France Bizarre
If you dig strange library sounds, weird prog, 70s Art Rock and more importantly, FRENCH MUSIC! (I'm resisting the urge to use the word 'frog')... then this new series of cassette compilation tapes called FRANCE BIZARRE will hit all the perfect notes! Volume 1 made such a strong impression that I wanted to learn more about the person behind this new series of compilation tapes. Flo, who also plays in the mighty MEURTRIÈRES, kindly obliged.
|
Hello Flo! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Before we delve into FRANCE BIZARRE, I’d like you to introduce yourself… what’s your background? Your personal tastes, the relationship you have with music in general?
Hi Max! My name is Florian but I usually answer to my alias Flo Spector, a nickname I was given a very long time ago by some friends with a very special sense of humour. I’m about to turn 40, in one month to be precise, with no specific existential dread in mind. I’m an unskilled worker. I’m a young dad. I was born and raised in the countryside in the 80s and 90s, which means, if we want to move on to our main topic, that I had limited access to music, compared with today’s offer, and far more limited than it would have been had I grown up in the city. But I think I was rather lucky: my family was into music and I had an uncle who was a professional Jazz drummer. He was a Maoist activist doing fanzines and setting up gigs in Bourg-En-Bresse in the 70s, and he booked the very best musicians of the time like MAGMA, Brigitte Fontaine, Areski and so forth. My uncle always has a story to tell and I may have to press him with questions one of these days just like you’re doing now. My parents were also quite open to music. I grew up hearing Otis Redding or THE BEATLES and I got from my dad’s respectably-sized collection some LPs by THE CLASH, LED ZEPPELIN or PINK FLOYD. In the 80s, my sister was into Rock and New Wave big time, making me some tapes along the way, and I could also count on my mates’ older brothers for Metal, Punk and Hardcore… looking back, my access to music wasn’t that limited, come to think of it. I came out of the 90s as a diehard MUDHONEY fan, a band that led me to Garage, obscure Punk and Hardcore, and 70s Hard Rock. At this time of my life though, there was nothing that would point in the way of my creating the FRANCE BIZARRE compilations, apart from having an uncle into French underground music in the 70s. The defining moment came when I moved to Lyon. Finally, I could flip through record bins. At the time my tastes became more refined and I found out I had this profuse, overreaching passion for (almost) all musical genres. In Lyon, I stumbled upon the Punk-Hardcore DIY scene and I quickly realized that, if I wanted things to happen, I had to do it myself or by associating with people who shared the same disease… We set up some gigs, created record labels, bands, put out some records or fanzines, organized some tours. These things still exist if you know where to look inside the cracks. My relationship with music is extremely shifting or changing, but powered forever by a truly lasting passion. I think I’ll never have my fill. A band leads me to another, which brings me to a whole scene, style, country or city. I’m also an avid reader of books and encyclopedia of music, and from these sources I unravel most of the threads that will lead me to my next obsession. Finally, what I enjoy the most, is crate digging and buying an LP or a 7’’ just because of some line-up, a date, small clues, something that will have my sixth sense resonate with the object and my brain telling me: « this is the one ». Lots of bad picks obviously, but sometimes it pays. |
|
« Musique Insolite de France » (Unusual Music From France) is your description for FRANCE BIZARRE Volume 1. How did this compilation come to be?
I’ve always had a strong relationship with French lyrics, as far as I remember. Even if I was raised on the Anglo-saxon or American titans, nothing makes me tingle like hearing texts in my native language. My listening habits quickly evolved over the years and today, I’m into poetry records as much as 80s French Heavy Metal. I don’t see any difference between these recordings, just a slow evolution of the way language is being used. The origin of this compilation is fairly simple: after years and years of digging for records, I found myself with a stack of LPs that I’d keep playing to my friends or the people who share my life. In my mind, these records formed a very coherent ensemble, so why not make something out of it? I also wished to spotlight, from my small operating level, the oddity of French music, a quality often associated with foreign music, to the detriment of what was produced here in France. For a long time, only foreign labels would care about the French musical heritage. The label re-releasing the Fontaine/Areski albums was American. This says a lot about how we perceive our own music. There is gold at our feet but no one is doing anything with it. Fortunately, I feel times are changing with the work of labels like Le Souffle Continu or Replica. I’ve just re-read what I’ve written and I must add that this relation with French music or my using strongly connoted words like ‘heritage’ have nothing to do with any sense of nationalism or love for the flag. On the contrary, I wanted to spread the love beyond frontiers and I was happy to do it with that first volume, which was shipped all over the globe.
