BORN BAD RECORDS - Forced Exposure

$17.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed undersleeve and download code. Cyril Cyril stirs the snow globe, Helvet underground as they are called. Cyril Cyril's Sunday is a trance, you arrive, people gather. The samples vocals, hesitates, moans a little, Miami Beach, OK let's go. This is how Cyril Cyril introduce their new album Yallah Mickey Mouse. Once again, they take back their instruments and their roots with their ruffled tips. It is not about untangling. The sonorities are sculpted in vibrating marbles with indocile fossils. A visionary sonic narration, an invitation to an unorganized journey. Multiple influences are called on in the frame of this project of personal emanations and studio research. A tribute to the friends of Hyperculte in memory of an Egyptian camel, winks to the phrasing of Cha Cha Guitry, to the animal of Gerard Manset or to the hand of Indochine. Cyril Bondi is at the drums with his custom instruments, his body is trained to the groove of the wizards, and the fanfare of delirious insects starts. Cyril Yeterian is on the banjo or on the electric guitar. His storyteller's voice, that has travelled time and migrations, resumes the stories suspended since our last meeting. Cyril Cyril carries our voices, including the ones of those who are no longer here. They come back, it's crazy how modern they are, and then without embarrassment too, without embarrassment and generous, happy to be able to regain a little youth, it looks lost, they sing. Cyril Cyril carries their voices. Reeds, hands, undulate, breathe, like this music. Cyril Cyril carries our bodies. The ternary scale of our emotions and our smiles that come back. The wave makes you lose control, but the harmonies gently overtake this feeling as you lay on the sand. Also, the irony. The figures of power, the small march of insects accompanies them while laughing, these presidents. And always the surprise, bells ring in all you ears, eyes, and hands. Cyril Cyril carries your senses. Cyril Cyril opens your mind. You resonate more and more, you get more and more entangled, everything intertwines, the sounds and their lights. The psychedelic organ melody accompanies the voice which rises in the higher frequencies, the percussions encourage you. You accelerate the pulsation, you get closer and stomp together, you want the head of Mickey Mouse. Echoes of bird songs, of a bestiary. You are animals, the carnival of animals.

$14.00 IN STOCK

A pop star who turned his back to show business to become an independent artist, steered by the revolutionary ideas of his wife Jacqueline in 1960s France; these are the outlines of Henri Salvador's unusual musical career. At 50, Salvador starts experimenting with synths and drum machine, multi-track recorders and altered voice collages. He takes up editing and mixing, and solitarily makes songs for young and old from his home in Paris' Place Vendôme. Seventy years of music, a thousand of creations of all styles. Sometimes associated to ye-ye singers, he's also known to have brought rock to France (in 1956, with Boris Vian). As a kid he picks up the guitar without any theoretical basics and becomes so talented he plays with Django Reinhardt. The 30s are the years of his training; the 40s of his emancipation within musical ensembles which are to see his talents flourish. He finds his public and perfects his tricks: laughter and seduction. In the 50s he rediscovers the songs of the islands where he grew up, revisits jazz, swing, blues and sings for children. Jacqueline shapes and emancipates him. When they marry in 1950, she's a quiet and cultivated young lady who's to progressively take charge of his career. Ever reinventing themselves, the Salvadors intend to do without studios, engineers, producers and musicians altogether. "Siffler en travaillant" ("Whistle While You Work") is a brilliant reinterpretation of one of Snow White's theme song, which a young Salvador had already performed with Ray Ventura's Orchestra in the 40s; "Hello Mickey", a catchy, spirited ska; "J'aime tes g'noux", a great cover of Shirly and Co's "Shame shame shame"; on "Un jour mon prince viendra", he makes a beat borrowed from Suicide and a Les Paul solo collide. Meanwhile Rigolo also releases less family-oriented singles. Salvador takes up eroticism, the financial crisis, and the negotiations between the US and Vietnam. In 1975 Jacqueline is diagnosed with a cancer. As she manages, decides and initiates everything, Rigolo starts idling. Weary and beat, Henri doesn't feel like playing in his empty house anymore. He lets all of their projects die out: the TV show, the label, the musical editions, the PAM. Together with Jacqueline, Henri Salvador should've set an example for other artists: one of independence against an unfair and unyielding system. An inspiration not to end up enslaved by contracts signed too early, or to feed a bunch of comatose owners clenching onto millions of publishing rights. Includes liner notes French and English by Guido from Acid Arab.

$14.00 IN STOCK

France, 1990. Fun Radio, NRJ, Skyrock set a new pace, and their crushing hegemony irrevocably marks the end of the free radio utopia. The giants become vital in the hit industry and carry on fueling France's greatest invention: la variété. A quintessentially French version of British dance pop with a very specific tang to it, too coy to emulate trendy clubs' and rave parties' music, europop cautiously tests the waters of what will soon turn into a tsunami: house music. Is house the soundtrack of the '90s? In Europe, it gave steam to comeback bands just as much as to the most memorable formations of the decade, while in France it paved the way for the global success of French Touch. "Real" house music emerges in early '80s Chicago (where the Warehouse club, which allegedly gave its name to the genre, closes down in 1983). England's acid house and Belgium's new beat, its European offshoots, fed the cravings of tabloids in 1988 and 1989. The house music we're interested in though, the type bound to soon overwhelm European charts, is already pretty far away from the Afro-American music born in Chicago. So far away it inherited a new name: dance music. Just like it had been the case with disco a few years back, house and techno aren't exactly in the good books -- acid house and new beat even less so. And it's precisely the genre's mainstream iteration this compilation focuses on; the house en français, which strives to get on board the running train in 1990. The house which sports the all-over jean look, bandana, cap, chewing gum, Peugeot 205 complete with snazzy beats on the radio. The big deal big fuss type, miles away from the original, underground house. It might not have been born in the '90s, but that's clearly when house music became mainstream. Music producers propose their very own club versions, cross breeding French variété and house. The result: a chart and club ready ersatz that is to quickly seduce young audiences. The tracklist, like the soundtrack to a club night that never happened, fictitiously reconstructs the fleeting moment when house made its arrival in France, bridging the gap between variété and Eurodance. Features Marie Touchet, Michel Moers, Anne Zamberlan, Thalie, Histoires de Filles, Fred de Fred, Techno90, Jean-François Maurice, Claire An, and Artiste Inconnu.

