Vive La France
The cover of Time Magazine caught the eye during the week. It read something like:
“Name a significant contemporary cultural figure from France”.
The idea being that you couldn’t.
I was with Leon at the time and we both agreed that Michel Houellbecq and Daft Punk both sprung to mind immediately. So the cover didn’t exactly work as they planned.
Houellbecq’s novels are JG Ballard respun with the all the modesty and prudishness of Serge Gainsbourg on a Viagra binge.
And Daft Punk just rule - even if their last proper album was a bit of a dud. The best bit was Robot Rock, and the best bit of Robot Rock came from this banging bit of psychedelic funk.
December 5th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
I dunno Luke — I had a bit of a Daft Punk epiphany last year (as I think many did) when I heard that live bootleg from Coachella — best live set I’ve heard in years! (Looking forward to seeing “Alive”, their new concert DVD)
Also, that rocky, choppy, filtered sound on Human After All now seems prescient, with Justice and the other the blog house acts building on it…
December 5th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Hey, this was anything but a Daft Punk dis (I did say that they rule) - but I did think the last album was a bit poor, I’ve hardly listened to it at all since it came out.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:30 am
The French are on a bit of a roll with the music. I’m always behind the curve, so I’m still only on the second Air album, but I like it. I also like JUSTICE.
I suppose that although Time said “cultural”, they really meant “literary”, given France’s past success in the field. Houellbecq always sounds pretty rubbish, but he is zeitgeisty. Do they have anyone else?
(wow, I have failed the moronic anti-spam test twice - I am spam)