Lescop Unveils Live Video, Pop Noire Debut Album + London Show Due 3rd June
French artist Lescop has unveiled a live video ahead of his one-off London show on Monday 3rd June at The Lexington and the release of debut S/T album the same day via Pop Noire.
Get a taster of Matthieu Lescop’s cooly understated take on no wave disco through this live version of album track ‘Le Mal Mon Ange’. As with everything Lescop does, it’s carefully and stylishly executed, the clip was expertly filmed by collaborator Antoine Carlier in grainy black and white at legendary Parisian haunt POP In.
Watch ‘Le Mal Mon Ange’ here:
Tickets for the 3rd June Lexington show are priced £7.50 plus booking fee from Bird On The Wire.
Comprised of eleven poisonous songs, Lescop’s eponymous debut album is set for a full UK release through buzzy label Pop Noire (Savages, John and Jehn, HTB) on the 3rd June. Produced by Johnny Hostile (the John of the afore-mentioned duo), ‘Lescop’ will be available on vinyl and cd for the first time in the UK, having been only released digitally earlier this year.
Watch the album trailer by Pop Noire and also directed by Antoine Carlier:
Lescop’s fast gaining new ground in the UK, having being hailed by The Quietus in their tracks of 2013 so far, by NME.com as one of the most exciting new French acts around at the moment and most recently Time Out who listed the 3rd June Lexington show as their top Critics Choice for this week. Naturally, Lescop already has a credible reputation amongst savvy music lovers in his homeland, with the debut provoking a smattering of critical applause from the likes of Les Inrockuptibles, Libération, Tsugi and Wonderland Magazine. Not to forget exclusive support from Hedi Slimane, who shot the album cover, and the mighty Phoenix, who have tipped Lescop of late.
By way of further enticement into Lescop’s noirish musical world, watch this short film accompaniment to album track ‘La Nuit Américaine’. Based on an idea by the man himself and directed by Sylvie Verheyde, this lovestruck narrative is set in a seedy nightclub and soundtracked by an extended version of one of the album’s finest dark disco moments:
Watch the fantastic minimal video for another album standout, ‘La Forêt’, as directed by Savages’ Jehnny Beth:
Lescop has a straightforward objective. He wants to make people dance while he sings about his obsessions, namely: complex human relationships, love, films, punk and his heroes like Yukio Mishima, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Pierre Malville, Jesse Owens, Georges Guynemer and the Red Baron.
Lescop has, so far, always written lyrics in French, conscious of a need to reinvent and revitalise French pop music. He wants to take more risks to make pop music that has an uneasy and penetrating identity. Who better than Johnny Hostile, French producer living in London, to join forces with Lescop? Their mission: to create an alternative to existing French rock, which sadly seems all but non-existent… to combine disco and Mishima, merge Berlin-era Bowie with Yves Simon.
Matthieu relates how they endeavoured to instill this revolutionary zeal into ‘Lescop’: “We’re never easy on ourselves. We are really interested in musical contradictions as we think this is where the magic happens. We want to mix French popular music with punk, we want our pop to be bipolar; we fight against musical boredom, it’s a controlled chaos, a love story.” Lescop writes the lyrics, then brings music to John who reinvents new ideas at each turn, while Jehnny Beth instantly films the artistic effervescence, and creates tense, sharp, and sexy videos in response to the music. The spirit of collaboration carries on with Gael Etienne (ex Koko von Napoo) graphic designer and leftfield musician, who fulfils both roles for the band.
As a natural consequence, John and Jehnny Beth created their label, Pop Noire, to encapsulate all these facets and drive them into one same direction: a singular creation.
Lescop is the product and the proponent of this all-encompassing artistic dream factory, striking the right balance between intelligence and primitivity, the cerebral and the instinctive in his music. Listen to Lescop under the cover of darkness and dance away your fears through reliving his.
“If you found Daft Punk’s recent album a little overblown, then you’ll be glad to hear there’s charming Frenchmen making simple yet catchy tunes… like an updated Gainsbourg” Time Out
“The record is a hive of fine moments, and its lead-off single – sleek new-wave that’s underpinned by a kinetic, nervy urgency and a chorus that encases subtle euphoria – distils them perfectly.” The Quietus on ‘La Nuit Américaine’, top tracks of 2013
“Lescop resuscitates cold-wave”. Les Inrockuptibles
“Love Phoenix, Chromatics and Stereolab’s ‘French Disko’? Then get to know Matthieu Lescop… He likes you to dance whilst he sings, so put on your best artsy polo-neck and get moving” NME