Les Primitifs Du Futur

Biography

Legendary underground cartoonist Robert Crumb and guitarist Dominique Cravic founded Les Primitifs du Futur in 1986 craving real Parisian musette instead of poor imitations heard in variety shows. It sounds like they've stepped right out the '30s, the members of Les Primitifs du Futur brilliantly blend world-musette and Django-style guitar into old-fashion originals. Last time you heard so much accordion, chances are that it was a polka and you were drunkenly foraging through your grandparents'...

Legendary underground cartoonist Robert Crumb and guitarist Dominique Cravic founded Les Primitifs du Futur in 1986 craving real Parisian musette instead of poor imitations heard in variety shows. It sounds like they've stepped right out the '30s, the members of Les Primitifs du Futur brilliantly blend world-musette and Django-style guitar into old-fashion originals. Last time you heard so much accordion, chances are that it was a polka and you were drunkenly foraging through your grandparents' old 78sl. Or maybe you were in New Orleans for a weekend of debauchery and zydeco. But what the Parisian band Les Primitifs du Futur actually plays is "musette," a style developed in France at the turn of the century before exploding in Paris in the 1930s and '40s. Mixing popular folk dancing from Auvergne with swing, gypsy inflections, and polka, musette is by definition dance music. Even now, chances are that the orchestra at any popular ball on Bastille Day will play it along with a choice selection of tangos, pasos, and fox-trots. The Primitifs' leader, guitarist Dominique Cravic, wrote most of the material and gathered a crack team of experts on such instruments as "the jazzo-flute" , "the xylophone", "the cabrette"or "the musical saw". The band pays tribute to musette, mixing it up with as many dance styles as possible, leading to unholy dancefloor experiments ("Fox musette," "La java viennoise," "La valse chinoise") that call to mind a Parisian fantasy in which '40s-style gangsters hang out with gypsy bad boys. With their three albums "Cocktail d'amour", "Trop de routes, trop de trains" et World Musette" made up of original compositions the Primitifs du Futur remain at the forefront of the renaissance of “chanson française” manifestly occurring in France today. The group first came to public attention via its most famous member - the American cartoonist Robert Crumb. Even without him, they're definitely exciting. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.