Club des 5

The pop world is divided into two categories. On the one hand, groups that create new things out of old ones. We know them, we have the names. Yawn, yawn. On the other, those who create old things with old ones, left behind by the wars they have not lived, in search of times they have not known and consoles on eBay in the hope of sounding like Velvet Underground. Just as pathetic as the first, the whole thing coupled with an obsession for imitation which gives their future a taste of an old biscuit dipped in formalin.

“Fashion is what goes out of fashion”, used to say Cocteau. Although he died without having been able to listen to the first Forever Pavot’s album, we must grant the poet the gift of prophecy: the classical opposition between past and future is completely stupid. On these grounds, Forever Pavot has done honourably. Create new things with old ones, or rather make something beautiful with the old, it is the ambition of “Rhapsode”, record where Ennio Morricone, Francis Lai and other film music composers from the 60′s find at last the singer they were missing.

But beware, under the cobblestones of these 68′s composers, no plagiarism. In the same way that old stone is a long term investment, one is tempted to describe Emile Sornin, Forever Pavot’s leader, as a maker of things solid, expert in both messing around and demolishing walls. His got his trainingwithin a first group – defunct Arun Tazieff – where the desire to be the conductor is already being felt. Emile is already developing techniques dear to François de Roubaix: dreaming his songs, fiddling them solo track by track to eventually produce them in his closest buddies studio, the Aquaserge from Toulouse. The result is worth all these sleepless nights: where others merely copy the past, Emile stacks up sound, rehabilitates the harpsichord in this narrow world that has become pop music. He composes arranged pieces (Electric Mami) that give the impression of hearing Strawberry Fields Forever sung by Zombies. After an initial 45 rpm, “Christophe Columb”, which he produced in the spring of 2013, and which was”distributed free with chocolates” and then repressed by Frantic City, the story of Forever Pavot begins to take shape around a new group. Then will come two EPs (the first with the English from Sound of Salvation in January 2014, the second in April in Requiem for a Twister), all released in such limited numbers that already the word CULT writes itself in large letters on this long-haired Emile’s forehead.

So there is a new tenant in the Jean-Claude Vannier residence. The discreet type, but rather noisy. Fuzz guitars, wild farfisa, bass lines mixed well ahead in the Burgalat tradition, flutes playing, horse cavalcades on Miguel El Salam, “Rhapsode” is such a huge indoor Western shot by the ORTF ( 64′s to 74′s French Broadcasting Authority TV) that sometimes we expect to see Jean-Christophe Averty spring out from an enclosure, holding both a camera and a joint. But again, clothes don’t make the man. The name Forever Pavot was not born of an apology of drugs: “It started as a joke. One day I read too fast a “flower power” poorly written on a school pencil case. It made me laugh“, said Emile.

Fan of Jazz programming and of Turkish psyche, he is also shooting video clip for others (Disclosure’s videos or Dizzee Rascal’s) and proves at every moment that appearances are often misleading. “I feel a bit like Stereolab or Broadcast, artists who draw from the past to make something new (…) Ten years ago or so, I was doing hardcore punk, then I did chiptune, pop, compos garage / folk recorded on K7, and now things inspired from the 60′s movie music … the only guideline are my desires. Nobody will be able to get in my way if I want to make a reggae album in three years or an album of French songs. Because I’m the one who decides.”

Being modern is being master of one’s time. As for Emile’s paradise, it is obviously paved with good intentions.

BESTER

Synthetic love est le fruit blet et alcoolisé d’un été dystopique, plages de vinyles où gisent corps de migrants et touristes obèses. Une boîte à rythme empathique comme un androïde, des basslines mécaniques, une répétition de patterns à la régularité relative supportent des parties de basse, de claviers, de voix ou de guitares clairement interprétés par des individus singeant la machine qui imite l’humain.

Onze titres synth punk catchys et jouissifs pour danser sur les ruines.

Synthetic Love est le deuxième full LP de Le Prince Harry (Après un maxi, un mini album, deux split EP avec Duflan Duflan et Duchess Says), duo synthpunk/electro punk de Liège, Belgique, fameux pour ses prestations à la fébrilité contagieuse.

