What an intriguing prospect this self-titled debut Fracatso record on Versatile presents. A freeform exercise in musical improvisation from Gwen ‘Iueke’ Jamois, Antinote boss Quentin ‘Zaltan’ Vandewalle, Phillipe ‘Low Jack’ Hallais and Laura ‘Lippie’ Peinetti. With cover art from I:Cube. Sign me up Gilb’r! Quick aside - is the name Fracatso a playful portmanteau of the French phrase ‘fracasso’ (to smash!) and the phonetic spelling of the Italian curse ‘cazzo’?
Fracatso was born out of what you expect was a rather boozy weekend the group spent at Lippie’s studio in Lyon at some undisclosed time. Four close friends recording what results in ten tracks from two off the cuff sessions, bound by a collective urge to explore the absurd, poetry, musical oddness and more with total creative freedom. How absurd you ask?
Well, four tracks in, “The Shadowless” finds Iueke on the mic delivering an increasingly paranoid and delusional monologue worthy of Kafka about drains eating toes and much more. The atonal bass notes and Lippie’s distant, intermittent harmonising that soundtrack this spoken word scatting in thrall to the intensely rhythmic vocal cadence from Iueke. Full disclosure pt 1: I had assumed for the longest time that Iueke - all fashionably dishevelled vintage fits, with a Gitanes tab and glass of vin rouge never far away - spoke with a Parisian flair to match his raffish appearance. So it was quite surprising to discover via “The Shadowless” and verify via an ‘independent source’ that Iueke actually speaks with a bonafide London geezer accent pitched somewhere between Tom Hardy and Phil Daniels.
“The Shadowless” is the only time we get to hear Iueke’s spoken word ramblings on the album. Instead, it's Lippie who shows off her full vocal range in her native French across the album, and it’s a delight to spend some proper time with her voice. Full disclosure pt 2; Lippie is an artist I am rather late to. My first introduction to her was via an Iueke collaboration that appeared on Tolouse Low Trax’s ace 2021 Kiosque of Arrows vol 2 compilation for Bureau B. Do seek that one out if you are a fan of the Salon Des Amateurs. I’m off to check Lippie’s solo work!
At times, Lippie’s voice can be whimsical, as on the folky introductory scene-setter “flammes d'autruches.” At others cold and detached; “Ding Dong” reminds me of Viktoria Wehrmeister’s work with Toresch. My lack of French, beyond two foggy years of GCSE lessons, naturally causes a large obstacle to offer any degree of lyrical scrutiny here (with an opening title that translates to ‘ostrich flames” I’m invested in exploring the lyrical content of Fracatso at some point) but it hasn’t spoiled the enjoyment of the album. Rather Lippie’s voice becomes another compelling harmonic and instrumental component, most notably on the brisk jazz improv of “Ghedalia” where she experiments with autotune, offering a nice interplay with the scattered midi saxophone and shifty double bass.
Musically, It's hard to decipher who does what across the album, not that it really matters when you have such a talented group of musicians vibing hard. The aforementioned midi sax, almost always sounding a little wonked, appears across several tracks and it might be Iueke as he also deployed one on a similarly freeform session with Lee Douglas that dropped on a LIES cassette earlier this year. Given his previous work, Low Jack may conduct the rhythmic framework for them all to build from on the doomy dancehall crunch that runs through “Free Root,” “Kidnappeur” and “Moderne R&B.”
According to Versatile, the quartet had no real plans for Fracatso, the recordings mentioned in passing by Zaltan over coffee with Gilb'R in Amstersdam. The latter understandably excited by the freeform concept and proposing to release it. We can thank Versatile for ensuring the wider world gets to experience Fracatso!
Fracatso by Fracatso is released on November 8th 2024. Head HERE to get the Versatile Bandcamp.
