Editorial: March 2018

A successful February on the blog here, the highlight for me being the number of visitors to the site. An absolute record by quite a margin in the last month, not bad especially when you're considering it was the shortest month of the year.

That's all very well, but its the content here that matters at the end of the day. I'm pleased with what I managed to do. As always, could have done more, but there are always a huge number of competing demands on my time and spending time writing planning and organising posts on this blog can often take a back seat.

But on the whole, a successful month. Mostly down to some great releases and news, from Mylene Farmer dropping a new single unexpectedly, to Barbagello touring (most of) the UK, via this year's Victoires de la Musique awards in France.

There was plenty happening last month, and it certainly looks similar in March. The month gets under way with more awards, the César awards on Friday have a serious amount of music related content with Grand Corps Malade up for four awards and 120 battements par minute leading the nominations.

Elsewhere, there are live appearances from Charlotte Gainsbourg in the UK at the end of the month, as well as shows from Kid Francescoli at London's 100 club. Significant releases include the new album from Cats on Trees and Julien Doré, and events in March include the Paris Music Festival which brings musicians to some of the French capital's more interesting locations.

As always, you can contact us at johnkilbrideAThotmailDOTcom, with the appropriate punctuation where you'd expect it to be.

I'm always pleased to hear from record companies, PR companies and promoters, so do drop me an email. I'm always keen to hear new things, and relay information about acts I already know and love.

The blog is also on Twitter as @viveleroq, although that's pretty much just an autofeed when we update with a new article. You can usually find me on my personal Twitter account quicker, @karnag

If you're around Facebook, remember to like the French Music Podcast UK page, where you can get regular updates with both fresh and vintage French music.

Thanks as always to the good folks at Oui Love Music From France.

John K

Kid Francescoli: Les Vitrines

A new video by Kid Francescoli for the track Les Vitrines.

The features on the duo's Play me Again album and its a wonderful piece of sophisticated electro pop.

Their new album follows their 2013 collection With Julia, which first saw Mathieu Hocine from Marseille work with New York singer Julia Minkin.

I've featured Kid Francescoli a couple of times before on this blog, when their last album was released and when I saw them in Rennes in 2014 performing as part of the Bars en Trans festival at the 1988 Live Club with H Burns and Animali.

I described them at the time as "Effortlessly modern with the kind of electronics that French artists have always done so well" and it's great to see them live up to their promise and go on to well-deserved wider recognition.

Kid Francescoli have a bunch of live dates in their diary for the next few months, beginning with a show at the Printemps de Bourges festival later this month with dates until June and a show confirmed for le trianon in Paris in November.

Kid Francescoli: Does She?

A new video by Kid Francescoli for the track Does She?

The video is something of a short film in its length and cinematic qualities.

It's a prequel to the video they made for the track Blow Up.

With many directors finding that French acts are delivering the kind of music that fits well in the soundtrack for a 21st century movie, it's easy to imagine Kid Francescoli following the likes of Woodkid, Brodinski and M83.

The track comes from the duo's With Julia album that was released last year, and re-issued in March this year.

They play at the Festival Les 36h de Saint Eustache in Paris on Saturday this weekend, and at the Festival Le Rock Dans Tous Ses Etats next week, and have dates elsewhere in France before returning for a show in Paris in October.

Report: Bars en Trans, Rennes 2014

The Bars en Trans event held in Rennes in early December is a separate event to the Trans Musicales, but like he Edinburgh Festival and the Festival Fringe, they compliment each other well.

Bars en Trans features more local and French acts, in venues across the city from night clubs to bars, over the course of three nights.

And what's not to like about an event  promising  everything from 'pop/Paris' to  'Doo-Wop/Haute Savoie' and 'Hard-Folk/Ardeche'?

Obviously one problem is that there's so much going on that it's not possible to catch everything, and with the Trans Musicales on at the same time, there are even more clashes between acts I wanted to see.

Rennes is in Brittany, an area of France where bars are more common that Parisian style cafés, and it has the kind of young population  that thrives on events like les Bars en Trans.


Hardy young souls could be seen hitting the city's old town, see some of the bands and then catch the shuttle bus out to the Parc Expo for some of the headliners at the Trans Musicales

Last year I managed to catch a show by Sudden Death of Stars and Orval Carlos Sibelius, one of the highlight of my time in Rennes, so I was keen to make the most of the Bars en Trans.

The show that fitted best with my packed schedule was at the 1988 Live Club and was due to feature Kid Francescoli, H-Burns and Camp Claude, but a late-minute substitution saw Animali perform instead of Camp Claude.

Kid Francescoli presented a very stylish electropop, a male/female due with a drummer, and they made the kind of sound that inspires confidence in French music. Effortlessly modern with the kind of electronics that French artists have always done so well, and a live dynamic that was as much Gainsbourg and Birkin as it was Ellie and Jacno.

Animali may have been the late additions  to the bill, but the quintet from Lyon were no simple fillers, producing the kind of indie rock that fans of 70s progressive acts would have instantly recognised. An act with hidden depth of musicianship wrapped in approachable and crafted songs.

The headline act was H-Burns, who I featured here before, bringing a French take on US indie rock of the 90s. His outlook might be more far west that western France, with a flavour reminiscent of Howe Gelb of Giant Sand but his style is his own. He's got a new album due in January entitled Night Moves, and it will certainly bring in 2015 in style.

Three very different acts, each in their own way superbly illustrating some of the present strengths of French music.

While I certainly did well by attending that particular show, I've been left with the feeling that Bars en Trans is the kind of event that pretty much every show would have been worth going to, and I've now got a massive list of acts to investigate further.