Larme Blanche (which can be translated as ‘knife’ or ‘rudimentary weapon’) is a brand-new project driven by an artist wearing a mask and keeping his name secret. He claims his music is more important than his face and even the label, Unknown Pleasures Records, where he released his debut album “Demain Est Mort” doesn’t know his identity. But music indeed is more important than faces and the minimal-electro composed by this artist is absolutely worthy of examination. All songs are sung in French mainly revealing critical and political subjects recovered with obscure and gloomy atmospheres plus danceable sequences. This album took me by surprise and incited me to get in touch with the man with the mask…

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You don’t want to reveal your identity, so what fascinates you working anonymously? Or is it just a strategy to keep people busy to guess who’s hiding under the mask you’re wearing? How did you get interested in electronic music to finally set up Larme Blanche?

LB:My identity is not important, but the music is. Wearing a mask (a balaclava, precisely) is not a strategy, or a marketing shit. I’ve read a lot about the symbols of the mask, and I think hiding my face and my own identity is a way for me to be truly myself. I can say whatever I want, without any filters or any fears to be judged. Hiding is for me artistic freedom.

Honestly, playing electronic music is not a choice. It’s just the best set up if you’re alone in a musical project. With my synths and drum machines, I can play nearly everything by myself. I just sometimes need the help of true musicians to reach a higher level, like Quentin Dubarry, who plays saxophone on the song “Overdose d’Épicure”, or my friend Fred that mixed and mastered my music.

Q: What was your initial purpose when starting this project? Did you have specific ideas/criteria in mind about sound, influences, equipment, ao?

LB: At the very beginning, my purpose was to make a lot of noise. At the time, I wanted to play with the industrial/noise codes and techno music. At first, I thought the project will be fully instrumental, no voice. Probably because I like cinematic music. But life is full of surprises, right ? One day, I put my voice on the song “Paris La Nuit”, and I thought it sounded very cool. So in the end, I decided to focus more on the vocals and lyrics.

About the influences, I would say Suicide, Chris & Cosey, Throbbing Gristle, D.A.F., Death In June and a lot of French wave, from Taxi Girl to Etienne Daho. The movies of Gaspar Noé also had a big impact on me.

Q: What’s your main focus when you compose a song and what are the different stages you’ve to go through to achieve a song –and an album?

LB: I don’t have a formula. I can start with a sound, a beat, a synth bass line, sometimes with a sample… It really depends of my mood. Usually I mess around with sounds for hours, and I see how far it goes. I have hundreds of little loops in my archives. The most difficult thing is picking the good ones and turn them into a ‘real’ song. Usually, I pick the ones that inspire me vocally, or the ones that sound weird.

About the lyrics, I like to write down ideas when it comes, wherever I am. Sometimes when I walk in the street, sometimes in the train… So as soon as I have a good instrumental music, I just have to read my notes again and find the idea that fits the best with the track.

Q: All songs have been sung in French while the lyrical content appears to be engaged, critical, political, sensual, sometimes featuring historical samplings (cf. “Le Dernier Soupir”), dark and into poetry. Tell us a bit more about this essential element of the album and your project?

LB: Singing in French is at the core of this project and it will never change (except for covers, like the one of Death In June that I just released). When you play rock’n’roll, it’s easy to sing in English, because it works well with gimmicks. But I think French language work better with electronic music. It’s important for me to sing in my native language, because it forces me to work harder and deeper on the words. Believe me, writing those lyrics was a long process, way longer than the music!

I may hide behind a mask, but lyrically I’m naked here. I don’t know if this record is engaged, but it’s critical and political for sure. A song like “Assez!” was inspired by the yellow jacket movement that happened in France last year. I’ve seen far-right and far-left people crushing my country to the bone, and it made me sick. As a result, I wrote this song. I’m also a huge fan of History, as you can hear in “Le Dernier Soupir”. In that song, I wanted to superpose the values of our past heroes (here a speech of André Malraux for the Jean Moulin funerals, he was a famous resistant that fought against the Nazis) to the vacuity of our current heroes. Do the pop stars, starlets, actors and TV reality people deserves to be our heroes? I’d like to make people dance, but I’d like to make them think too.

