To consider when punk rock started is to start a whole host of arguments, never mind the opening of cans of worms. Like the scientists still hearing the echoes of the Big Bang in space, it still echoes to this day. Yet what’s even more interesting than punk is the possibilities raised by the fall-out. Post-punk took the anyone can do it DIY attitude of punk and went further to show that contrary to the Sex Pistols’ ‘NO FUTURE!’ there most definitely is a future. Bridging the seventies into the eighties the ethos threw up a whole host of great bands, and twenty years later there was another great era of post-punk. All these things tend to wax and wane in the public consciousness, but in reality they are always there. And here we reach a new era…
Choses Sauvages are a French-speaking Montréal six-piece. They take the spirit and groove of a lot of post-punk and take it to the point on record where it’s – magically – chillout music and for the feet. No, really. Angular is the most over-used adjective around post-punk but that doesn’t apply here like it does on so many records of their ilk. Fifteen years ago some of this might have been labelled hypnagogic pop (if only that hadn’t become so unfairly ridiculed). Having released two earlier albums (snappily titled Choses Sauvages and Choses Sauvages II ) now we have the third album. It’s a fantastic record.
The band they most remind me of is Talking Heads. Yet here’s the clever thing: they combine the arty post-punk of records like Fear Of Music and Remain In Light with that band’s underrated second act as a high-quality pop act (Speaking In Tongues and Naked are the albums I hear most). Parallels might also be drawn with Metronomy, but leaving the comparisons behind, there’s just so much wonderful stuff to get your ears around on this record, and indeed the two previous ones, though this is definitely their most focused album yet.
Album opener ‘Fixe‘ (translation: ‘Still’) sets the tone here – post-punk, Jim, but not as we know it. While there’s genuinely not a duff track here (I’ve played this album several times), the highlights of the album are probably ‘Chaos Initial’ (‘Original Chaos‘) with a lead bassline that seems unusual for a song this chilled, and the album closer ‘Big Bang‘ with its Krautrock and techno inspirations. If some of you are worrying about the fact that they sing in French, you really should not let that put you off. Not because this is some kind of kitsch-Esperanto (some of us are still haunted by the memory of the ’90s act Sash), but because you can still appreciate the music. And (presumably) most people don’t struggle to cope with instrumental music because there’s nothing to sing along with.
This is likely to be one of the most beautiful and sublime records you will hear this year. Enjoy this spring weather we’re having and make this your soundtrack.
Magnifique!
