Manu Chao is probably the best-known French rock star in the world these days - even if he does live in Barcelona and his third album, La Radiolina, features only a smattering of songs in French! The latest offering from the globe-trotting anti-globalisation activist, released in September 2007, is infused with the phenomenal energy Chao was famous for live on stage with his old group La Mano Negra. Film-maker Emir Kusturica stepped in to shoot a road-movie style video clip for the first single release Rainin’ in Paradize.

Fred Chichin	Manu Chao

Meanwhile, the award for Most Ambitious Undertaking of the Year has to go to French rock outfit  Dionysos for La mécanique du Cœur, which came out as both an album and a novel in the autumn of 2007. Featuring feisty rock guitars, a string section, bell-ringing and a dream cast of guest artists including Arthur H and actor Jean Rochefort, La mécanique du Cœur is also set to spawn its own stage musical when Dionysos take to the road on tour in 2008.

As for Kaolin, a band who have managed to put their local Auvergne rock scene firmly on the national map, they pulled off one of the biggest coups of the year with their surprise adaptation of the Bob Dylan classic I Want You. Needless to say, the band’s third album, Mélanger les couleurs, went on to sell like those proverbial hotcakes! Matmatah, a provincial rock outfit from Brittany seemed rather tame in comparison. The band’s fourth album, La Cerise, served up a decent helping of pedigree rock songs, all performed in French. But La Cerise failed to appeal to the wider public, not appearing to interest anyone beyond radio programmers. The autumn of 2007 was marked by two significant second-album releases within just a few days of each another. Luke and Déportivo both attempted to throw off the influences of major French rock icons Noir Désir, Déportivo perhaps with greater success, notably on their superb cover of Miossec’s Aujourd’hui les bières s’ouvrent manuellement.

Deportivo	Montevidéo

Meanwhile, bands like Fancy and The Elderberries threw off French musical influences altogether, inventing their own brand of non-too-Gallic rock aimed at the international market. Fancy, famous for lead singer Jesse’s falsetto vocals and flamboyant Afro hairstyle, served up their own 21st-century take on glam rock and we predict they have a number of potential chart-toppers up their cross-dressing silk sleeves. As for The Elderberries, they have been busy touring up and down the country, playing every available venue, and setting audiences alight with their seventies sound. Another group to watch in 2008 is Montevidéo, Belgium’s answer to the New York rock scene. The Belgian outfit caused a big buzz in 2007 with the release of a compelling debut album mixing pop melodies, rock energy and bass-fuelled groove.

2007 will also go down in music history as the year the sixties revival failed to happen. Debut albums by Naast, Plastiscines and BB Brunes all proved to be unremitting flops. All eyes are now focused on Hushpuppies, a group whose second album, Silence is Golden, is infused with catchy sixties influences and psychedelic keyboards.

Electro

Meanwhile, over on the electro scene things were very much a-bubble. Back in autumn 2006, Pedro Winter - aka the manager of Daft Punk and director of Ed Banger Records - had announced that a new French music revolution was about to happen. According to Winter, the French electro scene was once again a hotbed of new talent just waiting to take the world’s dancefloors by storm. Winter’s prediction certainly came true in June 2007 when French electro duo Justice shook the planet with their club hit DANCE (co-written with the lead singer of Fancy). Justice’s debut album proved to be a huge hit, paving the way for a new generation of rising electro stars such as Sebastian, Surkin and Yüksëk, all of whom recently honed their turntable skills on promising remixes.

Pedro Winter had another reason to be cheerful in 2007. Not only was he responsible for signing Justice, but his electro protégés Daft Punk were also back in the limelight with an acclaimed live album. Alive featured a concert the famous masked duo performed in June at Bercy stadium in Paris - a major event in itself as Daft Punk had not played in the French capital for a full ten years! Needless to say, Alive rocketed straight into the top 3 of the French album chart. Meanwhile, that other famous French electro double act, Air, re-emerged at the beginning of 2007 with their fifth album, Pocket Symphony. While Air’s new album is strictly speaking more pop than electro, it is still infused with that special ethereal touch.

Justice	Bob Sinclar

Meanwhile, it seems that the famous French Electro Touch of yesteryear is now the French Pop Touch of 2007. Former French Touch pioneers Bob Sinclar and David Guetta have continued their reign on international dancefloors, having successfully mastered the art of managing their brand image. But Alex Gopher, who rose to international fame sampling Billie Holiday on his single The Child, wrongfooted fans and critics alike in March 2007, bringing out a fullblown pop album.

2007 was not a good year for TTC. The third album by the Parisian outfit was a total flop and Cuizinier, one of the group’s MCs was badmouthed on Yelle’s Je veux te voir. Meanwhile, the buzz around the young pop songstress filtered all the way Down Under to Australia. Yelle’s debut album, Pop Up, breathes a trendy new breath of fresh air into French pop and she even dared to revive that Gallic pop classic A cause des garçons. But the award for Hottest New Album of the Year goes to Fancy Footwork by Montreal-based duo Chroméo. The album, mixed by Zdar (of Cassius fame), manages to fuse ultra-danceable tracks with cutting-edge electro and leaves us wondering whether Quebec’s electro scene will upstage its French counterpart in 2008. Only time will tell!

Ludovic  Basque