Q: The title song “Demain Est Mort” is the last –hidden, song from the album. What did you try to express with this title, which also sounds as one of the most enraged songs of the album?

LB: Enraged, that’s a good word to describe it! At first, this song was just a fist in the face. I came back at home one shitty day, after another crack head of Paris insulted me in the street. It’s those kind of days when everything turns bad and when you want to kill everyone. So instead of turning into a mass murderer, I decided to write about that feeling. And it became “Demain Est Mort”, which means “Tomorrow Is Dead”.

It was a cathartic experience, it all happened very quickly. In a way, I wanted to sound like a nihilistic version of this old French punk band called Bérurier Noir.

Q: You released a few clips and it’s interesting to see the contrast in the themes between “Paris La Nuit” (about the French Capital) and “Taiga” (about nature). What did you try to express here?

LB: The message of “Paris La Nuit” is very simple; it’s all about this city that makes me sick every day. Usually, when I travel, all the people I met are always fascinated about Paris, you know with all the clichés: the city of love, so romantic blah blah blah… But I live in a very popular area of the city (where the video was shot) and it’s not glamorous at all. It’s full of crack heads, dealers, gangs, violence… With people literally sleeping on the pavement (as you can see in the video clip). This song is a vision of my Paris, the real Paris, not the one for tourists.

“Taïga” in a way is a response to this urban decay. I wrote that song after a trip in the Canadian taiga last Summer. I felt so good in the nature that I wanted to disappear there, and never come back to the madness of a big city. What’s the point of living in a world like that, were a phone made by a child in China is more important than the wildlife? How absurd is that? I think humanity has lost itself into consumerism and turned into a freaky monster. In those troubled times, nature appear to me as a peaceful shelter.

Q: What are the further plans?

LB: I’ve just released a cover of “Break The Black Ice” by Death In June for the tribute album “Honoris DI6” to be released on Unknown Pleasures Records in June (obviously). I also have an unreleased track called “Amor À Mort” that will be released on the vinyl compilation “My Precious! Vol. 3” (on the Belgian label Red Maze Records). It’s a very weird, erotic track inspired by the EBM of D.A.F. and the sadomasochistic band Athamay. It smells like whip, leather and latex. In June, I’ll also publish an experimental video of a new song called “Le Poing Et La Chaîne”, which I’m very proud of. It was made in confinement and it’s raw and very industrial, with live recordings of percussions played with chains. There is a big work on the sound and I think it can give some clues about the future direction of the project…

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Happiness Project is the French trio Christelle Fournioux (vocals), Fred Tuyeras (vocals, machines) and Cyrille Tuyeras (machines, bass). After a first self-released album (cf. “Remove Or Disable”) released in 2008 they later on joined hands together with the French label BOREDOMproduct. They released a new album (cf. “9^th Heaven”) in 2012 and a few EP’s. They this year unleashed their third full length (cf. “Mutation”), which in a way marks the return of the French electro-pop trio dealing with this typical and easy recognizable BOREDOMproduct sound. This is what the band has to say about it.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Your new album “Mutation” is the first one in six years. When did you start the writing of the new songs and what did you keep in mind from the entire composition process?

HP: We started “Mutation” as soon as “9th Heaven” was released. We had already thought about our new album. We wanted to make it clear to ourselves, that “Mutation” would be darker, closer to our native audience and more in accordance with our musical background. However, we also wanted “Mutation” to be closer to our state of mind, our spirit and our way of making music: a deeper insight into our preoccupations, a world which is constantly changing and where things often remain incomplete.

Q: The work features the contribution of label mates ‘JB’ (Dekad) and ‘Member U-0176’ (Celluloide). What have been their real impact and what does it reveal about the ‘sound’ and ‘friendship’ between the BOREDOMproduct artists?

