Niki N. Phaser

              Indochine are releasing yet another single from last year’s successful album, La Republique des Meteors, and their choice is quite good: Un Ange à ma Table. Though I was still rooting for Republika, it is great that this track received the special attention of being the fourth single. It’s a fast-paced rocky kind of tune, but it’s still the careening sounds of chorus synths that will stick to your mind. The French idols will be touring their homeland this spring, starting with March, the climax being a monster gig at Stade de France on June 26.

UN ANGE ICI

French pop-rock legends, Indochine are preparing the official release (November 20) of a new single, Le Lac, taken from their latest album, La République des Meteors, their eleventh. Not the most obvious choice for a single, Le Lac is still a nice song, but not as poignant as Republika, which was overlooked for the third time. Maybe the fourth is a charm. La lettre de métal is also quite a gripping piece of music, displaying once again Indochine’s pop-rock complexity. Nicola Sirkis and co. have been touring the new album, follow-up to 2x masterpiece Alice & June, in all the familiar places, to great success. They’ll keep at it all troughout the next year, when they have scheduled a monster-gig on “Stade de France” on June 26. It’s been sold-out almost a year in advance.

Le Lac VIDEO and also try La Lettre de Metal and maybe also Republika

Ok, so the truth is French music gets a bit overlooked around the world. Most non-English-language music does. But even if you might have some difficulties understanding the lyrics, you can still appreciate a well-crafted song. To test the theory give Quand Viendra L’Heure a try. The song is a collaboration between dark rock band, ACWL and Nicola Sirkis, the frontman of not-so-dark rock band Indochine. It’s a two-faced piece of music, half lullaby, half heavy metal lullaby, but all feeling, no surface. It starts gentle with bells and chimes and poetry-reciting-like vocals. Sirkis’ voice is manly and pretty low, but Clin’s adds an unnatural feel to it, as if some Victorian ghost is haunting her husband. The first half is quite soothing, suggesting abstract images dissolving into each other. Then, the drums kick in and bring with them short and heavy guitar hits and you feel the storm coming, but it never does… It all becomes darker, but there is no destructive climax. That reciting of the track’s title is followed by dying voices which stop the song from becoming aggressive. It is weird and lullaby-esque, but still quite a banger, once you get the hang of it. Maybe you woun’t really dance to it, but you woun’t stand still either. You should check out the video, too. Also, even if you are not into Quand Viendra L’Heure, you should “taste” ACWL and Indochine. They are some of France’s best.

THE WONDERFUL VIDEO FOR Quand Viendra L’Heure