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Punk en France: a voyage of discovery of the new French punk wave

Ivan Lo Mauro (Iena, Carlos Dunga, Morgana, Destinazione Finale) guides us, city by city, on a journey to discover French punk

L’article est disponible ici en français / Here you will find the article in French

When Radio Punk asked me to try to write an article on French punk, I asked myself: why me? Do they know that more than half of the records I’ve bought lately are French? That I’ve been to Disneyland Paris five times (all as an adult and never paid)? That I once ate three baguettes in a row?

I don’t know, but I still try to delve into one of the most prolific punk ‘scenes’ of recent years.

Disclaimer: This article does not pretend to be either an encyclopedia or an archive of French punk, but rather a journey reflecting personal tastes and preferences. If you think something is missing, don’t hesitate to tell us! (contact us by email or write us on our social networks).

Let’s start our journey from the capital, Paris. I was lucky enough to play there several times in a year, and it was always a blast!

  • The first ones that come to mind are Rixe, perhaps the most famous current French band, they have their roots in the primordial oi!, a perfect mix of early Nabat and early Blitz but with singing in French.

  • Also in the Île de France capital are Bleakness. Try putting Killing joke’s early sound in a cauldron with hc punk and a Bleakness-like creature will emerge. If you like Chain Cult you’ll love them too.

  • Moving on to more pounding sounds, fresh from a new record I recommend Turquoise. Scandicore, the Totalitar who sing in French!

  • With people from Turquoise but dedicated to English anarcho-punk and sung in English, The Mob-style, I present to you Barren:

  • When people from Bleakness and Turquoise try to mix it up and make a band out of it comes Going away party: post punk with great singalongs.

  • Also in Paris we find MaryBell. They call themselves feminist grunge punk, great live and recently out with a new record!

  • Oi/post punk, what they call Punk Froid (cold punk) in France, a very apt definition to describe them too: Cran. Here you will find melody and anger.

  • Now we review a new band, recently out with their demo: Saccage, Antifa oi! from the heart of Paname rage

  • The last two bands I mention, besides having members in common, have that rock guitar sound that makes you move your foot wherever you are: Youthavoiders and Stallen minds

After this roundup of Parisian groups, we move to upper France, on the border with Belgium, to the capital: Lille.

The characteristic of the Lille groups is that each group has one member in common with the other. Here we find the perfect mix of oi! and post punk, what I saw written in several French flyers and which I mentioned above: punk froid.

Let’s start with two bands that no longer exist but that in my opinion are among the most beautiful ever to come out of the French hexagon:

  • Douche Froide, beautiful cold wave: I literally wore this record out on youtube, if anyone reading this has a copy to sell me absolutely contact me!

  • And then Traitre, a melange between oi! and post punk, perhaps among the first to mix these two sounds: punk froid, best definition ever… here too anger and melody!

  • UOne of the bands with members of Traitre that most excited me was Kronstadt, unfortunately I was told they played their last gig not long ago.

  • An active band from Lille, with whom we shared a stage and a chat on French soil are Utopie. Politicised post punk, a record with beautiful artwork by the drummer, who has his hands on almost all the artwork of these bands from Lille, but not only.

  • Let’s move on to Short days, with at least one member in common with each of the bands listed above, punk guitar but sadder and more melodic, below you will find the new album.

  • Now I present a band different from the previous ones, they scream in English and are closer to hc punk. Gutter!

  • Années zero, a little faster than the others and still with members in common with the groups listed above.

  • Returning towards more post-punk, cooler sounds, a pleasant discovery of the last few months: Chiaro scuro.

In Lille they never stand still, in fact two very nice demos have been released this year, again cold punk!

  • Peur Bleue:

  • Arsou:

  • The last group on the list consists of the same members as Année zero, but much more violent! Camellia Sinensis:

Now we move westwards, following the North Sea and land in Brest, where a few people have many groups, all of them incredible!

  • Before I tell you which are the current ones, let me introduce them: Tachanka, also here we are in front of a mix of oi! and post punk, recently reissued for Mendeku Diskak, this record was introduced to me by my Parisian friends from AIM paname / Red Vibes. The title alone lets you know what the lyrics are about: Class revenge!