HP: Member U-0176’s, as well as JB Dekad’s contributions to our album came from Member U-0176 himself. He wanted “Mutation” to sound differently, especially as far as rhythms were concerned. He knows we particularly like JB Dekad’s work, in this sense. As BOREDOMproduct is a family of artists, we automatically agreed with this idea. It turned out to be quite effective and we like the work made by JB Dekad on our songs.

Nevertheless, this doesn’t reveal much about our relationships within the label, as we all live in different French cities, far from each other. But we all look for the same goal: a post-production quality which fits the label’s musical style and audience. Our relationship with the other groups of the label consists in listening to their music with a true interest and a great attention.

Q: I think “Mutation” reveals an interesting twist between harder and somewhat EBM-driven songs at one side and pure melancholic electro-pop songs at the other side. Where does this duality comes from and tell us a bit more about “Mutation”?

HP: The duality which is obvious in “Mutation” comes from the guidelines we had defined before starting. We wanted to express that nothing is permanent in this world and that things switch from one aspect to another. Change, duality, mutations are part of mankind, so what better way than expressing all this through various musical styles, ranging from harder tracks to more EBM-driven songs! This is what the world is made of: as we say in our song “Mutation” : ‘Nothing’s complete’!

Q: The lyrical content clearly has its importance. What did you try to express and what have been the main sources of inspiration?

HP: Sources of inspiration have been numerous: from Japanese mangas to Sci-Fi movies, from personal experiences to a more philosophical approach of life, from Tim Burton’s world to daily-life concerns. Our lyrics are meaningful because they carry out the perceptions of life we have. We do not really try to pass any message, but we simply want to share our ways to face reality, our concerns about the world. We wanted each song to be a chapter of a broader ‘Fairy Tale’, which would be about Humanity.

Q: You contributed to the ‘tribute’-compilations to Etienne Daho and Martin Dupont. How was it working on these cover versions and especially considering both artists are French ‘icons’?

HP: The songs we decided to cover “L’Adorer” by Etienne Daho and “Just Beacuse” by Martin Dupont were really chosen with a lot of care. Both are our favorite songs by these two French artists. But here too, we wanted them not to be just covers, but actual ‘re-creations’ of these two songs. The intention was: if we had created them, personally, what would they sound-like? So we tried to stick to their original tunes, as much as possible, but we also added musical features which were not in the original versions. Well, we assumed it worked pretty well, didn’t it? 😉

Q: Today most of the artists are releasing new work at regular basis while Happiness Project is the entire contrary. How comes and what are you doing in between 2 productions?

HP: We have been building up our musical world with accuracy and precision. In a sense, we are ‘slow music makers’. We do spend a lot of time thinking about each instrument (even if they directly derive from keyboards, except for the bass-guitar and some of the drums, performed by Christelle) and how we can make them all coincide with our lyrics.

Moreover, we live far from each other and the time dedicated to music is always tight, intense and spread out. Also, before releasing a new album we want to be sure that it will meet up with our first intentions. The thing we can assure you about our next album, is that it will come out, within the next two years! The recording hasn’t started yet, but a lot of new materials are ready and we should be starting soon!

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro-pop, electro-wave, EBM.

Background/Info: French label BOREDOMproduct last year released a surprising compilation/tribute to French pop icon Etienne Daho. They now strike back with a new tribute to one of France’s greatest and most legendary new-wave & electro band Martin Dupont. The band was active during the 80s and just as BOREDomproduct they were from Marseille. Notice by the way the album is available on different formats, from CD to vinyl to cassette and of course on digital platforms. It’s a fascinating tribute because next to some familiar label bands we also get other selected bands.

Bands: Celluloide, Happiness Project, Dekad, Neutral Lies, The Rorschach Garden, Cyborgdrive, Sweater With A Hood, TourdeForce, Auto-Immune, Müller Denscheidt, Makina Girgir.

Content: You don’t necessarily have to be that familiar with the work of Martin Dupont to enjoy this compilation. It’s a diversified work mixing different elements and I really appreciate the efforts of the selected bands to transpose the original versions into a very own adaptation. The least I can say is that Martin Dupont has inspired most of the selected formations.

