DES JEUNES GENS MODERNES

Description

"Cold wave," "post-punk," "novö": at the beginning of the 80s, we didn't know what to call them. The newspaper Actuel dubbed them "modern young people." A somewhat outdated term but broad enough to designate this spontaneous generation. From Toulouse to Paris, from Rennes to Nancy, bands emerged, recorded a few tracks, and then vanished into nothingness. These young shoots are called Elli et Jacno, Marquis de Sade, Taxi Girl, Edith Nylon, Kas Product... More than musical roots, these groups share an aesthetic: trendy monochrome looks, dandy coldness, nihilism as a boutonnière, and a rejection of the values of the 68 generation. Here, they prefer to quote Cioran, Murnau, and celebrate the robotic beauty of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. It's no surprise that these bands were the first to seize synthesizers and drum machines, often in a standard way. A dry, cold, repetitive sound that remains their trademark. More "arty" than musical, this rock of literature students paved the way for both Etienne Daho and Indochine or Jeanne Mas... Thirty years later, this very comprehensive compilation allows us to rediscover some dear ghosts: the icy voice of Mona Soyoc and the dangerous intensity of Philippe Pascal, singer of Marquis de Sade and an emblematic figure of these "modern young people."