I've featured Métal Urbain before, but I make no excuse for featuring them again as they really merit greater recognition outside France.
They were a genuinely innovative bunch, subverting even the conventions of the apparently subversive punk genre.
Synths were in the 70s tended to be the reserve of the well-heeled progressive, while many punk bands limited their musical horizons by sticking to a formula that ruled out innovation and experimentation as indulgence.
Métal Urbain saw the possibilities offered by the likes of drum machines and the opportunity to make something that was genuinely new rather than simply covering old ground.
Perhaps that's why their music still sounds fresh, while many of their contemporaries quickly lapsed into reheating a rock 'n' roll template that was establilshed decades before.
To the modern audience it is a reminder that Electro has its roots in Suicide as much as Depeche Mode.
This track initially appeared on the bands 1980 debut album Les Hommes Morts sont Dangereux. The band had only released singles up to that point, the album collecting them and adding Peel session recordings of other songs. This version came from the 2008 Crève Salope mini album, which featured re-recordings of early songs by the band.
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