+ + + : I already mentioned the diversity, but I also have to mention some great adaptations into EBM by Dekad, the typical bleeping electronics from Celluloide, another EBM approach by Auto-Immune (which was already featured on the Etienne Daho tribute), the electro-wave from Müller Denscheidt and Makina Girgir. There’s a fascinating twist between the different formations and their own interpretation of Martin Dupont.

– – – : Only the biggest fans of the band will maybe be disappointed. The original versions have this 80s magic you don’t necessarily find back on a tribute. But my only little regret is that a few bands didn’t really pay that much attention to the production of the vocals.

Conclusion: This tribute to Martin Dupont incited me to get back to the original songs I haven’t heard for years now. That’s also because I really enjoyed this tribute and I can only encourage BOREDOMproduct to move on… Kas Product could be an idea….

Best bands: Dekad, Müller Denscheidt, Makina Girgir, Celluloide, Neutral Lies.

Rate: (8).

Label: www.boredomproduct.online.fr / www.facebook.com/boredomproduct

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Electro, pop, electro-rock, dance-pop.

Background/Info: Amuza Producciones is a small label hailing from Spain, which has released a few productions. You maybe have discovered bands such After The Rain, Cyborgdrive ao. This compilation features 15 songs (and 13 bands) as a tribute to one of the Spanish pioneers of techno-pop music Azul Y Negro. This formation has been active since the early 80s and got some national fame during the 80s and 90s.

Bands: Cyborgdrive, The New Technocratz, The Unknown, Kill Bill 6, Ibes Magora, Dieddro, Furtiva, Opium Den Electronic Music ao.

Content: It’s not an easy thing commenting this compilation. Azul Y Negro might be a pioneer of Spanish techno-pop and a kind of national pride, when you aren’t familiar with the band and you don’t know that much about the bands contributing to this sampler, it’s damned difficult to give an ‘objective’ point of view.

All I can say is that this sampler features a wide variety of influences, which are often electro-pop driven and mainly mixed with dance elements. A few other bands experiment with other elements such as electro-rock or electro-wave.

Notice by the way that Cyborgdrive has been featured with 3 songs.

+ + + : I can imagine this is the kind of ‘tribute’ that will get some interest in Spain while this kind of sampler also has to be seen as an ultimate consecration and recognition for a band. I especially like the somewhat old-school driven cuts and I want to recommend Los Pasajeros as most noticeable formation of the list.

– – – : I’m afraid this is the kind of sampler that will not make it in the ‘international’ underground scene. I compare it a bit to a compilation from Boredom Product released last year as a tribute to Etienne Daho. But on the other side it also is an opportunity to discover new formations, but unfortunately I can’t say to have been totally convinced.

Conclusion: This is a very special and intimate tribute, which I’m sure, must get Azul Y Negro proud, but at the other side it mainly sounds like a national (Spanish) affair instead of a compilation meant to reach an international audience.

Best bands: Opium Den Electronic Music, Los Pasajeros, Mist3rFly feat. Dieddro, Neosynth feat. Sister.

Rate: (5½).

Label: www.amuzaproducciones.com / www.facebook.com/amuzaproducciones

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Released last February, BOREDOMproduct’s latest compilation, a tribute to famous French pop singer Etienne Daho, sold out this summer. But the compilation sees a re-release this October and is available right now from the label’s webshop.

This re-release comes in a new packaging and holds an extra surprise for the fans, as Etienne Daho himself wrote a little message to thank the artists in the booklet. An audio preview of the compilation is available below.

Here are 2 extracts of the album by Celluloide (“Le Grand Sommeil”) and Foretaste (“Ouverture”).

After two previous label compilations (“Synthétique” and “Auto-Reverse”), “Pistes Noires (de préférence)” is an electronic pop tribute to famous french pop singer Etienne Daho. The CD holds no less than 17 tracks: 17 different bands giving their personal view on Etienne Daho’s song a backward trip from the 2014 hit single “En Surface” to his 1981′ debut “Mythomane”. You can buy it here.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

side-line.com