Customer Reviews

So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983

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I came across this CD by surprise, but once I found out it was released only in France on the seminal TIGERSUSHI label, I knew it was gonna be good - and wasn't let down. A fascinating, eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and even highly-educational selection of the cream of the obscure, cult 70s/80s French electro/no-wave/synth-pop/punk movement - as compiled by BLACK STROBE's IVAN SMAGGHE - I know a lot of music, but many of these bands/singles I had never heard of, and they're all flawless in their own DIY way - if you like bands like The Normal, early Mute stuff, John Carpenter soundtracks, etc., this is for you!

This is really typical French cold wave stuff. This was a quite interesting period of the post-punk era when young french bands drew influences from Joy Division, Suicide and others to create something completely unique. Here the great lost tracks are those be the (hypothetical) Prophets like Person To Person. This band comprised Bernard Szajner wjo was a French synthesizer specialist who had also done some laser lighting for the Who if I am not wrong. There is some really great stuff on here that is impossible to get hold of otherwise.

Ministry and Peaches, Talking Heads and Fatboy Slim - I hear all these and more as seminal influences here in this very listenable CD, a snapshot of an apparently brilliant little epoch in early French synth-based pop.

What matters here is not the era but the songs, invariably good (whether your taste) and strikingly original and, moreover, very good-sounding by any era's standards. The vocals are quite affecting, at moments ethereal, at times just so European and hot.

There's real fire in some tracks - a drum machine and a moog synth pattern CAN really rock out and be downright sexy, coming from the right person's mind. That is the timeless triumph of the very good collected material on this disk.

love this compilation! ce tres tres incredible. This cd has some very rare tracks like the montreal based Mathematique moderne's 'disco rough' - i have the 12" that I have played since 1980. And Force Pt. 1 by Droids is a phenomenal track. if you like this sound I recommend the french space disco band Space, Rah Band, and Bombers.