La Femme - Foutre le Bordel

Another winner from La Femme, a band who have over a few years become one of this blog's favourite acts.

There's more than a little flavour of late 70s/early 80s electro-punk going on here, reminiscent of acts like Metal Urbain, Jacno or KaS Product. It's hard not to like it.

The eye-melting video was put together by the band themselves.

The new track follows the singles Cool Colorado and Disconnexion which came out in November and December last year.

Foutre le Bordel and the other two tracks all feature on their forthcoming third album Paradigmes, due out on April 2 and available to pre-order now.

La Femme: Live in the UK

There's a great opportunity this weekend to see one of France's best recent bands playing in the UK, with La Femme playing sets at both the Latitude festival in Suffolk today and at the Citadel festival in London on Sunday.

They've been playing festivals in mainland Europe over the past few days, in the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. After their visit here they play France, Hungary, Ireland and the Basque country.

Their Mystère album was one of the French music highlights of 2016, reaching the top ten in France.

A video for the track Elle ne t'aime pas was released in May.

Since their album release they've been playing live extensively, reinforcing their reputation as one of France's finest live acts.

It's a great opportunity to experience some of this in the UK this weekend.

La Femme at Main Square Festival

The world's certainly become a smaller place in recent years. Not that long ago an event like Main
Square Festival in Arras would have been something of a secret to an anglophone audience. 

Ignored by the music press, the fact that it attracts big names like Radiohead would have been an oddity, obviously just the bands 'warming up' for the proper festivals in the UK.

Besides, don't those European festivals feature those strange eurobands that no-one's heard of? Some of them don't even perform in English...

Thankfully time's moved on, and not only are some of France's festivals reaching out to an anglophone audience but they're making an effort to be not only televised but available to watch online so you can see for yourself what you're missing. And from watching this kind of coverage, who wouldn't want to go to a music festival like Main Square?

The prices compare favourably with the big ticket prices for UK events, the organisation surpasses many of the UK events, the food and drink are a cut above and the weather is almost always better.

This year's Main Square was a three day event at the cenre of the town that featured Radiohead, others included System of a Down, Biffy Clyro and Rag 'n' Bone Man. For those looking beyond the anglosphere, there were Jain, Thylacine and plenty of others, including La Femme, one of the finest acts operating in France at the moment.

La Femme are playing pretty much every summer festival in France over the summer. Even if you just go to see whatever anglo American acts are on the top of the bill, La Femme strongly make the case that there's more going on in Europe than just waiting for the big acts from over here to play over there.

La Femme: Sphynx ( Line of Best Fit session)

An acoustic session by La Femme for The Line of Best Fit, with the track Sphynx.

The song featured on the band's second album Mystère, released in September this year.

It was a much anticipated release, their Psycho Tropical Berlin debut from 2013 earning them a  Victoires de la Musique award as well as setting a  benchmark for 21st century French psych pop.

Mystère reached the top ten in France,  with three tracks including Sphynx released as singles.

It's a wonderful album, and surely a contender for French album of the year.

La Femme play in London later this week, with a show at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on Thursday November 17 .

Festival: La Route du Rock

The first ten names have been unveiled for this summer's La Route du Rock festival, the major music
event in Saint-Malo that takes place twice a year.

It's usually a well-chosen bill, and this year looks no exception. La Femme are at the top of the bill,  having just released the first track from their long-awaited second album.

Tindersticks, that most classy and Franco friendly act are also there.

Minor Victories, the band featuring Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite,Justin Lockey from  Editors and Rachel Goswell from Slowdive are playing.

Meanwhile,  indie veterans Lush appear after a 20 year absence. Their  forthcoming EP Blind Spot, due out next month, will be their first release in 20 years  since they announced their reformation last year.

Suuns, Kevin Morby, Julian Holter , Haelos and Rival Consoles are also on the bill, while more acts will be announced in coming months.

Brittany Ferries is offering UK music fans a package deal on transport and a three day pass with a camping pitch for the event at a very reasonable £155

2016's  La Route du Rock festival event on August 11 to August 14.

La Femme: Sphynx

A new track by La Femme, with the track Spyhnx emerging ahead of the release of their second album.

La Femme's debut, 2013's Psycho Tropical Berlin made a massive impression both artistically and commercially, earning them the breakthrough album award at the Victoires de la Musique Award in 2014.

The album was a berath of fresh air, the Biarritz-based act's take on psychedelic-informed electro rock a bold stand against musical blandness and a reminder, if we needed one, that cutting-edge French  music was by no means just the preserve of artists working in the field of dance music.

