(Hot Wave Music / FRA)

Il loro nome ci era stato fatto dai comuni amici dell'Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, e già questo sarebbe bastato... Poi l'ascolto ha confermato le aspettative: i francesi Portron Portron Lopez hanno talento e creatività da vendere, mischiano un free rock à la Captain Beefheart, spigoloso ma al contempo sbarazzino, ai ritmi della musica africana tra l’afrobeat di Fela Kuti e la psichedelia di Mdou Moctar. Il loro concerto è elettrizzante, vertiginoso, vivo. Le chitarre dei due fratelli Portron si rincorrono "come due macchine da corsa che cercano di superarsi in curva su una strada di montagna" (!), mentre il drumming (selvaggio) di Olivier Kelchtermansof tiene il ritmo imperterrito.

Qualcuno lo ha definito "rock da trampolino". Siete pronti a tuffarvi nel loro suono?

Più sotto info e link sul loro primo album, uscito nel 2022 sull'etichetta Hot Wave Music Publishing dei Metronomy.  .

Negli scorsi mesi si sono messi al lavoro per il seguito, registrando in quell'incredibile laboratorio creativo che è il Total Refreshment Centre di Londra (Alabaster De Plume, The Comet is Coming etc) con la produzione di Kristian Craig Robinson (Alabaster Deplume, Rozi Plain, Thurston Moore) Siamo sicuri che ne sentiremo e ne vedremo delle belle...

Strange in a positive way, fantastic, pretty, pleasant : curious shapes and distorted forms - something unique that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of privileged status as well as sympathetic blush. It’s a powerful magnet grabbing everybody’s attention. Incisive chords, surreal blues, beautiful people. SMILES. Notes trying to strike a balance between art-and-precision conceptual melodies away from traditional structures.

French coutryside-born rock has yet to make music history and Portron Portron Lopez can be the ones doing it. The group anointed themselves the successors of AC/DC. It’s not a bad idea in itself; the Aussies have seen better days.

The trio is not from the other side of the world and they have yet to fill stadiums. What they do have is the audacity of youth and solid musical talent that stirs up a crowd. People aren’t headbanging in the way AC/DC’s boogie blues elicit that vertical reaction. Instead, Portron Portron Lopez’s music prompts the horizontal moves of shaking hips. What else can happen with the frenzied tempo of afrobeat topped with some insane rock and wild drumming?

Two of the three musicians are guitarists driving the music like two race cars up a mountain road trying to overtake one another, even on bends. The records of this self-proclaimed “power trio of Carribean psychedelic garage rock” sound like every speed possible on a low-visibility drive along a cliffside. The afrobeat is filled with instrumental post-rock and noise music. Overall, it is an invitation to dance and laugh from these Captain Beefheart Fans.

“Ice Cream Soufi” is the name of their last album; the titles of each track sum up the offbeat nature of this whole thing. Between ‘Comment Vas Tu Rossignol’ and ‘Tayau' lies a whole world of choppy tambourines and fret buzz galore born out of the trio’s symbiosis. They only take things seriously with their music as a whole. Their sound is solid but not rigid, exceptional but not boastful and their prowess with their instruments shines in every piece. The guitar sounds can paint the picture of a cutter-shredded masterpiece just as skillfully as the serene landscape of sunset over French countryside.

A new album was recorded in June 2023 in Total Refreshment Center, London UK, by Kristian Craig Robinson (Alabaster Deplume, Rozi Plain, Thurston Moore). It will be full of surprises, and the band carefully prepares new songs from it to be played live.