I’ve always had a strong relationship with French lyrics, as far as I remember. Even if I was raised on the Anglo-saxon or American titans, nothing makes me tingle like hearing texts in my native language. My listening habits quickly evolved over the years and today, I’m into poetry records as much as 80s French Heavy Metal. I don’t see any difference between these recordings, just a slow evolution of the way language is being used. The origin of this compilation is fairly simple: after years and years of digging for records, I found myself with a stack of LPs that I’d keep playing to my friends or the people who share my life. In my mind, these records formed a very coherent ensemble, so why not make something out of it? I also wished to spotlight, from my small operating level, the oddity of French music, a quality often associated with foreign music, to the detriment of what was produced here in France. For a long time, only foreign labels would care about the French musical heritage. The label re-releasing the Fontaine/Areski albums was American. This says a lot about how we perceive our own music. There is gold at our feet but no one is doing anything with it. Fortunately, I feel times are changing with the work of labels like Le Souffle Continu or Replica. I’ve just re-read what I’ve written and I must add that this relation with French music or my using strongly connoted words like ‘heritage’ have nothing to do with any sense of nationalism or love for the flag. On the contrary, I wanted to spread the love beyond frontiers and I was happy to do it with that first volume, which was shipped all over the globe.
I can tell that a lot of effort went into the editing, cutting and mixing of the songs. How did you proceed to get to the final result, this ‘unique piece’ as you put it in your description for Volume 1?
First of all, I make a selection of albums. Albums that I actually own. It’s one of my self-imposed rules which prevent me from downloading stuff and going the easy route, making compilations a dime a dozen. I then listen attentively to these albums for a period of time, until I’m able to extract either whole songs, timelines, or the moments that I find interesting. For instance, on some records, I will find trivial songs with an absolutely epic bridge or outro. These are the bits I will choose to keep, without consideration for how the band or the artist will be perceived. What interests me, rightly so, are the bizarre moments when the listener’s jaw will drop out of incredulity. Then, I’ll cut these bits and start to edit my final master. I do some cutting and juxtaposition, and some interweaving. Sometimes I slow down or increase the speed on some parts. I do it with a DAW software, a leftover from the days I would record bands. I try not to overthink things too much and keep it spontaneous, so the whole thing flows naturally. I’m not sure Volume 1 was fully satisfying in that respect. I think I could have gone further in my deconstructing and re-arranging tracks. I’ll try to up the ante on the next volume.
First of all, I make a selection of albums. Albums that I actually own. It’s one of my self-imposed rules which prevent me from downloading stuff and going the easy route, making compilations a dime a dozen. I then listen attentively to these albums for a period of time, until I’m able to extract either whole songs, timelines, or the moments that I find interesting. For instance, on some records, I will find trivial songs with an absolutely epic bridge or outro. These are the bits I will choose to keep, without consideration for how the band or the artist will be perceived. What interests me, rightly so, are the bizarre moments when the listener’s jaw will drop out of incredulity. Then, I’ll cut these bits and start to edit my final master. I do some cutting and juxtaposition, and some interweaving. Sometimes I slow down or increase the speed on some parts. I do it with a DAW software, a leftover from the days I would record bands. I try not to overthink things too much and keep it spontaneous, so the whole thing flows naturally. I’m not sure Volume 1 was fully satisfying in that respect. I think I could have gone further in my deconstructing and re-arranging tracks. I’ll try to up the ante on the next volume.
|
What’s your favourite songs on Volume 1? I loved the whole thing but I must confess the NEF song on side B really caught me by surprise!
Can I answer ‘all of them’? Haha, you won’t allow for this I suppose. Let me have another look at the track listing… It’s really hard for me to say because each song reminds me of a place where I found the record and discovered incredible stuff, or a time of my life when I was, for instance, utterly obsessed with the concept album by Gilbert Deflez called « Je suis vivant mais j’ai peur » from 1974, a record I spinned once almost every day for a whole month. Yeah, this is the one I’d choose. I’d also go with the the excerpt from Claude Engel’s « Fantasmagory », an album that I think is perfect in its entirety, something not of this earth, a mix of traditional Folk, light psychedelics, with all kinds of experimentations and traces of MAGMA-styled Zeuhl, which you can find for a very small price because no one cares. The background text presentations for each song are very interesting. Do you write them yourself? Are you thinking of having them translated at some point? Yes, I write them myself, thank you. I haven’t planned an English version but maybe I will one of these days. Qui sait ? |
|
What was the reaction to Volume 1? The tape is pro-printed, how many copies were made? I was wondering also if you had any issues with copyright infringement in light of some recent re-releases (like the aforementioned Gilbert Deflez album on Finders Keepers)?
