Every weekend the “Tsugi” web radio accompanies the “Libération” music notebook
The discovery: Mermaid Chunky, mondo bizarro
While at the head of LCD Soundsytem, James Murphy brilliantly carries his great punk-funk barnum during a few sporadic tours which delight European festivals, once again becoming the mastermind of the DFA label, he takes great pleasure in exploring the the most “weirdo” side of the New York and/or European underground. Pre-Covid, DFA seemed to maintain a balance between its demanding but elegiac dance music releases (Crooked Man, The JuanMacLean, Shit Robot, etc.) and its sometimes noisy experimental pop productions (Black Dice, Eric Copeland…). Post-Covid, the house takes great pleasure in exploring the most arty and least commercial paths, between ambient cassettes, frumpy no wave and cellar punk-funk.
Newcomers in this bestiary of sound research, the two English visual artists and musicians Freya Tate and Moina Moin have everything to join the most flawed section of the DFA catalog. Barrel organ, recorders, dancefloor flights, abstruse rhythms, creepy voices and twisted electronics, the sonic absurdity of these two unclassifiable musicians, somewhere between Maurice Fulton’s house, folk, psych-pop, the madness of he Julian Cope and Björk’s most colorful stage outfits seduced James Murphy, intrigued from the first note he barely heard in a Brooklyn coffee shop one spring morning. A search in Shazam later, Mermaid Chunky found themselves opening for LCD Soundystem in London and signed a contract with DFA. A hipster fairy tale that ends in slip slip slide, second album and discographic UFO which could only find its place on DFA.
Mermaid Chunky slip slide slide (DFA /Modulor)
La playlist
The Cure Alone
Even though it was released several weeks ago, we never tire of this moving track with its rotating loop between post-rock and shoegaze. With such an appetizer, we hope for a great vintage for the new album.
St Grail Rest Basketball
A euphoric song which owes as much to the French variety of the 70s as to the Strokes. This generation dares everything and that’s what makes it so good. The influences pile up without ever canceling each other out. Good point.
Foushée loversland
Impossible to put a label on this American-Jamaican singer-songwriter. As rock as soul, helped by an intriguing and energetic production, off the beaten track. To be continued.
Maribou State Otherside
Both old-fashioned and futuristic, dancefloor and melancholic, this electronic-soul song winks from all sides. Without however accusing the two British authors of shameless solicitation. Class.
Molecule RX-08
With 29 173 NMthe Frenchman who combines techno and field recordings in extreme conditions, delivers the soundtrack to a documentary (which he co-directed) on the 2020 Vendée Globe seen by skipper Thomas Ruyant. Stormy.
