“Welcome to Transmusicales,” declares a flamboyant Jean-Louis Brossard. The annual festival in Rennes, France, showcases the best emerging acts in the world over four days, and Brossard is its reigning deity.
In an interview he quickly gives me the lowdown: started in 1979 with a handful of bands from Rennes, Transmusicales is a music lover’s paradise, four days of the best emerging acts from around the world on stage.
But the festival is just the centrepiece — when Transmusicales comes around each year during the first week of December, Rennes is overrun with musicians, fans and various industry types. It seems as though around every corner there are gigs taking place.
The official programme at Transmusicales is Brossard’s baby — if he doesn’t like your style, you don’t play at one of the showcases.
He tells me how he booked a band for the festival a few years ago after hearing their album, but then saw them play live a few months before the festival was set to take place.
“It was so horrible that I cancelled the gig,” he says. “The agent said: ‘But you signed a contract,’ and I said, ‘Yes, but they are shit. There is nothing happening on stage.’
“This festival is very different from other festivals you have been to before,” says Brossard. “There are no headliners here. Everyone is treated the same.
“For the bands, playing at Transmusicales is very important, because there are so many music professionals here. If you play a good set it can lead to big success,” says Brossard. “There are more than 2000 music professionals at the festival, whether they are agents, managers, record companies or festival organisers.
“This is not a festival for bands from just England, the United States and France — we book bands from all over the world and, for example, this year we have our first band from Guatemala,” he says.
“Are the BLK JKS the first South African band to perform at the festival?” I ask.
“No way. We have had Chico, Prophets of Da City and DJ Mujava here before,” he says.
“I discovered the BLK JKS through the agent from this English band, Tunng,” says Brossard. “He saw them at the South by Southwest music festival (SXSW) and phoned me and said I had to see the BLK JKS.”
Brossard has a pool of people who make recommendations to him, but he is also an active peruser of the internet, checking out the latest, hippest music.
He travels the world to attend festivals such as SXSW in Austin, Texas, and The Great Escape festival in Brighton, England.
So with all that pressure to deliver, Brossard says he can’t wait to get in among the crowd and see some great music.
“I am looking forward to seeing Fever Ray and I also want to see The Politics. They are like the new Beastie Boys. Wow, they kill me in 10 minutes,” he says.
Here are five of the best emerging acts to look out for in 2010.
GaBlé (France)
This three-piece from Normandy, France, write scruffy off-the-wall pop songs that are delivered in a grandiose yet very DIY style on stage. Their live show was so impressive it left this critic reeling. At Transmusicales their band was expanded to five, adding a drummer and cellist, as well as a gospel choir for a few songs. Signed to Loaf Records in the United Kingdom, GaBlé have two records available — their debut, 7 Guitars with a Cloud of Milk, and their new EP, I’m OK, a response to Daniel Johnston’s lo-fi masterpiece Hi, How Are You. As for their sound, they share similarities with The Vaselines, Lou Barlow, the Beta Band, Bran Van 3000, Ween and Pop Will Eat Itself, but their sound is completely unique.
Terry Lynn (Jamaica)
More than 8000 people packed into Hall 9 at Transmusicales to catch new dancehall star Terry Lynn. Her band of three drummers and a DJ had the crowd shaking it down, while Lynn prowled the stage, spitting rhymes for the masses who responded in kind. Her debut album, Kingstonlogic 2.0, documents the poverty and violence she grew up with, but also places a spotlight on the oppression of women in Jamaica. Although star DJs Diplo and Switch also blew into Transmusicales with their dancehall project, Major Lazer, it was Lynn who stole the show. Look out for It Was Written, the digital EP that she recorded with Johan Karlberg from The Very Best, which is available free on the internet.
Beast (Canada)
A highlight at the festival was without a doubt Canadian outfit Beast. Vocalist Betty Bonifassi and drummer Jean-Phi Goncalves met in 2006 and decided to start working together. What resulted is Beast, the bastard child of Rage Against the Machine and Moloko. Brutally intense yet emotionally moving, Beast are a powerful band that combine the style of trip-hop with aggressive guitars. A bassist with a keyboard attached to his bass, a guitarist in a Wu-Tang Clan T-shirt who smokes like Tom Morello, a drummer who emcees and plays as though he’s in a punk band and a singer who sounds like Shirley Bassey one minute and Bessie Smith the next. This is one band to check out.
Slow Joe and the Ginger Accident (India/France)
Slow Joe and the Ginger Accident are a wonderful collaboration between an Indian crooner and four young French musicians. Cédric de la Chapelle encountered Slow Joe in India while backpacking. The elderly Indian gentleman had been living on the streets and singing songs about being down and out. De la Chapelle recorded his new musical comrade and returned to France to record the music that would back Slow Joe. This resulted in the collaborators first live performance on stage at Transmusicales. Slow Joe is a charming performer, full of the kind of charisma that Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash brought to their songs. The Ginger Accident is a loud and ballsy rock band in the mould of The Yardbirds and The Doors. Together they are electric on stage.
The Very Best (Malawi/France/Sweden)
Comprising a singer from Malawi and two producers from Europe, The Very Best blend electro with Afro-pop to create a dance party deluxe. Their live show turned into a house party when they invited the crowd at Transmusicales to invade the stage. Swede Johan Karlberg and Frenchman Etienne Tron made a name for themselves as the UK-based production duo Radioclit, before Tron bought a bicycle from Esau Mwamwaya, a Malawian singer who was running a second-hand furniture store in London. They soon became friends, which led to the collaboration. The title track from the album, Warm Heart of Africa, features Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Mwamwaya dueting, while Radioclit sample Nigerian highlife star Victor Uwaifo. MIA pops up on the great track Rain Dance and Kamphopo borrows heavily from Australian band Architecture in Helsinki. This band’s exotic dance anthems are sure to take the world by storm.