A more-or less final lookback to the Rencontres Trans Musicales de Rennes festival just over a week ago, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the act Rhume, who played a set at the l'étage.
Quite an extraordinary act, displaying a passion and anger that few display these days. A genuine punk spirit, even though their means of expression are more electronic and closer to rap in their delivery.
True, there's a possible nod to the likes of Suicide, very much the percussors of the angry electronic rock 'n'roll, and a possible comparison to Fauve in their use of rap in a way that sits outwith the usual hip hop conventions, but Rhume are very much their own selves, quite unique.
They reminded me more of the spoken word work of Mark E Smith, but with the Fall's use of electronics taken forward into the foreground. Unpolished, rough and urgent, a volley of green-ink rants with passages underlined with the luminous highlighter pen of minimal percussion.
They are the kind of act we need in these turbulent times, reflecting the anger and vitriol without serving it as nostalgia or as irony.
Rhume released their debut album earlier this year, and it is available from their bandcamp site.
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