Synthetic Love is the boozy rotten fruit of a dystopic summer and vinyl beaches where migrants lay among overweight tourists. A drum machine as empathetic as a replicant, mechanical basslines, a repetition of patterns of relative regularity give support to bassguitar parts, keyboards, vocals or guitars obviously performed by individuals mimicking machines imitating humans.

Eleven catchy and kinky synthpunk hits to dance on the ruins.

Synthetic Love is the second full LP (after a maxi, a mini album, two split EPs with Duflan Duflan and Duchess Says) by Le Prince Harry, synthpunk/electropunk duo from Liège, Belgium, infamous for its live performances of contagious restlessness.

Reborn in february 15, A Supernaut is a band made up of 3 Brussels bred musicians, that has been brought to the height of notoriety thanks to its heavy presence on the Brussels scene.
Skinny gits rather than greedy buggers, eager socks- and-sandals wearers, branding
the Atomnium tattooed in place of the heart and sporting crotch high teeny weeny shorts, the spectacle of their Brussels' psychedelia is definitely worth the trip.
But let's talk music, and what can one say other than it does exactly what it says on the tin.
It's Rock, it's soul, it's Psychedelia and it's pure love.
Some harsh rock wounded by life, psychedelia that tastes like candy apples and love that will make your head swirl faster than a rollercoaster.
It's beautiful, it shakes you up, it reminds you of ZZ Top - only without the beards - or GrandFunk Railroad that's slightly derailed; in short it's a kick in the face with a big ol' cowboy boot.
But above all it's Brussels, city of their untamed rock 'n roller hearts, that their transporting music, oozing energy, contradictions, the fusion of what’s good and bad pays a dark and magic homage.
And as they say: "If it's magic, they must be magicians…”

Mountain Bike started in the summer of 2012 by musicians with distinct backgrounds. They all were or are still active in other musical projects like Thee Marvin Gays, Warm Toy Machine as well as in solo projects like Billy Joe or June Moan. What makes Mountain Bike special is the way they intergrate the power and the energy of garage rock in pop composition . Far from clichés, Mountain Bike's ambition is to rid any boundaries and to explore their ecletic influences in an unprejudiced way. Their influences consist of a wide array of artists, ranging from Beck, Ty Segall and Deerhunter to Mikal Cronin and Grandaddy. The result is a refreshing cocktail of exciting and poppy melodies with a touch of nonchalance.

Carried by the inimitable voice of French born Etienne (aka Kinkle), the shimmering guitars of Aurélien (aka June Moan), the roaring bass of Stefano (aka Billy Joe) and the rhythms of Charles (aka Nerveux), Mountain Bike’s feel good songs provide the ideal soundtrack to a mid summer cook out amongst friends.

With well over 150 gigs and a first 7 inch single on their track record, these “Bruxellois by adoption” released their first self-titled album in the Spring of '14. Consisting of 11 tracks, recorded and mixed at Snapshot Studios in Brussels by Pierre Vaffrey, this first attempt plunges you into a pop universe with vague boundaries, a place for catchy chants and choruses (I Lost My Hopes In Paradise, Japanese Guitar), ballads (Hangin’ Around, Just Good Friends) and genuine garage rock (Cigogne, ‘Got Power, Torture). Clocking in at exactly 40 minutes, Mountain Bike have birthed a consistent album, shining their own casual light on 50 years of pop music.

Rough diamond, formed in Brussels’ spawning underground scene, GLÜ is a hybrid organism created from machinery and instruments, pedals and triggers.

Connected by kilometers of cables, these four musicians mix Electro, Drum & Bass and Break-Core to create a vivid world, populated by sidereal creatures, analog shouts and acid lush flora...

Known as one of the most crowd-uplifting bands of the Brussels scene, GLÜ enlists all the bodies involved to sculpt live twilight parties with, where bulk Squarepusher, Aphex Twin or Holden are crossed over.

Packing a VJ, GLÜ delivers a dark and blazing trance, an irresistible ball of energy, propelled with Kryptonite …