$14.00 IN STOCK

The Wizzz! saga continues with a fresh selection of '60s and '70s rarities gathered from the unchartered nooks of the French-pop galaxy. Al Awni Bouarane, better known as Abdelwahab Doukkali, was one of the greatest figures of Middle-Eastern music. "Je Suis Jaloux", sung in French, was released on the label Philips in 1967. "Tom" -- a crepuscular mid-tempo with a touch of soul produced for Barclay in 1968 -- is François Bernheim's first solo release. Michel Handson signs this B-side with a touch of hip-hop in 1973 for the label Butterfly. This track from the Swede Matty Kemer's only single, a tribute to freedom and aviation, was recorded for the label Disque d'Or. Gilles Janeyrand's track was recorded in 1969 at the Studio des Dames. Albert-Henri Rykaert aka Alain Ricar was a comedian, singer, and songwriter, performing in cabarets or for the theatre, in Paris and in Belgium, then on RTB (Belgian TV). Paul Dupret captivates with the debonair B-side of the one and only single he released for the label Vogue in 1970. Richard Hertel's first single as a singer on the label Liberty, "Patatras Hola", also sees him play the drums and organ. Perfect groove, amused lyrics, and atonal gimmick. From a mainly folk corpus emerges Michel Didier's flashy cover of "Rainbow Chaser" by the English band Nirvana, here renamed "Comme un arc-en-ciel", is soaked in trippy effects by Jean-Claude Vannier. "Vedette international" is the work of the mysterious Liberatore. Alain Serco signs a frantic homage to his best friend Kiki, the B-side of his sole single, released on South Records at the beginning of the '70s. Gérard Gray, sensitive to rare or exotic instruments, search for a "different" sound and put together demos tinkering with a Revox tape deck and a variety of objects. "Le Grand Méchant Loup" by François Faray revisits Charles Perrault's tale of sexual liberation, yielding an ambitious glam-rock track. Patrice Lamy is a romantic singer from Lausanne. "Laisse-moi médire que je t'aime" is the B-side of his third record. The Tunisian crooner K.R. Nagati's "Sidi Bou" pays tribute to a summer romance and the town of Sidi Bou Saïd, perched on the cliffs overlooking Carthage and Gulf of Tunis. Les Missiles are a group of four buddies from the city of Oran (Algeria). The band's sound veers towards garage, or even pre-psychedelic music, filled with sound effects. CD version includes 24-page booklet (liner notes in English/French).

$17.50 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Includes six-page booklet (liner notes English/French). Includes download code. The Wizzz! saga continues with a fresh selection of '60s and '70s rarities gathered from the unchartered nooks of the French-pop galaxy. Al Awni Bouarane, better known as Abdelwahab Doukkali, was one of the greatest figures of Middle-Eastern music. "Je Suis Jaloux", sung in French, was released on the label Philips in 1967. "Tom" -- a crepuscular mid-tempo with a touch of soul produced for Barclay in 1968 -- is François Bernheim's first solo release. Michel Handson signs this B-side with a touch of hip-hop in 1973 for the label Butterfly. This track from the Swede Matty Kemer's only single, a tribute to freedom and aviation, was recorded for the label Disque d'Or. Gilles Janeyrand's track was recorded in 1969 at the Studio des Dames. Albert-Henri Rykaert aka Alain Ricar was a comedian, singer, and songwriter, performing in cabarets or for the theatre, in Paris and in Belgium, then on RTB (Belgian TV). Paul Dupret captivates with the debonair B-side of the one and only single he released for the label Vogue in 1970. Richard Hertel's first single as a singer on the label Liberty, "Patatras Hola", also sees him play the drums and organ. Perfect groove, amused lyrics, and atonal gimmick. From a mainly folk corpus emerges Michel Didier's flashy cover of "Rainbow Chaser" by the English band Nirvana, here renamed "Comme un arc-en-ciel", is soaked in trippy effects by Jean-Claude Vannier. "Vedette international" is the work of the mysterious Liberatore. Alain Serco signs a frantic homage to his best friend Kiki, the B-side of his sole single, released on South Records at the beginning of the '70s. Gérard Gray, sensitive to rare or exotic instruments, search for a "different" sound and put together demos tinkering with a Revox tape deck and a variety of objects. "Le Grand Méchant Loup" by François Faray revisits Charles Perrault's tale of sexual liberation, yielding an ambitious glam-rock track. Patrice Lamy is a romantic singer from Lausanne. "Laisse-moi médire que je t'aime" is the B-side of his third record. The Tunisian crooner K.R. Nagati's "Sidi Bou" pays tribute to a summer romance and the town of Sidi Bou Saïd, perched on the cliffs overlooking Carthage and Gulf of Tunis. Les Missiles are a group of four buddies from the city of Oran (Algeria). The band's sound veers towards garage, or even pre-psychedelic music, filled with sound effects.

$14.00 IN STOCK

When you decide to get a degree at university, like chief songwriter Emile Cartron-Eldin, music goes on hold. When you don't have enough dollars for that overpriced repressed LP the record store puts it on hold behind the counter. This is: Music To Hold Onto! To cherish and adore, right here right now. After little shining stars of self-released cassette classics showing great promise of solid SF song writing Music On Hold deliver an album with strictly "only the hits" in updated graphics and soundbite studio wizardry... and amen! It's the shinning neon-color video game classic you never played in your youth in the arcades. You only dreamed about it after too many bong hits. You think you've heard these songs before? Ha! You've never heard them better brother. Gary Wilson called, and sung you a melody and the Human League stole the synth lines... then The Spits put lead guitar in slow-motion. HEY! Superior Viaduct just found another lost record by Departmentstore Santas... Hold on. No, they didn't... our trusted Born Bad Records just stumbled upon a collection of stone-cold classics laying behind the wall of VHS's and sent them to be remastered for the best Sunday drive of your life. This is a record for all four seasons in all TV colors and black and white nouvelle vague romance. The punk generation doesn't take shame in playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, they know all the cheats. This LP is the first baseball bat you take you a Ferrari parked outside a strip club. This is the flock of seagulls that exploded in the sky in multi-colored fireworks and came raining down into the ears of the youth in these troubled times before cocaine became boring... This isn't your ironic Japanese obi-tape cassette vaporwave sally, Music On Hold is everyone else in the same bathtub giving each other sensual back rubs before slipping into silk dragon kimonos. It is sincere. It's real. It's an all filler-no killer instant classic of a nostalgia you can't even begin to unravel. The project once a solo affair is now a power-trio featuring funky starship troopers Guillaume Mobstaire and beloved cult-hero Mathis (Police Control, Skategang) in the shuttle. And as they blast off into cyberspace they toss this their first greatest hits out of the cockpit and into your hands.

