I was in Amsterdam just a few weeks back, feeling very electronic from all of the synthesized music reverberating between the narrow canyons of buildings and streets. After the hotel, my girlfriend decided to do the shopping thing with my 100% support. When shoes were added to her itinerary, my body and psyche suddenly began to pulse from the “overburdening heat of the sun.”
“Why don’t you hang out in here?” she said, pointing to the small, doorless record store.
“Okay but hurry up.”
So then she left me there, with turntables, a pair of sweat-soaked headphones, and a cashier bobbing his head to European electro. I flipped through their modest selection of records, sniffing the cardboard, and the black vinyl within like a sheepdog. I picked through the pretty covers, the titles of which were in different languages, when I found one that I could fully understand; a sound, an onomatopoeia, short and sweet as the tweaky stabs onto the keyboard that had inspired the album’s songs: BIPPP. I flipped the record onto the turntable’s platter, dropping the needle gently onto the smooth black finish, and poked the start button.
The synth pop was familiar, something perhaps dredged from the quarters of the Lower East Side, had its creator been dosed with a happy drug. It lacked the cold, sequenced vibe of German electro, and also the drug-slurped, just-found-this-guitar-on-the-street London or dirty Lower East Side, New York musician, and the French — as a recently converted Franchophile — sounded silly BUT…it wasn’t bad. In fact, as I skipped through the tracks, I began to recognize the sounds, the cooly-droned vocalizations of female singers, searching their inner French Nico — yes, Felix Da Housecat loves using vocals like this, and so do many other modern musicians.
When my girlfriend returned to check on me, I was still there, clutching both sides of the headphones, listening and smiling to the awkward French singing and catchy synth hooks but I loved it. Yes, it was very French and maybe I wouldn’t have bought it had I found the disc in New York City but I’m glad I did.
Key Tracks
Marie Moor “Pretty Day”
Ruth “Polaroid/Roman/Photo”
Casino Music “Viol Af Dis”
Busy P “Rainbow Man”
