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Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
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French TV — This Is What We Do
(Bandcamp Pretentious Dinosaur 08, 2006, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2007-03-01

This Is What We Do Cover art

Sometimes I think French TV must be the result of a gene-splicing experiment combining DNA from Djam Karet and The Muffins. Then I hear a violin and that theory goes in the file with phlogiston and the turtle that carries the world on its back. In Seattle, we have a saying: “If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.” (I’m sure people in many cities have a similar saying.) Well, if you don’t like French TV, wait a minute or two. It doesn’t take them ten minutes to change sounds. But it all mashes together and makes sense somehow. At least to me – I suppose some listeners might prefer a little more consistency. Mellotron-backed guitar freakouts trading fours with twittery monosynth; RIO-like woodwind parts bordering on dissonant chaos or perhaps Gentle Giant like polyphony; a spoken bit that sounds like Dalek poetry; tempo changes just when things are getting into a groove... These wonders and many more await you inside the freak show. There’s another saying that seems appropriate: “It’s so crazy, it just might work!” That’s a statement I can picture being used frequently at French TV arranging sessions. It’s their willingness to persevere against the bounds of safety that makes the music thrilling to me. That and titles like “Theme from ESPN X-treme Cobalt Blue 4x4 Bathroom Tile Installation Games” – how can you resist something like that?

Filed under: New releases, Issue 34, 2006 releases

Related artist(s): French TV, Ske (Paolo Botta)

More info
http://frenchtv.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-what-we-do

 

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