September 13th was a difficult day for me. I was trying to recover from my weekend at Bestival when I opened my laptop to be confronted with the horrible news that Dj Mehdi had died during the night. He was actually performing at Bestival two earlier but I decided not to go see him this time because, being part French, I was sure ‘I could see him whenever‘. The circumstances of his death where also dismaying if not entirely clear; all we know is that he fell to his death whilst celebrating the birthday of his close friend Riton.
I highly respect Mehdi for his contribution to music and especially for his ability to successfully bridge over between hip-hop and electronic music where most would have easily failed. His influence over the French scene is undeniable, be it during his hip hop era where he collaborated with leading French rappers such as Booba or McSolar or when entering the Ed Banger clan which led to some of the most amazing electronic tunes such as ‘Signatune‘ or ‘ I Am Somebody‘.
Ed Banger, arguably the best electronic label at the moment, has lost one of its stars and all my thoughts go to his family and friends. I hope that his devotion and love for music will be remembered and inspire a new generation of talented DJs both in France and worldwide who are able to bridge the gap between genres in the way that he did.
You don’t have to be a forty year old at their own over blown Birthday party, drunk on gin to sob ‘This song was written all about me!‘
Some songs can just do that to you. The lyrics can echo your own glory or misery and the chord progressions can conjure up those images of the suburban ‘The Wonder Years‘ style Super-8 home movies (If a little gnarlier and less cupcake) or of your first shag in the bushes with the girl who knew some pretty perverted stuff for her age. Or something.
The song I am referring to is ‘Beavis‘, off Boolfight‘s latest effort ‘Multiple Devils‘.
‘Multiple Devils‘ is atmospheric and charming, and turns my listening to it on a warm, picturesque day, lieing in long grass into a hazy and apocolyptic grim fairy tale.
Boolfight‘s mix electro with Smith‘s style rock to perfection. They drop angular guitars and modern synths in the pot, to add to the potency of Kelvin Manu‘s inner monologue of human psychology and a head full of…Well multiple devils. “Behind my eyes, they dance” he dreads.
He has the demeanor of Morrisey with the imagination and manic ravings of Ian Curtis, his mourneful vocals are an authorititive whisper until they can’t take the inner turmoil anymore and wails chorus’ like ‘Knock yourself out, you can switch to the override mode‘ from ‘Override‘.
Manu‘s vocals are perfectly entwined in the mix, encouraging the listener to really pick out the writings of this trio of talented artists.
What’s great about this album is that it could see 50 percent slotted neatly in an 80′s John Carpenter movie but evokes an ear for more modern sounds with the remaining percent that could see it opening a modern indie movie with hip-kids and lots of ‘pondering scenes‘ over night landscapes. I mean this of course, in the best way possible, this album has alot to it not least the optmistic M83-like opener ‘Oh Forget It‘, before we tumble into Boolfight’s eerie and beautfiul world.
Clocking in at a modest 20 odd minutes, the EP closes with the beautifully surreal ‘Everybody Makes The Music‘ summing up what is a fascinating effort that makes an enjoyable task of trying to describe it with phrases like inaccessibly beautiful.
Fans of The Libertines and/or Dirty Pretty Things should definately check out the competition Eurostar are currently hosting.
They are offering tickets to see Carl Barât live in Paris on the 5th of November. All you have to do to enter is answer a simple question: If you were in a band, which European city you would most like to ‘tour’ to and why?
Schaatz‘s purported backstory is so far-fetched that it deserves to be posted in full here:
“We are a french duo based in Paris, they grew up in a german hippie community in Grasse on French Riviera where they lived many love stories with several german naturist ladies, sadly the ladies left France when they had to get back on Germany to study something serious. Convinced than love is something serious to study, Mat and Tonio of Schaatz have lived for many years alone in the mountains of Alps and founded Schaatz“.
We have not yet decided if we are going to take the above statement at face value but what we do know is that, whether they are producing their own mixes or remixing other, we like Schaatz.
Gallic flair and one of the best live shows I witnessed in a long time meant Pascal Arbez, better known to the world as Vitalic, could not be missing from this list. ‘Flashmob‘, like its namesake, is a sudden and unexpected burst of fun.
Back in OctoberCougar Microbes boldly claimed “Vitalic as one of the world’s best techno/electro producers firmly placing his attitude and meticulous production betwixt Justice and Daft Punk, also fellow French pioneers of a genre that’s been invaded but resistant to futile try-hards.” Amen to that.
French producerGolden Bug‘s latest effort ‘Assassin’ has seen an official release on Bang Gang recently. The 12-inch is characterised by dirty bass and lots of attitude in a way that is not too dissimilar from fellow countrymen Daft Punk.
I was still spinning his remixes of GLOVES and Adam Freeland from earlier this year when the title track from ‘Assassin’ hit me with a surprise sneak attack and one of those neck breaking manoeuvres.
A couple of weeks ago I lost my notebook with all my pre-written reviews, notes and ideas for Cougar Microbes. I’m slowly re-writing the lot but it has meant updates have been less frequent than I was planning.
Easing back into the scheme of things here are The Wallpapers and their track ‘Waiting In A Coma‘. The Parisian upstarts are aged between 15 and 17 but have already caught the interest of US label Revel Music Group who snapped them up earlier this year and set them in a New York recording studio.
The band will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of other succesful French imports and conquer our airwaves.
At the end of August Eurostar and We Are Social sent me over to Paris to review Rock En Seine. Now they are offering a pair of tickets to Paris, Brussels or Lille to one lucky Cougar Microbes reader as part of their Little Break Big Difference campaign.
All you have to do is submit a review of your favourite band, album or concert experience, through the comments section of this post, using no more than 150 words.
Deadline for submission is the 10th of October, the best entries will be featured on the main site and the top one will win a pair of tickets.
The final selection is picked independently so though I will happily accept bribes they won’t help you.
to feature an array of amazing releases and artists (past, present, old and new) with the goal of promoting them to anyone interested and anyone who stumbles across this site.
If you like any of the tracks, please go buy the albums and help finance the artists producing this great music.
If there are any issues with the tracks featured do not hesitate to contact: "team (AT) Cougar Microbes (DOT) com and we will happily oblige.
