Woozy Night

Chiennes Hi Fi
Rework (live), Lullabies and Les Putafranges
(Triptyque, Paris) 12-02-05

What remains are some hastily scribbled notes. I’ll try to decrypt the squiggles and arbitrary short hand to make sense of the night. Therefore here’s the variorum edition of my Chiennes Hi Fi Reminiscence Package in chronological order.

Putafranges’ first heat

- 1:05 a.m “Kiki Luv Sikk early airing”:
From the first quintessential b-movie harp sting, my mind was yanked out of orbit. My feet immediately followed on the empty dancefloor, which reminded me of Scorcese’s “After Hours”.

- 1:17a.m “Melancholy clap-house”:
It was different from the other Putafranges warm up sets. A few deep tracks followed each other, without being soporific thankfully.

- 1:41 a.m “Arpeggio excess”:
After the melancholy came the sequencers like little pixies biting our cheeks with their sawtooth teeth to lift us out of the previous deep house histrionics.

- 1:44 a.m “Chopping chord sequences & rimshot madness”:
The dancefloor was filled with anticipation and the martial acid disco was the right kind of discipline.

- ???“Dakar & Grinser - I wanna be your dog”:
the standard polite electro shuffle was quite out of the question. What was needed was a some unavowed and unsynchronised headbanging.

- ???“Schizo-Rock remix screamo-popcock”:
an unexpected departure here from the Putafranges by playing an electropop remix of some MTV cannon fodder. Inspired last minute choice or unforgivable mistake…you decide! I danced on with unease.

- !!!“France Copland – Pute et Mac digression”:

Finally I get to hear the first ever francophone Booty Bass track. It was about time and damn worth it too. Could Paris be the new Miami? I was recently told who was behind the twin Sarkozy masks but I forgot the names (typical).

- “This is what dreams are made of”
a dub version of the Human League’s electropop staple gives me a grin as wide as a harbour.

Rework live

- “A stern man came on and set some stern lines in motion”
this is what I wrote about one of the guys from Rework. They played some inhospitable house.

- “groove emerges from the starkness” that was a strong point of their set.

- 2:15 a.m “swooshes […] wobbles” always exciting

- “cocaine trilby pimp chic” sums up the singer’s look.

- “icy backing” they are German and signed to Playhouse, so no surprises there.

- “I love you – people stopped answering”
a very long track designed to build up crowd rapport. However 5 minutes of being told that you are loved over some teutonic beats was too much for some.

- “plinky” a neologism to describe a track called “crash test”

- 2:43 a.m “I just want you – relentless bass” nuff’ said

- “Music to dance to with a pencil behind your ear” made sense at the time.

- 2:50 “Say hey, a current affairs electric piano jingle riff”
I remember enjoying the piano loop in this track which was reminiscent of Spanish news music on the radio back in the day.

- “dainty house” will it ever exist? Rework are sometimes dainty.

- “Judicious groans and cowbells” enjoyed by everyone.

- “tuff gravel bass”
not dainty any more, at this point Rework were downright filthy.

- “Toms and stabs – Qu’est ce que tu fais là?”
without them electro wouldn’t exist. This track must have been full of them.

- Roughly 3 a.m or so “finishing off with a light pitch-shifted skiffle-shuffle ditty” seems to be all the rage these days.

Lullabies

No notes about her set initially because I was being accosted by several people looking for cigarettes, and at the end because I was dancing. It took her a while to find her feet but by the end she was hitting bull’s-eye track after track after track.

Putafranges closing heat.

- 4:19 probably “A woozy mood reigns”

- “Rocket Ride”
by Felix da Housecat, I presume. Back in the day, I met Melistar who worked on Kittenz and the Glitz.
- “cover -> Satisfaction”
a second-degree punk version of the Ministry of Sound’s unspeakable abomination.

- “Temporary Secretary”
a bit of a Chiennes Hi Fi standard it seems.

They also played Bloc Party and I get the impression Tom Tom Club may have got an airing too.

6.00 Snooze back home on the RER.