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Music

POPSOUNDS 004: Singing In French

Paris is not only beautiful but historically known for culture and the arts... so having recently taken the Eurostar across the waters, I was greatly determined to discover the sounds of something, anything Parisian. It was a little unfortunate to me that

Paris is not only beautiful but historically known for culture and the arts… so having recently taken the Eurostar across the waters, I was greatly determined to discover the sounds of something, anything Parisian. It was a little unfortunate to me that the last movement I remember coming from this lovely city was Blog House, but now even the definition on “neutral” Wikipedia has been removed from their files.

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Upon arriving I researched and asked around a bit, as well as checked out places I was recommended. Venues were surprisingly few and far between and a lot of new bands tend to play in hybrid coffee shops/bars with a minimalist stage and hardly any backline. It made me think that it may actually be the city itself that secures it as a difficult place to make music or create a innovative scene. Unlike back home in Brooklyn, Paris can be overly expensive and at present seems to lack a strong DIY culture; an obvious necessity for new acts to develop and grow beyond their own bedrooms.

Greatest Hits, a band from New York which took base in Paris for the summer, were trying to clarify their early experiences to me. Its main man Tyler Thacker explains, “When Greatest Hits first arrived to Paris, our record label, Maman Records, took us to a club for a record release party for the artist Break Bot. Despite the seemingly positive relationship between the DJs and the audience, I couldn't help but concern that maybe this was the peak of what French music might have to offer me. Some of my favorite skewed compilations of recent years had come from France: Bippp, IVG and Wizzz. Despite my fragmented French, this music struck me as filled with a sentiment informed by nostalgia for psychedelia, punk and new wave, but executed with the same type of ferocity to make it as relevant as anything that has come from the United States or Britain. Over the coarse of my summer in Paris, so far I failed to encounter a more provocative music of the youth than the post Daft Punk hangover that harassed my ear drums anytime I entered a club or bar.”

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Some of my favourite electronic acts were from here and these compilations he mentions, alongside movies like Le Brune et Moi show a real vibrancy did exist and develop… but why has it changed? Or at the very least become less obvious?

My French friends couldn’t explain it. Everyone just kept apologizing about the scene being “boring”… and so when I left Paris, I was a little disappointed. However, perhaps inspired by my confusion, Tyler dug deep into Paris and offered a glimpse of hope. He tells, “I finally have been clued into the scene of musicians shaking up the underground. These are a few of the groups I imagine will be regarded in hind sight as the most interesting and provocative music of it's time and place…”

Captain Wolf - Catholic Spray

Aqua Nebula Oscillator - Flying Saucer

Feeling of Love - Handicap Girl

Kill For Total Peace - Captain America

“Nice to know that in between some of the dance floor gibberish, there still exists the desire in young people to push the boundaries of instrument playing and recording.”

Indeed. I will have you next time, Paris.