Odieu, Jeff Bodart, Long Live The Party
The black loves ofO god
Unclassifiable artist. As he himself proclaims "Where to put me in the shelves Electro. Rock. Chanson. Classique". Since his debut in 1982, Didier Kengen (alias Odieu) has been collecting superlatives. But on the radio waves, Odieu is not really bludgeoned. It is true that between 0'34 and 6'21, his compositions are not really in the current caliber. And in the stores of record stores, it took five years to have this new album in your hands. Punk excess has been abandoned for electro-acoustics, recorded "at home", with the help of friends like Joseph Racaille (Alain Bashung) on the arrangements, DJ Deenasty on the scratches and the dough of Jean-Marie Aerts ( TC Matic, Arno) to production. But the texts are still chiseled. Real little jewels at the forefront of irreverence. The ear takes pleasure in circumventing all the curves of the tongue and getting lost in double meanings. The eroticism is of course present. Like this "let me get lost deep inside you" (Aquarium ) or this "no one wet, no one hard" (Nothing to wax). However, it would be hasty to classify "Black loves" in purely copulatory art. In this album, Odieu revisits all the variants of the feeling of love in tatters: loneliness (Belle soiree), disappointment (Cœur Brûlé), exclusion (Paulo), old age (Hélène), or the certainty of the impossible ( J'attends) which closes this opus with a simple observation, after all universal, "My throbbing who knocks tells me: you're talking nonsense". Not quite the last piece. Because Odieu couldn't resist adding, as a "bonus track", a "glory to my bank", in the form of a street rhyme, as corrosive as it is brief. ("Black Loves", Odieu, Franc'Amour / Sowarex)
You're nothing or you're someone Jeff Bodard
Could this fourth album bear witness to a certain rediscovered tranquillity? "I hope not, it's not for me" replies Jeff Bodart, laughing, he who, on stage, cannot stay in place for more than 2 minutes 30 minutes and loves climbing the poles of the tents. But “I don't like to make two albums that are alike”. The orchestration is, therefore, softer, more jazzy, no doubt more homogeneous as well. Alongside his two old accomplices Pierre (Julio) Gillet and Olivier Bodson, the little guy Jeff is indeed fully involved. “I rolled up my sleeves. I did the guitar, the harmonica, the keyboard and even the backing vocals... Before, I had backing vocals as long as the Danube. Now the backing vocals...it's me". However, achieving this harmony was not easy. "I had 40 titles in the boxes, 20 of which were mixed, ready to be engraved. It's a word that I don't like, used too much by companies, to throw people off. look at the texts of this album, we identify a common thread, around the reconstruction of the human being: "You will love me when I no longer love you", "Learn to leave everything", "To be or not to be ", "My life is a swing" without forgetting "you're nothing or you're someone", the eponymous title of the album, written by Pierre Delanoë. "He had this song in his drawers. said, like a great couturier, I'm going to cut it for you, you'll see it will fit you to measure". A faithful, Rudy Léonet, also musical director on Radio 21, also came to lend a hand for "Drink, drink , to drink”, a free adaptation of the German punk group Trio and also a nod to the album “Boire” by his friend Miossec, for which he wrote some lyrics (and vice versa). Finally, how not to mention “Canadair”, which will be released as a single this fall, a piece imbued with poetry and, apparently, very topical this summer in Europe. « « With my head still full of cicadas, I finally tore the azure and plunged like a postal hero towards the unknown towards the distance ». (at PiAS)
"Sleepless night" Long live the party
Fourth album also for this Flemish group which, once is not custom, does not sing, in English - like the majority of its corelegionaires - but in French. Mommens, former bassist of Deus, and Els Pynoo, a blonde bombshell, adore the muses of the 60s Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin as well as the two wordsmiths Jacques Dutronc and Serge Gainsbourg. Don't expect intense musical research. The background sound of this kitsch-pop group, as it readily defines itself, comes quite simply, around an electronic beat, closer to nocturnal parties and other techno parties, reinforced in concert by a lively and often delirious band. “Vive la fête” is above all a small acidulous voice, perched in the treble, 1980s Lio style. A voice that tortures your soul and goes into a spin and makes you dizzy. Simple, spare texts, sometimes reduced to one or two sentences sometimes, and all the more provocative – “Mr. President. Where is my money ? ",, " Makeup. I don't like » ... etc — which sometimes give off a desire to celebrate, to dream, or to revolt. Qualities that have seduced the couturier Karl Lagerfeld who entrusted Vive la Fête with the task of putting Chanel's autumn winter collection into his own. (at Lowlands)
Nicolas Gros-Verheyde (in Brussels) for Rfi Music
