Faire Beacoup Avec Rien

If you talked to me last week, it would have been hard to convince me that there is anything beyond Air, a few Noir Desir songs, Laetitia Sadier and something like 10 electro tracks worth listening to in recent French pop music. The Rita Mitsouko were never my thing, Daft Punk got old really quickly, Telephone ends up being a family classic (and that just ruins it - plus they've been inactive for at least a decade), and I believe I've made my point.

But this week, my hopes are a bit higher for contemporary French rock music (or just French music in general). That's because of a band called Rien, which means literally nothing (haha - sorry...).

Why do you need to like this band (or at least listen to it)?

Because knowing cool French bands other than Phoenix, Air and Daft Punk will make you successful with the ladies abroad.

More seriously (because it won't), Rien is a band from Grenoble, a medium sized French city like many others near the Mediterranean and the Alps. Useless info, you might say, but I like settings for stories.

In that city of Grenoble is an association called l'Amicale Underground (translatable as Underground Friends Union, or something like that, feel free to suggest better), which also serves as record label for Rien. First reason why you need to take a look at this is the Amicale's website in its lo-fi awesomeness:

The second reason: everything that comes out on the aforementioned label is FREE TO DOWNLOAD. I really appreciate that and I don't see why anyone wouldn't give this a try after such a move.

The third reason: if you buy one of the 500 copies of Rien's EP "3" (for 10 €, shipping included, which is a very fair price compared to what some people do), not only do you get a collectible item, you get A VERY FREAKIN' NICE collectible piece of art you can look at for a while. Designed by fellow Grenoble design firm PNTS, here's a few pictures courtesy of their website:

Seriously worth buying if you like the music (that, again, you can get for free - it's like they guilt trip you in buying the best CD package of the year! And did I mention the CD is the most epic slab of black plastic ever?), PNST also did a flabbergasting packaging for Rien's previous LP, Il Ne Peut Y Avoir De Prédiction Sans Avenir (loving the elongated titles à la Godspeed You! Black Emperor - but IN FRENCH). Pictures still courtesy of the PNTS website - awesome people, I'm telling you!):

Unfortunately, this record is out of print. Still good though, and still freely downloadable on the label's website - consider donating (shameless advertisement for other people, yes - least I can do after getting all their records and borrowing pictures).

The fourth reason, and the most important one: "3" contains pretty damn good sounds. It's not at all your usual post-rock record - these people are willing to experiment with sounds as much as motorik-ly repeating one with minimalist style.  On this EP, Rien plays with layers, which, if they sometimes seem conflicting or clashing with the foundation of the song at first, are completely integrated and natural by the end of it. You will come to damn these people, because this record, at 25 minutes and 18 seconds, is about a third of what it should be. Then you will remember what you read on the label's website: 3 is the first of three records, that will come out until 2014, when the band Rien will end (in Japan, apparently?).

What I'm wondering is: How the hell am I going to wait?

JNCT



...

PS: bonus reason: you can make so many puns with this band's name. It's like the fun never stops.

edit: reading my own post makes me feel like I wrote an ad for that record. I tried changing a few things to make this purely subjective post seem more nuanced, but I did really love "3". Considering you can listen to it for free, you shouldn't read any of my nonsense and go directly to the label's website to make you own opinion.