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 current lead vocalist Clémence Quélennec, lara Luciani, Jane Peynot and Marilou Chollet La Femme is a Paris, France-based psych punk/krautrock/global music act who quickly received international attention with the release of their 2010 debut EP Le Podium #1 and their 2013 full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin; in fact, over the six years I’ve run this site, the Parisian indie act have become a mainstay — Le Podium # 1 landed on this site’s Honorary Mentions portion of the Best of 2011 List for a unique, breezy and decidedly French take on American surfer rock that also seemed to draw from The B52s. Psycho Tropical Berlin, La Femme’s full-length debut revealed a band that had went through a decidedly radical change in sonic direction. While still retaining elements of the breezy surfer rock that first caught international attention, the material on Psycho Tropical Berlin also consisted of elements of psychedelia, psychobilly, synth pop and krautrock (among several others), and as a result the album’s material frequently possessed a propulsive motorik groove — all while being uncompromisingly difficult to categorize. As I wrote about several singles off Psycho Tropical Berlin the material managed to sonically seem “as though they had spent their time listening to The Clash‘s Combat Rock and Sandinista.”
La Femme’s long-awaited sophomore effort is slated for release later this year, and the album’s first single “Sphynx” is an eerily hallucinatory and gorgeous track that pairs layers of icily shimmering synths and buzzing synths with a slow-burning yet propulsive groove and ethereal vocals that bubble up from the icy surface and float above the mix. The track evokes a fever dream that has lingered after you’ve awakened. And from the sounds of “Sphynx,” the single will continue the Parisian act’s growing reputation for boldly and uncompromisingly defying categorization — and interestingly enough, only sounding possible in the post-modern, hyper globalized world.
The recently released official video is hallucinatory and surreal as it seems to take place in a post-apocaylptic Egyptian-inspired world that gets stranger and trippier as you continue.