To my great surprise, Volume 1 was very well received, either by my Punk or Metal friends or by a circle of people well versed in that kind of music or the ‘diggers’ culture it’s associated with. Everyone was extremely benevolent and I thank all of them for such a heartwarming welcome, considering it was all for a compilation which has songs on it that they must have known for 20 years or so. I had 50 copies made, I’ll probably make more for the next run, people still ask me for the first one. Of course, with such a small print run on cassette, everything is unlicensed and illegal. That being said, if some of the rights owners ever stumble upon this interview, I want you to know that I didn’t buy myself a Tesla with the money. I don’t think I could even buy a sandwich & fries with it. Anyway, that wasn’t the point as you can imagine.
What can we expect for Volume 2? Will you stay in the same ’70-’84 time frame or revisit another period?
Volume 2 should be in the same vein although it’s still a bit early for me to have a good vision of the final piece. The time period should be the same, seeing as how deeply immersed in the 70s I am, for this specific project or in my own personal tastes.
To my great surprise, Volume 1 was very well received, either by my Punk or Metal friends or by a circle of people well versed in that kind of music or the ‘diggers’ culture it’s associated with. Everyone was extremely benevolent and I thank all of them for such a heartwarming welcome, considering it was all for a compilation which has songs on it that they must have known for 20 years or so. I had 50 copies made, I’ll probably make more for the next run, people still ask me for the first one. Of course, with such a small print run on cassette, everything is unlicensed and illegal. That being said, if some of the rights owners ever stumble upon this interview, I want you to know that I didn’t buy myself a Tesla with the money. I don’t think I could even buy a sandwich & fries with it. Anyway, that wasn’t the point as you can imagine.
What can we expect for Volume 2? Will you stay in the same ’70-’84 time frame or revisit another period?
Volume 2 should be in the same vein although it’s still a bit early for me to have a good vision of the final piece. The time period should be the same, seeing as how deeply immersed in the 70s I am, for this specific project or in my own personal tastes.
|
I can’t resist asking you a question about MEURTRIERES, the Heavy Metal band you’re part of that had everyone talking in the scene last summer. How’s the band doing right now?
We’re experimenting with a small change of line-up at the moment. Everything should fall into place very soon. As it is, we’re writing the follow up to our EP and, right now, it’s raining leaden riffs in the rehearsal room, so everything should be fine. Thank you once again for this great interview, Flo. As a fan of mixtapes, I feel obliged to ask you to conclude… with a playlist! What are the songs or bands most played on your turntable right now? Right now it’s as eclectic as ever. I recently put my nose into a few Jazz records that were recommended by some friends, « Kawaida » by Kuumba Toudie-Heath, very mystical and crazy. I’m also getting back into JUDAS PRIEST in chronological order before I begin Rob Halford’s biography, which I can’t wait to read. Also a lot of obscure French music that I won’t mention so as not to spoil FRANCE BIZARRE Volume 2. A lot of HAWKWIND, RUSH (especially « Permanent Waves »), Peter & The Test Tubes Babies, WISHBONE ASH, URIAH HEEP and, digitally, I must have listened to the new WYTCH HAZEL single 200 times already. As I’m typing this interview I’m also listening to a Gal Costa Tropicalia compilation, some highly psychedelic Brazilian music. I must admit to going in every direction but hey, you only live once. Thank you Max for this interview !!!! |
Flo usually haunts Instagram but he can also be reached via email
Check out his fanzine TV Police while you're at it, released sporadically but well worth reading.
More FRANCE BIZARRE should follow soon and in the meantime, listen to MEURTRIÈRES!
Check out his fanzine TV Police while you're at it, released sporadically but well worth reading.
More FRANCE BIZARRE should follow soon and in the meantime, listen to MEURTRIÈRES!