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La musique qui groove >> Funky Frenchman shakes anglo ass! by CHRIS YURKIW
I had my own revelation about this kinda stuff a little before France's current revenge on anglo-America, back in 1994. That was the year that Les FrancoFolies de Montréal brought over a diminutive redhead French kid called Sinclair--already a star at home with his debut album, but stuck on a free stage on de Maisonneuve. When I first heard his big single "Votre image" I was shocked: "Jamiroquai sings in French?! Was Stevie Wonder given the Legion of Honour?!" Not only was it a brilliant soul-funk pop song but it was also right in tune, so to speak, with England's own little wonder Jamiroquai and the vague acid jazz movement of the moment. Ever since then I've been dying to put the question to Sinclair: is it not ironic that when France is finally in step with contemporary anglo music, it means doing a dance step from 1972? "It's true that I'm inspired by American soul music from the '70s and '80s," answers Sinclair, "so there is a sense in that it's retro. But I don't think of music in that way. I think of the arrangements and the song structure and the mix of it all, and that I don't find retro. And I think that I sound a little more modern than Jamiroquai. "But if making modern music means using samplers or turntables, I don't think that's modern--I think it's mode. Because I used as many samplers on my last album [La Bonne Attitude Virgin] as you'd find on a techno record, but you don't hear it because I did it in a way that you don't hear it, in a way that serves the song." Indeed, there'll be no pandering to the new, new guard of French pop from Sinclair. He's as feisty as those bad-boy Brit stars. "For me, Daft Punk isn't French. It's impossible to pick out one French touch to their music--and I do mean the music, not just the fact that when there's singing it's in English. What they do is a kind of international disco, so it's not surprising that it's been a hit all over the world." But I'm sure we can all get along here, no? After all, from Sinclair's American influences to the hep French groups today, it's all la musique qui groove, n'est-ce pas? "Oui, c'est vrai," says Sinclair, and it sounds better in his tongue. "Mais moi, j'adore la musique qui groove. C'est important." Sinclair returns to Les FrancoFolies this Saturday, June 27 at Metropolis.
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Just in case you hadn't noticed, I'll shout it out loud: French pop is the shit these days. And we're not just talking the old chanson and yéyé that sells out Cabaret once a month at the C'est Extra night. You might not even know it, but last year you heard Daft Punk's daffy disko thumping out of a thousand Integras. And if you want to get a head start and check out the pop album of this year, go and get Air's Moon Safari right now.