Now to the spearheads of Brest, but perhaps of the whole of France, bands that need no introduction:

  • Syndrome 81: With their latest record, which is a cannonball, they even earned a call to Hell fest, perhaps the most famous extreme music festival in the world. Oi!, post punk, punk rock, all very good from the music to the lyrics.
    If you saw them live, you’ll agree with me….

  • Litovsk: here their latest album, one of the best forms of world post punk.

  • Another fine group that mixes punk rock and new wave are Secteur Pavé. Even in Brest it seems that people are always the same, in fact we find people from Syndrome and Litovsk in here.

  • Now we move towards old school: bassist and vocalist from Syndrome, the former on instruments, the latter on vocals, have released a tight old school hc demo. 
    Mentalité 81 (does the name ring a bell?):

  • As they used to say, you can’t change a winning team, and so our heroes Fab and Jacky (aka the singer and bass player of Syndrome, also them…) are releasing another new band, Grisaille. They may sound like Syndrome ‘less oi’, but there’s a lot of early century Scandinavian punk here (Gorilla Angreb and Masshysteria above all)

  • Again with the bass player of Syndrome, whom I will also tell you about later, and another shady character you will find later on, I present Coupe Gorge fresh from a not bad Lp: fast, melodic and angry.

  • The last group I present is a one man band, the bass player of Syndrome and drummer of Coupe Gorge recently played and recorded alone, yes because he has a recording studio, and practically all the bands from Brest, (but not only) record/mix/master at his place: at the movie recording… and I understand that he is a guarantee. Always post oi, cold punk, in short, call it what you like, the fact remains that this record rocks.
    Prisonner Du Temps:

Now we move a little further south:

  • Litige, a punk rock quartet based in Lyon, here, too, melodies take centre stage.

  • VClose to Lyon, in Saint Etienne we find Deletar. Above you can listen to their latest record, featuring members in common with Litige and Bleakness, a punk rock band as direct as a punch in the face!

  • Also in Saint Etienne we find Zone infinie, always that hybrid of oi and post punk, with choruses that stick in your head. French punk rock with a touch of oi.

  • The last band I mention that comes from the capital of the Loire are Surface Tangible, sometimes shot punk hc and sometimes post noise punk.

Let’s go even further south, more precisely to Toulouse to talk about four bands, which I understand have at least one member in common.

  • Nightwatchers: a quartet that mixes post punk and punk/garage/rock and makes melody their sharpest weapon, along with very interesting lyrics: one of their records is about the French colonial period.

  • Nohz: raw punk, dirty, bad and direct!

  • Last but not least, Filature, fresh from their new album, also cold punk, if you like post punk sounds you are in the right place.

  • Last band I mention from Toulouse are Trholz, Riot Girl against the patriarchy!

Now moving randomly through France, I give you the last round-up of bands:

  • From Lorient, Brittany: Cuir. Another solo project, this time synth punk. With the singer of Coupe Gorge. Imagine playing a Billy Idol record at twice the speed, spice it up with a bit of dope and you have Cuir.

  • Let’s move on to Bordeaux to talk about Bombardement. Swedish-minded D-Beat, to listen to in one go!

  • From Nancy, a city in the Big East, come Rancoeur, who call themselves Cold oi, after a demo and a full-length. And recently with a very interesting 7-inch. One of the most interesting realities of this new oi/post punk wave.

The last two bands I will tell you about are:

  • Oi Boys from Metz, electronic drums, synths but sung like punk. A highly recommended record:

  • Hinin, Post-punk trio from Tulle who recently released a split with Litovsk.

Marseilles:

I didn’t mention any band from Marseilles because the good Francesco Zio ciko did a great report here.

In addition to all these bands, the whole of France is teeming with concerts, labels, artists and more generally counterculture punk.

I will now mention a few labels to watch out for, in fact many of the bands you find above are released on these labels, often by people who play in the bands listed above:

Destructure
Une vie pour rien
Symphony of destruction
No glory records
Offside records
Les Chœurs de l’ennui
Dirtyslap records

What can I say, listen to them all, go with the ‘cold’ punk!

Oi!

Article by Ivan Lo Mauro (Iena / Morgana / Carlos Dunga / Destinazione Finale)

For those who want to delve deeper, here is a guide to French punk written in 2019.

This article is an unedited piece written by Ivan Lo Mauro for Radio Punk, the result of months of research and work. Its sharing is free but if you would like to republish or quote it write to us at info@radiopunk.it

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