$18.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Printed under sleeve; includes download code. A pop star who turned his back to show business to become an independent artist, steered by the revolutionary ideas of his wife Jacqueline in 1960s France; these are the outlines of Henri Salvador's unusual musical career. At 50, Salvador starts experimenting with synths and drum machine, multi-track recorders and altered voice collages. He takes up editing and mixing, and solitarily makes songs for young and old from his home in Paris' Place Vendôme. Seventy years of music, a thousand of creations of all styles. Sometimes associated to ye-ye singers, he's also known to have brought rock to France (in 1956, with Boris Vian). As a kid he picks up the guitar without any theoretical basics and becomes so talented he plays with Django Reinhardt. The 30s are the years of his training; the 40s of his emancipation within musical ensembles which are to see his talents flourish. He finds his public and perfects his tricks: laughter and seduction. In the 50s he rediscovers the songs of the islands where he grew up, revisits jazz, swing, blues and sings for children. Jacqueline shapes and emancipates him. When they marry in 1950, she's a quiet and cultivated young lady who's to progressively take charge of his career. Ever reinventing themselves, the Salvadors intend to do without studios, engineers, producers and musicians altogether. "Siffler en travaillant" ("Whistle While You Work") is a brilliant reinterpretation of one of Snow White's theme song, which a young Salvador had already performed with Ray Ventura's Orchestra in the 40s; "Hello Mickey", a catchy, spirited ska; "J'aime tes g'noux", a great cover of Shirly and Co's "Shame shame shame"; on "Un jour mon prince viendra", he makes a beat borrowed from Suicide and a Les Paul solo collide. Meanwhile Rigolo also releases less family-oriented singles. Salvador takes up eroticism, the financial crisis, and the negotiations between the US and Vietnam. In 1975 Jacqueline is diagnosed with a cancer. As she manages, decides and initiates everything, Rigolo starts idling. Weary and beat, Henri doesn't feel like playing in his empty house anymore. He lets all of their projects die out: the TV show, the label, the musical editions, the PAM. Together with Jacqueline, Henri Salvador should've set an example for other artists: one of independence against an unfair and unyielding system. An inspiration not to end up enslaved by contracts signed too early, or to feed a bunch of comatose owners clenching onto millions of publishing rights. Includes liner notes French and English by Guido from Acid Arab.

$17.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed under sleeve and download code. When you decide to get a degree at university, like chief songwriter Emile Cartron-Eldin, music goes on hold. When you don't have enough dollars for that overpriced repressed LP the record store puts it on hold behind the counter. This is: Music To Hold Onto! To cherish and adore, right here right now. After little shining stars of self-released cassette classics showing great promise of solid SF song writing Music On Hold deliver an album with strictly "only the hits" in updated graphics and soundbite studio wizardry... and amen! It's the shinning neon-color video game classic you never played in your youth in the arcades. You only dreamed about it after too many bong hits. You think you've heard these songs before? Ha! You've never heard them better brother. Gary Wilson called, and sung you a melody and the Human League stole the synth lines... then The Spits put lead guitar in slow-motion. HEY! Superior Viaduct just found another lost record by Departmentstore Santas... Hold on. No, they didn't... our trusted Born Bad Records just stumbled upon a collection of stone-cold classics laying behind the wall of VHS's and sent them to be remastered for the best Sunday drive of your life. This is a record for all four seasons in all TV colors and black and white nouvelle vague romance. The punk generation doesn't take shame in playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, they know all the cheats. This LP is the first baseball bat you take you a Ferrari parked outside a strip club. This is the flock of seagulls that exploded in the sky in multi-colored fireworks and came raining down into the ears of the youth in these troubled times before cocaine became boring... This isn't your ironic Japanese obi-tape cassette vaporwave sally, Music On Hold is everyone else in the same bathtub giving each other sensual back rubs before slipping into silk dragon kimonos. It is sincere. It's real. It's an all filler-no killer instant classic of a nostalgia you can't even begin to unravel. The project once a solo affair is now a power-trio featuring funky starship troopers Guillaume Mobstaire and beloved cult-hero Mathis (Police Control, Skategang) in the shuttle. And as they blast off into cyberspace they toss this their first greatest hits out of the cockpit and into your hands.

$17.50 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed under sleeve and download code. France, 1990. Fun Radio, NRJ, Skyrock set a new pace, and their crushing hegemony irrevocably marks the end of the free radio utopia. The giants become vital in the hit industry and carry on fueling France's greatest invention: la variété. A quintessentially French version of British dance pop with a very specific tang to it, too coy to emulate trendy clubs' and rave parties' music, europop cautiously tests the waters of what will soon turn into a tsunami: house music. Is house the soundtrack of the '90s? In Europe, it gave steam to comeback bands just as much as to the most memorable formations of the decade, while in France it paved the way for the global success of French Touch. "Real" house music emerges in early '80s Chicago (where the Warehouse club, which allegedly gave its name to the genre, closes down in 1983). England's acid house and Belgium's new beat, its European offshoots, fed the cravings of tabloids in 1988 and 1989. The house music we're interested in though, the type bound to soon overwhelm European charts, is already pretty far away from the Afro-American music born in Chicago. So far away it inherited a new name: dance music. Just like it had been the case with disco a few years back, house and techno aren't exactly in the good books -- acid house and new beat even less so. And it's precisely the genre's mainstream iteration this compilation focuses on; the house en français, which strives to get on board the running train in 1990. The house which sports the all-over jean look, bandana, cap, chewing gum, Peugeot 205 complete with snazzy beats on the radio. The big deal big fuss type, miles away from the original, underground house. It might not have been born in the '90s, but that's clearly when house music became mainstream. Music producers propose their very own club versions, cross breeding French variété and house. The result: a chart and club ready ersatz that is to quickly seduce young audiences. The tracklist, like the soundtrack to a club night that never happened, fictitiously reconstructs the fleeting moment when house made its arrival in France, bridging the gap between variété and Eurodance. Features Marie Touchet, Michel Moers, Anne Zamberlan, Thalie, Histoires de Filles, Fred de Fred, Techno90, Jean-François Maurice, Claire An, and Artiste Inconnu.

