Label: Kythibong – KTB67 Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Gatefold Sleeve Country: France Released: 19 Oct 2018 Genre: Rock Style: Folk Rock, Art Rock, Avantgarde
Beautifully presented, total immersion reissue of Areski and Fontaine’s finest work together - quite possible one of the best underground LPs of the 70s..
From the late 60s onward Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem made records, together and apart, that pretty much split the atom of French pop song. Combining chanson, Berber music, free jazz, radical politics and experimental theatre with a collaged and psycho-actively detailed production style, these records, misunderstood at the time, became hugely influential from the 90s on. Without Fontaine and Areski there is no Stereolab/Broadcast/Jim O’Rourke etc. etc. Vous et Nous is the pinnacle of their 70s output. Recorded at home It began life as an Areski solo record which Fontaine couldn’t resist secretly adding vocals to during the night. Released in 1977 it sprawls over 4 sides and 33 tracks. Much of the album’s charm lies in its DIY home recorded feel and its aversion to traditional rock virtuosity. Biting lyrics rail against colonialism, capitalism and the patriarchy while Algerian percussion and oud make common cause with drum machines, scribbled synth lines and medieval chant. Other similarly ambitious and freeform communal recording projects of the era often ended up messy and self indulgent, a few moments of gorgeousness surrounded by aimless improv and guest appearances from the drummer’s children. Vous et Nous, however, actually holds it together, even while it drifts and spirals, its focus shifting from delicate folk to proto-electro via spoken skits and North African trance. Place alongside The Marble Index, Rock Bottom, Future Days, Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine, Another Green World, Sowiesoso and Sov Gott Rose-Marie: that good... (NM)
Tracklist A1 Vous Et Nous A2 Patriarcat A3 Mon Enfance A4 Vent D'Automne A5 Le Serveur Du Dôme A6 Je Suis Venu Te Voir A7 Rien Que Changer A8 Le Ciel Est Doux B1 Les Epis B2 Le Repas Des Dromadaires B3 Vous Et Nous B4 L'Amour Parfait B5 Un Soleil B6 Dans Ma Rue B7 L'Orage Est Fini B8 Gamme C1 Le Brin D'Herbe C2 La Harpe Jaune C3 Je T'Aimerai C4 Diabolo C5 Cher C6 Ce N'Est Pas Un Ennemi C7 Encaustique C8 Petit Sapin D1 Mon Lit D2 Je T'Aimerai D3 La Déchirure D4 Le Petit Cheval Bleu D5 Personne D6 Les Roses Sont Farouches D7 Le Bouc D8 Dessin D9 Les Muzdus
