Rise

Formats

• ---

  LITA134CDCD  £13.00

• ---

  LITA134LP2 x Long Player  £26.00

Label

Light In The Attic

Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Press Color

New Wave Post Punk All tracks newly remastered and Liner notes by Vivien Goldman Lizzy Mercier Descloux may have come of age in Paris but it's in New York's Lower East Side that she really came alive The French punk pioneer a friend of Patti Smith and Richard Hell moved to New York in 1977 and soon immersed herself in avantgarde poetry performance art and punk music Closely associated with the founders of ZE Records home to Was Not Was and Kid Creole and The Coconuts Descloux released her debut album 'Press Color' in 1979 revealing a punkfunk sound that positioned her as the French answer to the UK group The Slits or New York's own ESG Just as The Slits gave 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' a makeover fit for warehouse parties on their celebrated 'Cut' LP Descloux's album revealed a penchant for the unexpected cover version too It kicks off with a brilliantly rhythmic take on The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown's 'Fire'a hit like Marvin Gaye's in 1968 There's also a version of Lalo Schifrin's theme from Mission Impossible that appears to predate the breakbeat scene by a good twenty years Elsewhere we hear echoes of Serge Gainsbourg's Afrobeatinfluenced work Blondie's discoinflected punk and Talking Heads' world musicinspired art pop I#acked by guitarists bassists DJ Barnes and Erik Elliasson plus drummer Jimmy Young Descloux creates a naA#ve musical world in which rhythm is everything not a byproduct of the song but the reason for its existence It's neither played nor sung with any great skill but it has feel and character in spades and a looseness that's all too rarely achieved Of course an artist with song titles including 'Tumor' a cover of 'Fever' with amended lyrics and 'Herpes Simplex' is never a shooin for mainstream acceptance and like many a No Wave classic the album sold little Now regarded as a cult classic this Light In The Attic reissue is presented in an extended 18track edition collecting much of Descloux's work including 'Morning High' recorded with Patti Smith Descloux returned to Paris upon scoring a contract with CBS and soon found herself travelling to Africa to research the Afrobeat sound experimented withfrom afaron 'Press Color' The hit single 'Mais ou Sont Passees les Gazelles' and album 'Zulu Rock' followed By the 1990s Descloux had turned her back on music in favor of painting and writing which she continued until her death in 2004 Her playful spirit lives on in this LPLP Expanded Double LP housed in a Deluxe Stoughton gatefold 'TipOn' jacket plus Download Pressed on Yves Klein Blue wax with 18x24 poster

Tracklist

• 1. Fire
  2. Torso Corso
  3. Mission Impossible
  4. No Golden Throat
  5. Jim On the Move
  6. Wawa
  7. Tumour
  8. Aya Mood
  9. Mission Impossible 2.0
  10. Rosa Vertov
  11. Decryptated
  12. Herpes Simplex
  13. Larousse Baron Bic
  14. Tso Xin Yu Xin
  15. Nina Con Un Tercer Ojo
  16. Birdy Num-num
  17. Hard Boiled Babe
  18. Morning High