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Various Respect Is Burning (Virgin France/Caroline) Respect is the Paris club night that claims to have "revived Paris' house scene," even though Daft Punk, Motorbass and Yellow were already well-lodged in the global consciousness by the time Respect opened in 1996. No matter. Respect may not have been the womb from which Paris' bébé came, but the club did do something to fix the city's discoid sound. This is a much more impressive compilation than the other billion that have come from France in the last 18 months: Respect regulars like Dimitri From Paris and guests like DIY put together a blowout package of looped, vocoded and funked-up-the-ass fantasticness. The title track is enough to warrant a purchase. 8.5/10 (Mireille Silcott) Martin Tétrault La nuit où j'ai dit non (Audioview/Lowlands) It's been a long wait since extreme turntablist Martin Tétrault's debut disc Des pas et des mois (1990), and this one is at the other extreme from Tétrault's jarring bruitiste experiments. Composed entirely of improvisations on three turntables and 25 albums (Pierre Henry, Sound Effects, Close Encounters of the Third Kind...), La nuit gives off the spacey ambiance of an orchestra tuning up for the next century--and comes off more like electroacoustics than electronica. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
Faudel Baïda (Sankara/Polygram) Two cases of cosmopolitan France getting an earful from its Algerian community... and vice versa. Rachid Taha and his band Carte de Séjour have been at it for years, soaking up rock and reggae to flavour their raï. Unfortunately, there's loads of '80s cheese to wade through to get to the good stuff. Faudel comes off better. He's younger, hipper (check the nice beats) and he sings in Arabic, not French. In Taha's favour, though, he's more willing to tackle his conflicted cultural identity head on. Taha 6.5/10, Faudel 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) Mr. Dibbs 231 Ways to Fry an Egg EP (Four Ways To Rock)
The latest 12" to come from this Montreal based hip hop label showcases the talents of Cincinnati-born turntablist Mr. Dibbs. With an original sample base, deft skills and a style all his own, he offers two sides that tell a story about his roots. Anyone who has been impressed by the clever construction of Kid Koala's tricks will be impressed by this piece of wax. 9/10 (Spunky Balboa)
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Taha Carte Blanche (Barclay/Polygram)