La Femme promise their new album will be "More everything", meaning "More guitar, more rock, more electro, more madness." I doubt they'll disappoint.

The date of the new album's release hasn't been confirmed, but they've got a few dates for their diaries already.

La Femme play a sold-out show at L'Olympia in Paris on March 23 and are in the UK in July to play the Secret Garden Party festival before playing the O2 in Shepherd's Bush in London on November 17.

They've announced a date at the Zénith in Paris on January 27 net year.

La Femme: Nous étions deux (Apple Watch commercial)

A surprise appearance by a French music track in one of the new adverts for Apple's new watch, with a song by La Femme appearing in their 'Ride' commercial.

The music being used is Nous étions deux, a track from their 2013 Psycho Tropical Berlin debut album.

The song was released as a single with its own video clip.

I can't see an obvious connection between being lost on your scooter and asking Siri for directions via your watch and a cool piece of modern French psych,  other than Apple wants its Apple Watch to be seen as cool, and La Femme certainly are that.

Still, if it introduces a very fine band to a wider audience that can be no bad thing at all.

La Femme are on tour and have a sold out gig at Koko in London on November 24, and have confirmed a show at L'Olympia in Paris on March  23 next year,

La Femme: Hypsoline ( As Above So Below soundtrack)

Came across this wonderful track in the soundtrack for the film As Above So Below at the weekend.

Yes, I know that film - a horror set in the Paris Catacombs - isn't exactly a new release,  but that's pretty recent for me to catch a film these days.

The 2014 movie was directed by John Erick Dowdle, an established horror director behind films like Quarantine and Devil.

The film was remarkable in that it was actually filmed in the catacombs of Paris, which must have been a spectacularly difficult environment to make a movie in.

On the whole not a bad film, although probably one that could have been better. But the use of La Femme on the closing titles was a nice touch, with their otherworldly take on Gainsbourg/Vannier's mash up of classical music, psychedelia and cool talk-over vocals.

The track features on the 2013 Psycho Tropical Berlin album by La Femme, an album that went on to with the breakthrough album category in the 2014 Victoires de la Musique awards.

La Femme: Acoustic

Another strong edition of Acoustic, the weekly music programme on the TV5Monde channel, this week
featuring La Femme.

I've features La Femme before, their sound a sophisticated and colourful blend of electro, punk, psychedelic and pop. The influence of French post-punk icon Jacno can be seen clearly in their work. No a bad thing as far as I reckon.

Their debut album Psycho Tropical Berlin was released last year and the band won the 2014  Victoires de la musique award for best breakthrough album. It also made number two in Les Inrocks list of best albums of the year in 2013.

Tracks include on this session are Sur La Planche, Noe étions deux, Antitaxi and Packshot.

Victoires de la Musique 2014

This weekend saw France's most significant music awards ceremony, with the Victoires de la Musique ceremony being held for the 29th time.

The good year for Stromae continues, with the Belgian picking up three awards, and Vanessa Paradis, Phoenix, Johnny Hallyday and Woodkid picking up some new ornaments for their trophy cabinets.

Male artist: Stromae
Female artist: Vanessa Paradis



Breakthrough album: La Femme - Psycho tropical Berlin



Breakthough artist: Woodkid

Chanson album: Stromae - Racine carrée



Rock album: Phoenix - Bankrupt

Urban music album: 1995 - Paris sud minuit


World music album: Ibrahim Maalouf - Illusions



Electronic or dance album: Kavinsky - Outrun

Original Song:  Johnny Hallyday - 20 ans


Musical / tour / concert: M - Îl(s)

Video: Stromae - Formidable



Music DVD: Shaka Ponk - Geeks on stage



It seemed a fairly obvious selection of winners. It wasn't hard to predict that Stromae might do quite well, for example.  But the list of winners doesn't really give the whole picture by any means, as there were some great performances during a programme that showcased some of the best music that France has to offer.



Among the performances were the likes of Cats on Trees, Zaz,  Etienne Daho, Indochine, Christine and the Queens and Grand Corps Malade, along with Vanessa Paradis, La Femme and Shaka Ponk.



I'm sure it's easy to criticise the list of winners, but the talent on show during the ceremony shows that French music is without a doubt in great shape and that there are acts that are not only delivering the best work of their careers at the moment and there are new acts creating some of the best work around.



In short, a great showcase for France's musical talent after what has been an historic year for French musical talent.