$8.00 IN STOCK

After the release of last year's Ferarock most played When Will The Flies In Deauville Drop (BORNBAD 111CD/LP, 2019), Le Villejuif Underground decided to do absolutely nothing for a year, and took an early retirement. A 20-date tour of Europe was cancelled the day before! Their separation was announced on TV5 Monde and to one confused journalist from Liberation. A few months later, a song for a world-renowned fashion label wasn't completed in time for the catwalk and instead members got sloppy drunk, and fought in the streets of Paris whilst their singer was lost somewhere in the Sahara Desert with passport issues. Opportunities lost! Bridges burnt! All dreams destroyed! Many thought they would never come back, others didn't even notice, but whether you like it or not Le Villejuif Underground are back, with a two-song single out on the only home that will have them, Born Bad Records. Listeners: This is Villejuif in surround sound high definition! "Ghost Of The Water" is a hallucination of alcoholism, from different shaky view points and sounds like a sci-fi space/opera Lee Hazlewood western if soundtracked by a collaboration between The UV Race/The Strokes 2001: Space Odyssey. "Les Huitres a Cancale", is a Kenneth Koch-like animal call to stalkers, and strangers out there on the loose in the "moi aussi" generation and rolls like an ageing Gainsbourg slow dancing on codeine, a druggy ballad for the tranquilized. And just when you thought the world of music had ended, Le Villejuif Underground is back from retirement! "The more medicated, The more dedicated."

$14.00 IN STOCK

France, which welcomed Omar Sharif's first feature films outside of Egypt, produced a delirious amount of music of Latin or Middle Eastern inspiration, grouped behind the genre named "typical". This "typical" production is enough to scare away the most motivated and adventurous of listeners: overabundant and often blurry versions, anonymous performers, and only a few noteworthy songs. Venturing into the moving waters of orchestral music undoubtedly causes disappointment, but one can find a few cha-cha-cha pearls played in a Cuban or Middle Eastern style. The Cha-Cha au Harem compilation offers a tender vision of pre-sexual revolution Gaullian France. Including all the stereotypes on exotic countries; culinary specialties, sensual oriental dances, exaggerated accents, bewitching chants performed on minor Hungarian scales by European instruments accompanied by percussion of an unknown origin. Bob Azzam, an Egyptian singer of Lebanese origin, made it popular in 1960 with "Mustapha" and "Fais-moi du Couscous, Chérie" (Make me Couscous, Darling). Léo Clarens the French-born Caliph of Francophone oriental Cha-Cha-Cha is omnipresent in this compilation, under his various stage names. In Paris, he recorded his first records for the Philips label in the 1950s thanks to the famous Jacques Canetti. Apart from his recordings under various pseudonyms (Kemal Rachid, the Kili-Cats), the Marseille musician became a popular arranger, in particular for Michel Sardou. Clarens was not the only one to give in to oriental cha-cha-cha. A number of musicians threw themselves to the task, most often with mediocre results, but with a few nice surprises such as Benny Benett or Los Cangaceiros. Benett is a jazz drummer, he discovered Cuban music through his first wife Cathalina. From then on, he recorded mambos, calypsos, boleros and cha-cha-cha including their oriental variations with the excellent "Couscous" and "Ismaëlia". Los Cangaceiros were a Paris based band led by Yvan Morice. The omnipresence of percussion and drums on "Oriental Express" gives us some indication of Roger Morris's favorite instrument: the drums. He published half a dozen EPs, mainly for the Homère label, as well as two albums, one typical of the early sixties (Surprise Party 2) and a second, Library at L'Illustration Musicale. Raymond Lefèvre's career was much better documented. Present on this compilation thanks to his reinterpretation of the Lawrence of Arabia theme written by the great Maurice Jarre (father of Jean Michel) in a Bolero style. Also features Zina Nahid, Fred Adison Et Son Orchestre, Kemal Rachid Et Ses Ottomans, Staiffi Et Ses Mustafa's, Los Matecoco, Trio Joroca, Mohammed Ben Abdel Kader, and Ali Baba Et Son Ensemble. CD version includes 12-page booklet..

$14.00 IN STOCK

A tax haven and dream destination for wealthy travelers, the Republic of Mauritius is a multi-ethnic country that is currently experiencing full economic and social ascension. Banking, textile, tech, tourism industries... in this fast-paced melting pot, business is strong. But not too far from the heavenly beaches and luxurious hotels are quasi-shantytowns, reminding us that a large part of the population, often Creole (of Afro-Malagasy origin) are still excluded from the "economic miracle of Mauritius." These Creoles are mostly descendants of slaves who were deported in mass in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from Madagascar and the East African coast for the cultivation of spices and coffee and later sugar cane. On the margins of these hellish plantations was secretly created a music called tchiega, chéga or tsiega, a distant cousin of the blues. The music from Mauritius in the '70s found on this compilation naturally evolved from this original sega. Created at the crossroads of Afro-Malagasy, Western and Indian cultures, pop, soul and funk arrangements, syncopated ternary polyrhythms, saturated guitars, psychedelic organs and Creole vocals, this musical phenomenon is as incredible as a tropical flower in bloom. Although the origins of sega remain quite unknown, it is known that it contains vocal and percussive practices that originated from Madagascar, Mozambique, and East Africa. A social escape and a space for improvisation, satire, and verbal jousting, it transcended everyday life and made room for the expression of conflicts and the transgression of taboos. Inseparable from dance, sega is thus exposed as part of a pair: bodies brush against each other, stare at each other, get excited but never touch each other. The main instrument of sega is the ravanne, a large tambourine-like drum made of a large wooden frame and goat skin. It is accompanied by the maravanne, a rectangular rattle filled with seeds, and also often by a triangle, a bottle, a machete or any metal object that can be hit with a stick. Features Harold Berty, Ti L'Afrique, Claudio Veeraragoo, Paul Labonne, Georges Gabriel, The Features Of Life, Roland Fatime, Jean Claude Gaspard, Jos Henri, Coulouce, John Kenneth Nelson, Lelou Menwar, and Daniel Delord. CD version includes 24-page booklet.

