AA.VV.
So Young But So Cold

"So Young But So Cold" is the title of a track by Kas Product and an interesting compilation of the earliest French Electronic music (circa 78-81), released on Tigersushi rec in 2004. This is one of those compilations that not only has the merit of introducing artists buried by time, thereby bringing some "hidden gems" back to light, but it also has the rare ability to bring an entire world back to the surface, allowing one to sense its flavors, colors, background noises. It wasn't a truly organic scene, the French one, but rather a group of artists coming from the most diverse environments, yet united by the bizarre choice of replacing traditional guitar-bass-drums with a synthesizer, following in the footsteps of Suicide, Throbbing Gristle, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire. Journalists called them all "jeunes gens modernes." Or they used terms like Afterpunk, Electrofuturisme, Novo, Synth Sci-Fi... Modern visions of a forcibly modern, iconoclastic, non-conformist world.

Among the various tracks, we find historic names of Synth Pop such as Mathematiques Modernes ("Disco Rough"), some Pop gems like "Polaroid Roman Photo" by Ruth, "Synchro" by Charles de Goal (bassist of Coma), the minimalist "Suis-je Normale" by Nini Raviolette. The two tracks by (Hypothetical) Prophets, "Person To Person" (brilliant lyrics!) and "Wallenberg," are decidedly disturbing and unnerving, produced by Karel Beer and Bernard Szajner; the latter, a sound engineer who built his own machines, is the author of "Some Deaths Are Forever," considered an immensely influential Electronic album. Kas Product stands out with the magnificent Synth Punk track that gives the collection its title, and "Mae" by Artefacts, an excellent Wave-Dance track a decade ahead of its time. Completing the lineup are the Metal Boys (a side project of Metal Urbain, a band that already included the much-feared synthesizer) and Tim Blake, member of Gong, with "Hawkwind," a track already with a Trance flavor. The beginning of the second track, "Euroman" by JJ Burnel (member of the Stranglers), goes, "Je suis descendant de Charlemagne/Je suis descendant de Cromwell/Je suis descendant de Bonaparte/Je suis descendant d' Adolf Hitler/ Je suis ton Eurohomme."

Minor provocations that perhaps fell flat, but in every song, you can perceive the iron will to break with the past, to do something never seen or heard before, something terribly new. Even if the record is full of naivety, at least THEN there were those who tried to say the unsaid. This is the polaroid of an era that seems a thousand years ago.