Le Villejuif Underground (FR)

A bassist who looks like he stepped out of a surfer movie shot near Chernobyl. A guitarist who would rather talk to you about Lunatic or Thai music than the Stooges. A keyboardist invited to a rehearsal by accident, hired because he fell asleep on his synth. An undocumented Australian poet-singer who stayed in France for a girl and improvised a room in a shed at the back of a garden. The little grey house with red shutters in Val-de-Marne, where the band lives, rehearses, organizes concerts, and records some of the most vital, vibrant, and exciting records heard in France over the past two years – and, let’s be honest, way, way beyond.

A storytelling that would make the managers of Eddy De Pretto and Angèle pale, yet rigorously authentic, built like all truly great stories: without anyone having sought it. Villejuif Underground’s music follows the same logic—a string of accidents and coincidences, an unnatural assembly that should never, ever have worked, but became one of the most astonishing fandangos heard in a long time. Think Oingo Boingo covered by Fat White Family on Beat Happening gear. Think Beck’s One Foot in the Grave remixed by Daniel Johnston and Brian Wilson. Think Ausmuteants, The Spits, The Feeling of Love, or A Frames when they all touched that magical thing with their fingertips – but honestly, you’d better not think about all that, because you won’t get there anyway. Far from it.

And things get even more intense with When Will The Flies In Deauville Drop?, their second album, released earlier this year on Born Bad. Eleven tracks delivered in under 40 minutes. Eleven limping love letters to overstuffed backpacks, haunted castles, the quiet streets of Paris’s 14th arrondissement, and tours in China – once again arranged by accident, thanks to a girl found asleep on a couch the day after New Year’s. Eleven serious style statements. Eleven reasons to keep believing that yes, in 2018, there’s still a path that doesn’t go through GarageBand presets, ad syncs, or the hot-air tricks of PR reps.

If you haven’t yet been infected by Villejuif Underground (their first album on SDZ) or Heavy Black Matter (EP released in late 2017 on Born Bad), chances are your tumultuous love affair with Villejuif Underground starts here. Make sure to live it fully. Really, fully