$14.00 IN STOCK

The record starts out with an esoteric organ, a guitar straight out of a Western, a vibey rhythm section, a speeding saxophone, a glamorous voice, a curious keyboard, a slightly panicky tempo. "Please Mr Hitchock!" calls out a voice from the unknown, on an arrangement that's about to lose control. "Eins Zwei Drei", cries out Spartaco Andreoli, creator of the chachacha for tunas, lyrics that are absurd accompanying music that isn't so much so. "C'est bon ça dis donc!" (This is pretty good), suggest the Los Goragueros, at the start of their "Mambo Miam Miam" (Yum Yum). A smooth sax, a double bass that sways, and shattering percussions, this song anonymously written by Alain Goraguer is actually quite tasty. This arranger and pianist, who went on to write the indispensable Planète Sauvage (Wild Planet), is not the only one to have advanced half-masked in these tropical times. Tropical music and France go way back. The influential Brazilian musician Pixinguinha came through in 1922, the charismatic Cuban singer Rita Montaner triumphed a few years later, and the brilliant clarinetist Stellio from Martinique had everyone dancing through the night to the beguine. It's in bars where Don Marino Barreto's orchestra made the heyday of a surreal and carefree Paris. And after the Second World War, it started all over again. Rico's Creole Band was one of the great Creole orchestras to sway all of Paris, the Blomet Ball brought together the Afro-Caribbean communities, L'Escale became an essential dancing ground for lovers of Latin music, the pianist Eddie Warner was one of these pillars. Shortly after, the Los Machucambos, a South American band created in the Latin Quarter performed music between guajira and flamenco and its song "Pepito" marked the start of the trio's success. Chachacha was officially invented in the early 1950s by Enrique Jorrin, soon followed by the pachanga, becoming a staple of black-and-white films. This Chachacha affair is emblematic of the atypical history of popular music, that of back-alleys, far from the paths and furrows of glory. In terms of Latin music, these records that were patiently found in flea markets are becoming a rarity. These 7-inch vinyl records were recorded at Barclay, Vogue and company -- low-consumption products intended to supply the shelves of budding suburban supermarkets. Features Cassius Simon, Spartaco Andreoli, Billy's Sax, Los Albinos, Los Goragueros, Rol Basti, Gillian Hills, Spartaco Sax, Norman Maine, Les Bretelles, Los Chiquitos, Norman Maine, Jack Ary, Henri Salvador & Jean Yanne, Les Gouapes A Musique, Los Cangaceiros, and Les Kili Cats.

$14.00 IN STOCK

Maxi 12" with remixes of Vox Low. The ethics of Tolouse Low Trax alias Detlef Weinrich stands out in his multiple releases on labels such as Idle Press, Infiné, Karaoke Kalk, Kunstkopf, Neubau, Themes For Great Cities, Antinote, or Cómeme. The German producer is no newcomer to the scene: still an active member of Kreidler and Toresch, he is the man behind the famous Düsseldorf Salon des Amateurs. Since 2010, the French trio of Abschaum, led by Chris Poincelot, has been navigating wilderness terrain. As if to better release the subtle tension of their music: a definitely krautrock heritage mixed, intrigued, blended with the influences of a raging Alan Vega. Hypnotic, synthetic loops, saturated riffs and black voice, Abschaum, "vermin" in German, has cradled his ears to the sounds of Spacemen 3, Ash Ra Tempel, and Can. Cédric Marszewski, aka Pilooski, started as a sound designer for Radio France. Later, he joined the journalists Guillaume Sorge and Clovis Goux of the D*I*R*T*Y collective. Cédric has published numerous remixes under the name Pilooski for Bryan Ferry, LCD Soundsystem, Tame Impala, Jarvis Cocker, Nina Simone, Alain Chamfort, Mark E. Smith Von Sudenfed, also Metronomy, Yelle, and Joakim. Boss of the label Evrlst.inc and of the famous record store of the same name in Nice, Orestt is also a rare and emeritus producer. A handful of EPs have been released under his name, notably on I'm A Cliché, Cosmo Vitelli's label. His first "remix" is here and it's in the same vein as his productions: synthetic, dark, and hypnotic.

$14.00 IN STOCK

Cyril Cyril stirs the snow globe, Helvet underground as they are called. Cyril Cyril's Sunday is a trance, you arrive, people gather. The samples vocals, hesitates, moans a little, Miami Beach, OK let's go. This is how Cyril Cyril introduce their new album Yallah Mickey Mouse. Once again, they take back their instruments and their roots with their ruffled tips. It is not about untangling. The sonorities are sculpted in vibrating marbles with indocile fossils. A visionary sonic narration, an invitation to an unorganized journey. Multiple influences are called on in the frame of this project of personal emanations and studio research. A tribute to the friends of Hyperculte in memory of an Egyptian camel, winks to the phrasing of Cha Cha Guitry, to the animal of Gerard Manset or to the hand of Indochine. Cyril Bondi is at the drums with his custom instruments, his body is trained to the groove of the wizards, and the fanfare of delirious insects starts. Cyril Yeterian is on the banjo or on the electric guitar. His storyteller's voice, that has travelled time and migrations, resumes the stories suspended since our last meeting. Cyril Cyril carries our voices, including the ones of those who are no longer here. They come back, it's crazy how modern they are, and then without embarrassment too, without embarrassment and generous, happy to be able to regain a little youth, it looks lost, they sing. Cyril Cyril carries their voices. Reeds, hands, undulate, breathe, like this music. Cyril Cyril carries our bodies. The ternary scale of our emotions and our smiles that come back. The wave makes you lose control, but the harmonies gently overtake this feeling as you lay on the sand. Also, the irony. The figures of power, the small march of insects accompanies them while laughing, these presidents. And always the surprise, bells ring in all you ears, eyes, and hands. Cyril Cyril carries your senses. Cyril Cyril opens your mind. You resonate more and more, you get more and more entangled, everything intertwines, the sounds and their lights. The psychedelic organ melody accompanies the voice which rises in the higher frequencies, the percussions encourage you. You accelerate the pulsation, you get closer and stomp together, you want the head of Mickey Mouse. Echoes of bird songs, of a bestiary. You are animals, the carnival of animals.

$14.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Printed under sleeve; includes download. It's not easy mapping Marietta's journey -- one of the key players of the GrandeTriple Alliance De l'Est, an anarchic scene which exploded between Metz and Strasbourg in the early 2000s, fronting bands such as A.H. Kraken, Plastobéton, and The Feeling Of Love. In 2015, he released his first solo album, Basement Dreams Are The Bedroom Cream (BORNBAD 074CD/LP, 2015), an amazing collection of 4-track twisted lullabies who got him comparisons with Syd Barrett and John Frusciante. Then comes his second LP and suddenly, no more of that sweet demo sounding folky weirdness: La Passagère (BORNBAD 097CD/LP, 2017) was recorded in Los Angeles with Chris Cohen and it's a lush and mesmerizing record. Richer and fuller than the two previous records, Prazepam St. is also, paradoxically, unabashed and easier to grasp. "I wanted to have fun," says Marietta. "Build a dark and bright world with my little hands and raw material, like David Lynch when he did Eraserhead" -- one of the main keys to the album. It is also, more involuntarily a synthesis -- there's the raw side of the first album, that more flamboyant and ambitious of the second, but also small pieces of AH Kraken, Feeling Of Love and even Funk Police. Marietta went back to some of his teenage years favorite records -- Sonic Youth, Beck, Nirvana, the Beastie Boys, but also Jim O'Rourke or David Pajo. Prazepam St. is also a dark and twisted record, as its title shows -- a reference to an anxiolytic used for severe depression. "I have often tried to speak in my lyrics of the way the human mind works, of our contradictions, of our inner darkness," explains Marietta. "And this time I wanted to bring the lexical field of drugs into my texts. Our body and mind are shaped by these substances that we use and abuse and I wanted to play with that. It's a chemical album." Proof made with "DMPA", a molecule used as a chemical castrator on American sex offenders, transformed here into a battered folk song crushed by samples, rhythm machines and breaks from outer space. Or "Aluminum", a solid and shiny but highly harmful element, like the incandescent ride full of rumbling synths, which opens the album.

