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French rock & roll is a sketchy proposition, and not just because of a language barrier. But the Luaka Bop folks are on to something here, tracking a nonrock, underground musical movement whose elements have little in common beyond the fact that 11 featured bands update such French folk music influences as musette, chansons, and the realist singers of the '30s and '40s, as well as figures like
Jacque Brel and
Serge Gainsbourg. The results are all over the map, from the rap-cabaret of Java to the French-African-leaning multiculturalism of Lo' Jo to the Tom Waits-like Arthur H. Not much in the way of electric instruments, though there is a dark, trip-hop bent to Mickey 3D and Arthur H. No translation is needed to pick up on what fun these bands are having, but someone's going to have to explain the recurring references to farm animals.
--Tad Hendrickson
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