Sat, 29 Sep 2007
Exploring Europe
Next it's France. This place has always been interesting as it
never really featured in the days when Rock mostly ruled but has
really become a force since the advent of electronic dance music -
this is forgetting, of course, the Chanson style, and people like
Edith Piaf from long ago. You could make an argument that people
like Charlotte Gainsburg, with her smooth Pop, is actually more of
descendant of Piaf than of Elvis.
France didn't really get Rock (and no, I'm not forgetting Billy
Halliday ... or is it one "l" ... who seems to be keen to be known as
a Belgian these days) for a variety of reasons which I won't go into
here as I'd have to write a book. Not that the French weren't
appreciative of visiting real rockers: they were and are.
These days there's almost a French school of production in
the electronic area, and it's smooth and clever, and has witty
asides and frequent eclectic inclusions. We'll talk more of this later.
Germany, or rather Berlin, is interesting. Back in the days of
Faust, the local label had to be dragged, kicking and screaming,
into releasing them as they really didn't want to be diverted from
what they saw as their only business: shifting Bert Kaempfert and
endless oopmpah bands. Things haven't changed much at all on the
commercial front. And even in the Alternative/Indy world a lot of
the labels seem to be suffering a severe case of head-up-bum.
The artists world is something else again, with a lively
scene where all sorts of genres, and far-out sub-genres get by
with a little help from their friends and the hugely important
facts of relatively cheap living and open attitudes - the scene
not just consisting of locals but of people who have come from all
over. I've mentioned all this before but saying it twice can't do
any harm.
Finding these people in shops somewhere else is just about
impossible unless you live in one of the world's major cities where,
even these days, you might find at least one shop that specialises
in out-there stuff with "out-there" merely being defined as something
that's not from a Big Music label. The best way to find them is to
look around somewhere like Myspace, and then support the acts by
buying from them directly.
Going back to the business of Rocking, there are, of course, lots
of people who don't want to rock at all and lots who couldn't if
they tried. Rocking isn't just a matter of tempo, timbre, and feel. Just like
the Blues, there are subtleties all through the thing that separate
the real from the fake.
(thunderfinger)
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here