$17.50 IN STOCK

LP version. Includes six-page booklet and download code. Without warning, a group of young girls from a remote region of Benin is shaking up the world of garage rock with breathtaking freshness, ingenuity and energy, playing spot-on, loud and clear. A musician named André Baleguemon decided to form an exclusively female band rooted in the concerns of its time. He puts the spotlight on the guitar, drums, and keyboard, instruments he has admired since his childhood, symbols of modernity in this remote region. Originally from Tchaourou, a vast commune located in central eastern Benin, André Balaguemon developed a passion for music at a very young age. During the 1990s, he joined the Sam 11 Orchestra in Parakou, in the northeastern part of the country. In 1999, he spent some time in Cotonou before settling in the northwest, in order to reconnect with his roots and musical passions. On July 25th, 2016, with the support of the city of Natitingou, André launched a press release on Nanto FM offering to help train girls in music for free. Since the independence era, having your own instruments has always been the prerequisite of any self-respected African orchestra. The girls have already performed dozens of concerts in the region, forging and expanding an already solid repertoire, while attracting an ever-increasing local audience. In addition to musical progress, he has been personally involved with each family, showing them the importance of his project, both musically and humanly and in particular the fact that each girl must remain in school and not be forced into marriage. There are very few female bands in the history of popular African music. If the Amazones de Guinée, la Famille Bassavé, and les Colombes de la Révolution in Burkina, the Soeurs Comoë in Ivory Coast or the Lijadu Sisters in Nigeria notably come to mind, Star Feminine Band has no equivalent in Benin. The originality, carefree attitude, freedom, and above all the talent of these young girls is undeniable. At the end of 2018, their encounter with the young French sound engineer Jérémie Verdier accelerated the course of things. On a mission in the region, he called on his Spanish friends Juan Toran and Juan Serra who showed up with their recording equipment in order to record the band's first songs in the annex of the local museum. Random encounters and fate led Jean-Baptiste Guillot to hear the tapes.

$17.50 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Includes printed undersleeve and download code; liner notes in French and English. France, which welcomed Omar Sharif's first feature films outside of Egypt, produced a delirious amount of music of Latin or Middle Eastern inspiration, grouped behind the genre named "typical". This "typical" production is enough to scare away the most motivated and adventurous of listeners: overabundant and often blurry versions, anonymous performers, and only a few noteworthy songs. Venturing into the moving waters of orchestral music undoubtedly causes disappointment, but one can find a few cha-cha-cha pearls played in a Cuban or Middle Eastern style. The Cha-Cha au Harem compilation offers a tender vision of pre-sexual revolution Gaullian France. Including all the stereotypes on exotic countries; culinary specialties, sensual oriental dances, exaggerated accents, bewitching chants performed on minor Hungarian scales by European instruments accompanied by percussion of an unknown origin. Bob Azzam, an Egyptian singer of Lebanese origin, made it popular in 1960 with "Mustapha" and "Fais-moi du Couscous, Chérie" (Make me Couscous, Darling). Léo Clarens the French-born Caliph of Francophone oriental Cha-Cha-Cha is omnipresent in this compilation, under his various stage names. In Paris, he recorded his first records for the Philips label in the 1950s thanks to the famous Jacques Canetti. Apart from his recordings under various pseudonyms (Kemal Rachid, the Kili-Cats), the Marseille musician became a popular arranger, in particular for Michel Sardou. Clarens was not the only one to give in to oriental cha-cha-cha. A number of musicians threw themselves to the task, most often with mediocre results, but with a few nice surprises such as Benny Benett or Los Cangaceiros. Benett is a jazz drummer, he discovered Cuban music through his first wife Cathalina. From then on, he recorded mambos, calypsos, boleros and cha-cha-cha including their oriental variations with the excellent "Couscous" and "Ismaëlia". Los Cangaceiros were a Paris based band led by Yvan Morice. The omnipresence of percussion and drums on "Oriental Express" gives us some indication of Roger Morris's favorite instrument: the drums. He published half a dozen EPs, mainly for the Homère label, as well as two albums, one typical of the early sixties (Surprise Party 2) and a second, Library at L'Illustration Musicale. Raymond Lefèvre's career was much better documented. Present on this compilation thanks to his reinterpretation of the Lawrence of Arabia theme written by the great Maurice Jarre (father of Jean Michel) in a Bolero style. Also features Zina Nahid, Fred Adison Et Son Orchestre, Kemal Rachid Et Ses Ottomans, Staiffi Et Ses Mustafa's, Los Matecoco, Trio Joroca, Mohammed Ben Abdel Kader, and Ali Baba Et Son Ensemble.

$23.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Double LP version. Includes printed undersleeve and download code. Ever since the late 1950s bossa-nova revolution, Brazil's influence on French music has been undeniable. Pierre Barouh, Georges Moustaki, and a vast array of lesser known artists, all made the Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) an axis of promotion at the service of a cool and metaphysical, modern and mixed Brazilian lifestyle. Some were seduced by the poetic languor of the bossa, some were looking for fun, and others just loved the American hybridization of jazz-bossa, jazz-samba. With emotion, arrangements for violin and supple guitar licks, bossa nova rapidly changed. A transformation that can be heard in the Tchic Tchic: French Bossa Nova 1963-1974 compilation, the result of a cultural reappropriation, which traveled through the United States and supplemented itself in France. A musical revolution that has remained significant, bossa nova was born in Rio. From 1956 to 1961, Brazil lived through its golden years. In five years, the country had invented its modernist style. American jazzmen then took over. In particular, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Byrd. In November 1962, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a "Bossa-Nova" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, inviting the genre's pioneers. In Brazil, the 1964 military coup quickly ended this euphoria. The destructive atmosphere that ensued pushed many Brazilian musicians to leave, if not to exile. Thus, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes, and Joao Gilberto arrived to the United States. In New York, Joao Gilberto met saxophonist Stan Getz. At the time, he was married to the Bahianese Astrud Weinert Gilberto, who had a German father. She had never sung before, but she knew how to speak English. Getz therefore asked her to replace her husband on "The Girl From Ipanema". The Getz/Gilberto record with Tom Jobim on piano, was released in March 1964. Phil Ramone, the "pope of pop" was in charge of sound. Bossa nova arrived in Paris through the classic "guitar-voice" channel. But France loved jazz and Paris had already welcomed its American contributors. Features Les Masques, Isabelle Aubret, Christianne Legrand, Jean Constantin, Billy Nencioli & Baden Powell, Marpessa Dawn, Jean-Pierre Sabar, Sophia Loren, Isabelle, Sylvia Fels, Frank Gérard, Ann Sorel, Charles Level, Andrea Parisy, Audrey Arno, Aldo Frank, Clarinha, Hit Parade des Enfants, Jean-Pierre Lang, Magalie Noël, and Françoise Legrand.

