If you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of its six year history, you’ve likely come across posts about Paris, France-based psych punk/krautrock/global music act and JOVM mainstay act La Femme. Comprised of founding members Marlon Magnée (keyboards), Sacha Got (guitar), Sam Lefevre (bass), Noé Delmas (drums) and Lucas Nunez, along with a rotating cast of vocalists including, Lara Luciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and current lead vocalist Clemency Quélennec, the collective exploded into the international scene with the release of 2010 debut EP Le Podium #1, an EP that landed on the Honorary Mentions sections of the Best of 2011 List for a decidedly French and breezy take on surfer rock. Interestingly, Psycho Tropical Berlin, La Femme’s 2013 full-length debut was a wild expansion of the sound that first won international attention as the album’s material possessed elements of psychedelia, psychobilly, synth pop, krautrock and several other genres in a heady and trippy mix with a propulsive and steady groove. It’s uncompromisingly strange and difficult to categorize in a fashion that seems mischievous — and yet totally French.
The Parisian collective’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Mystere will officially drop today and you may recall that I’ve written about two album singles “Sphynx,” a track that manages to evoke a lingering fever dream — while cementing their growing reputation for boldly defying categorization, while the album’s second single “Ou va la mode” was a more stripped down, as though the Parisians were returning to the breezy and decidedly French take on surfer rock of Le Podium #1; but with warped, carnival from hell-sounding organs — and in some way it would force the listener to think that both songs would be heard as part of the soundtrack of a surrealistic French arthouse film. Now the album’s third and latest single “Septembre” continues along the same veins of the preceding single as the band pairs swirling and soaring organ chords, propulsive and steady drumming, whirring background noise and dreamily distracted vocals to craft a song that sounds deeply indebted to 60s psych rock and psych pop; but interestingly enough, just under the surface is a mournful and bittersweet air.
The recently released video was shot on old, grainy Super 8 film and features some of the members of the band broodingly walking on the beach — but spliced and superimposed over old home movies, which further emphasizes the song’s mournful and bittersweet air.
