Various
Les Punks: The French Connection: The First Wave Of Punk 1977-80
The punk scene of France’s radical underground is celebrated in a new compilation by Soul Jazz Records. Emerging from a tradition of dissidence and revolution, whether sexual (Serge Gainsbourg) or social (Paris ʻ68 riots), and inspired by proto-punk sounds of the US and UK, bands like Metal Urbain (the first group ever to be signed to Rough Trade Records), Marie et Les Garçons, and Asphalt Jungle, blazed a trail across French music that’s rarely given the visibility it deserves. Paving the way for more experimental cold wave / minimal wave electronic groups such as Kas Product, Charles de Goal and A3 Dans le WC that emerged towards the end of the decade, the French punk scene also helped provide more theoretical frameworks to punk’s identity, whether through notions of Dadaism and Surrealism in the US or Situationism in the UK.