$14.00 IN STOCK

Ever since the late 1950s bossa-nova revolution, Brazil's influence on French music has been undeniable. Pierre Barouh, Georges Moustaki, and a vast array of lesser known artists, all made the Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) an axis of promotion at the service of a cool and metaphysical, modern and mixed Brazilian lifestyle. Some were seduced by the poetic languor of the bossa, some were looking for fun, and others just loved the American hybridization of jazz-bossa, jazz-samba. With emotion, arrangements for violin and supple guitar licks, bossa nova rapidly changed. A transformation that can be heard in the Tchic Tchic: French Bossa Nova 1963-1974 compilation, the result of a cultural reappropriation, which traveled through the United States and supplemented itself in France. A musical revolution that has remained significant, bossa nova was born in Rio. From 1956 to 1961, Brazil lived through its golden years. In five years, the country had invented its modernist style. American jazzmen then took over. In particular, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Byrd. In November 1962, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a "Bossa-Nova" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, inviting the genre's pioneers. In Brazil, the 1964 military coup quickly ended this euphoria. The destructive atmosphere that ensued pushed many Brazilian musicians to leave, if not to exile. Thus, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes, and Joao Gilberto arrived to the United States. In New York, Joao Gilberto met saxophonist Stan Getz. At the time, he was married to the Bahianese Astrud Weinert Gilberto, who had a German father. She had never sung before, but she knew how to speak English. Getz therefore asked her to replace her husband on "The Girl From Ipanema". The Getz/Gilberto record with Tom Jobim on piano, was released in March 1964. Phil Ramone, the "pope of pop" was in charge of sound. Bossa nova arrived in Paris through the classic "guitar-voice" channel. But France loved jazz and Paris had already welcomed its American contributors. Features Les Masques, Isabelle Aubret, Christianne Legrand, Jean Constantin, Billy Nencioli & Baden Powell, Marpessa Dawn, Jean-Pierre Sabar, Sophia Loren, Isabelle, Sylvia Fels, Frank Gérard, Ann Sorel, Charles Level, Andrea Parisy, Audrey Arno, Aldo Frank, Clarinha, Hit Parade des Enfants, Jean-Pierre Lang, Magalie Noël, and Françoise Legrand. CD version includes 24-page booklet with liner notes in French and English.

$17.50 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Includes six-page booklet and download code. A tax haven and dream destination for wealthy travelers, the Republic of Mauritius is a multi-ethnic country that is currently experiencing full economic and social ascension. Banking, textile, tech, tourism industries... in this fast-paced melting pot, business is strong. But not too far from the heavenly beaches and luxurious hotels are quasi-shantytowns, reminding us that a large part of the population, often Creole (of Afro-Malagasy origin) are still excluded from the "economic miracle of Mauritius." These Creoles are mostly descendants of slaves who were deported in mass in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from Madagascar and the East African coast for the cultivation of spices and coffee and later sugar cane. On the margins of these hellish plantations was secretly created a music called tchiega, chéga or tsiega, a distant cousin of the blues. The music from Mauritius in the '70s found on this compilation naturally evolved from this original sega. Created at the crossroads of Afro-Malagasy, Western and Indian cultures, pop, soul and funk arrangements, syncopated ternary polyrhythms, saturated guitars, psychedelic organs and Creole vocals, this musical phenomenon is as incredible as a tropical flower in bloom. Although the origins of sega remain quite unknown, it is known that it contains vocal and percussive practices that originated from Madagascar, Mozambique, and East Africa. A social escape and a space for improvisation, satire, and verbal jousting, it transcended everyday life and made room for the expression of conflicts and the transgression of taboos. Inseparable from dance, sega is thus exposed as part of a pair: bodies brush against each other, stare at each other, get excited but never touch each other. The main instrument of sega is the ravanne, a large tambourine-like drum made of a large wooden frame and goat skin. It is accompanied by the maravanne, a rectangular rattle filled with seeds, and also often by a triangle, a bottle, a machete or any metal object that can be hit with a stick. Features Harold Berty, Ti L'Afrique, Claudio Veeraragoo, Paul Labonne, Georges Gabriel, The Features Of Life, Roland Fatime, Jean Claude Gaspard, Jos Henri, Coulouce, John Kenneth Nelson, Lelou Menwar, and Daniel Delord.

$10.00 NOT IN STOCK

You heard him first on WIZZZ Vol. 2 (BORNBAD 013CD/LP) with the explosive "Maintenant je suis un voyou (Now I'm a hoodlum)." Here he is again, with his full EP never released before. But, let's go back in time... In early 1967, Bruno Leys was attending medical school in Paris. Driving back to the university with a friend, Bruno sang along nonchalantly with the songs on the radio. His friend was surprised to discover his lovely voice and encouraged him to audition for a group composed of friends from the university who were looking for a singer. Bruno was not selected for the group, but became friends with one of its members, Emmanuel Pairault. Emmanuel had been studying economics, but decided to enter the music conservatory instead, to learn the drums and the use of the illustrious Ondes Martenot, a primitive electronic musical instrument. He composed a few solo numbers, remarkable for their use of that instrument. Looking for someone to write lyrics to go with his instrumental tracks, he asked Bruno to try a few. Bruno and Emmanuel thereby put together a small repertoire, with no ambition other than to have fun. Although the details are now forgotten, they worked hard to bring their song to the attention of Nicole Croisille (a singer and actress), who suggested sending the demo to her friend Norbert Saada, who headed a label called La Compagnie. This unprecedented use of the Ondes Martenot in a pop song attracted Saada, who offered to make a record. Emmanuel quickly assembled a small team to make the recording. The sessions took place at Dominique Blanc Francart's studio on rue de la Gaîté in Paris, with Bernard Lubat on percussion, François Rabath on stand-up bass, Jimenez and Jean-Pierre Dariscuren playing guitar, Emmanuel Pairault and Sylvain Gaudelette on the Ondes Martenot, not to mention Bruno on vocals. Four tracks were recorded for the EP: "Maintenant je suis un voyou," "Eve," "Hallucinations," and "Galaxie." With the sessions completed, Bruno left for his obligatory military service and thus lost control over things. Saada pressed a promotional 45 in an attempt to find a licensing deal in Canada, to no avail. A real collector's item, this 45 includes "Maintenant je suis un voyou" and "Galaxie." Back from his military service, Bruno learned that Saada had gone out of business and sold his catalog, putting an end to any hope of issuing the EP (1969). "Eve" has never before appeared on a record.

