Fontaine & Areski: Vous et Nous LP

Beautifully presented, total immersion reissue of Areski and Fontaine’s finest work together - quite possible one of the best underground LPs of the 70s

From the late 60s onward Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem made records, together and apart, that pretty much split the atom of French pop song. Combining chanson, Berber music, free jazz, radical politics and experimental theatre with a collaged and psycho-actively detailed production style, these records, misunderstood at the time, became hugely influential from the 90s on. Without Fontaine and Areski there is no Stereolab/Broadcast/Jim O’Rourke etc. etc. Vous et Nous is the pinnacle of their 70s output. Recorded at home It began life as an Areski solo record which Fontaine couldn’t resist secretly adding vocals to during the night. Released in 1977 it sprawls over 4 sides and 33 tracks. Much of the album’s charm lies in its DIY home recorded feel and its aversion to traditional rock virtuosity. Biting lyrics rail against colonialism, capitalism and the patriarchy while Algerian percussion and oud make common cause with drum machines, scribbled synth lines and medieval chant. Other similarly ambitious and freeform communal recording projects of the era often ended up messy and self indulgent, a few moments of gorgeousness surrounded by aimless improv and guest appearances from the drummer’s children. Vous et Nous, however, actually holds it together, even while it drifts and spirals, its focus shifting from delicate folk to proto-electro via spoken skits and North African trance. Place alongside The Marble Index, Rock Bottom, Future Days, Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine, Another Green World, Sowiesoso and Sov Gott Rose-Marie: that good...