$16.50 IN STOCK

An ultimate testimony to adolescent rage and the spirit of rock n' roll, these eight songs by Les Blousons Noirs (Black Jackets) are essential to understanding what rock music is and what it should always be: determined, primitive and wild. Originally from Bordeaux, Les Blousons Noirs seem to have bought their instruments the morning of their recording session: the singer sings out of time, the drummer is feverish and the guitarist a total whack. Nothing is repressed with Les Blousons Noirs. Their enthusiasm and carefree attitude are such that the songs are delightfully exuberant. Their two unusually unique EPs were released in 1961 (Special Rock) and 1962 (Special Twist) on the Guilain label. And as a French band, they quite naturally decided to cover French rock standards... slaying them with enthusiasm. Les Chaussettes Noires (The Black Socks), Les Chats Sauvages (The Wild Cats), and two of Johnny Hallyday's songs were thus brought to the spotlight. The only original track was "Les Fous Du Twist" (Crazy for the Twist) written by their young producer Claude Ghislain. For the record, their "Eddy Soit Bon" (Eddy be Good) was originally Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Good". The fact that they used the same picture for the cover of both EPs reinforces the feeling of total uselessness and "don't give a fuck" attitude that is so often embraced by rock n' roll. Les Blousons Noirs were forerunners of the French punk and DIY scenes. Remember that it wasn't until 1964 that Hasil Adkins published his "She Said", 1965 that the Peruvians of Los Saicos put out "Demolicion", and 1966 that the Legendary Stardust Cowboy delivered his killer "Paralysed". The Shaggs and their late Philosophy Of The World in '69 were too late to the game. In order to become a band with a cult following, all Les Blousons Noirs had to do was remain anonymous. Our investigations to try and identify these rock n' rollers were futile. The only information regarding the identity of Les Blousons Noirs comes from Marc Liozon (Editor-in-Chief of the club des années 60 fanzine) who found a copy of the second EP dedicated to a certain Minie. This exposed that the band was comprised of Clod on lead guitar, Jo on rhythm guitar, Did on drums, and Samy on vocals -- a nice bunch! In short, no known identities, no concerts, no pictures, two insane EPs out of nowhere.

$11.00 IN STOCK

It's not easy mapping Marietta's journey -- one of the key players of the GrandeTriple Alliance De l'Est, an anarchic scene which exploded between Metz and Strasbourg in the early 2000s, fronting bands such as A.H. Kraken, Plastobéton, and The Feeling Of Love. In 2015, he released his first solo album, Basement Dreams Are The Bedroom Cream (BORNBAD 074CD/LP, 2015), an amazing collection of 4-track twisted lullabies who got him comparisons with Syd Barrett and John Frusciante. Then comes his second LP and suddenly, no more of that sweet demo sounding folky weirdness: La Passagère (BORNBAD 097CD/LP, 2017) was recorded in Los Angeles with Chris Cohen and it's a lush and mesmerizing record. Richer and fuller than the two previous records, Prazepam St. is also, paradoxically, unabashed and easier to grasp. "I wanted to have fun," says Marietta. "Build a dark and bright world with my little hands and raw material, like David Lynch when he did Eraserhead" -- one of the main keys to the album. It is also, more involuntarily a synthesis -- there's the raw side of the first album, that more flamboyant and ambitious of the second, but also small pieces of AH Kraken, Feeling Of Love and even Funk Police. Marietta went back to some of his teenage years favorite records -- Sonic Youth, Beck, Nirvana, the Beastie Boys, but also Jim O'Rourke or David Pajo. Prazepam St. is also a dark and twisted record, as its title shows -- a reference to an anxiolytic used for severe depression. "I have often tried to speak in my lyrics of the way the human mind works, of our contradictions, of our inner darkness," explains Marietta. "And this time I wanted to bring the lexical field of drugs into my texts. Our body and mind are shaped by these substances that we use and abuse and I wanted to play with that. It's a chemical album." Proof made with "DMPA", a molecule used as a chemical castrator on American sex offenders, transformed here into a battered folk song crushed by samples, rhythm machines and breaks from outer space. Or "Aluminum", a solid and shiny but highly harmful element, like the incandescent ride full of rumbling synths, which opens the album. CD version includes 16-page booklet.

$14.00 IN STOCK

Without warning, a group of young girls from a remote region of Benin is shaking up the world of garage rock with breathtaking freshness, ingenuity and energy, playing spot-on, loud and clear. A musician named André Baleguemon decided to form an exclusively female band rooted in the concerns of its time. He puts the spotlight on the guitar, drums, and keyboard, instruments he has admired since his childhood, symbols of modernity in this remote region. Originally from Tchaourou, a vast commune located in central eastern Benin, André Balaguemon developed a passion for music at a very young age. During the 1990s, he joined the Sam 11 Orchestra in Parakou, in the northeastern part of the country. In 1999, he spent some time in Cotonou before settling in the northwest, in order to reconnect with his roots and musical passions. On July 25th, 2016, with the support of the city of Natitingou, André launched a press release on Nanto FM offering to help train girls in music for free. Since the independence era, having your own instruments has always been the prerequisite of any self-respected African orchestra. The girls have already performed dozens of concerts in the region, forging and expanding an already solid repertoire, while attracting an ever-increasing local audience. In addition to musical progress, he has been personally involved with each family, showing them the importance of his project, both musically and humanly and in particular the fact that each girl must remain in school and not be forced into marriage. There are very few female bands in the history of popular African music. If the Amazones de Guinée, la Famille Bassavé, and les Colombes de la Révolution in Burkina, the Soeurs Comoë in Ivory Coast or the Lijadu Sisters in Nigeria notably come to mind, Star Feminine Band has no equivalent in Benin. The originality, carefree attitude, freedom, and above all the talent of these young girls is undeniable. At the end of 2018, their encounter with the young French sound engineer Jérémie Verdier accelerated the course of things. On a mission in the region, he called on his Spanish friends Juan Toran and Juan Serra who showed up with their recording equipment in order to record the band's first songs in the annex of the local museum. Random encounters and fate led Jean-Baptiste Guillot to hear the tapes. CD version includes 36-page booklet.