JACKSON AND HIS COMPUTER BAND - Smash

Let's face it: with a name like that, you're already off to a good start. How can you not warm to someone who shows up with his own orchestra of computers? Silicon hearts inevitably break in the face of such synthetic romanticism, also evoked by a cover that's curiously close to the imagery of the Maximilian Hecker of "Rose".

But who is this illustrious unknown? Jackson Fourgeaud comes from Paris and is twenty-six years old. Of course he was bound to become the darling of French electronic music, as indeed he has: a Frenchman signed to Warp for his debut is something to boast about. Almost inevitable, too, the cover feature on Trax, the country's best-known electronic and indie music magazine. Beyond the home-turf hype, though, it has to be said that his success is well deserved. Warp's official notes can claim all they like that, as a teenager, the lad distanced himself from typical French touch production of the second half of the Nineties. In reality, what we find on "Smash" is a musician who seems to have grown up steeped up to his neck in the Parisian sound: in the samples he uses, in certain rhythmic choices, in the evocative power of his tracks.

Of course, that's not all there is to it, far from it. Jackson's distinguishing trait, in fact, is above all the sheer volume of influences shaping his music. Staying thoroughly of-the-moment, he puts together wonderful digests of electronic music history, blended into three-minute songs.

"Teen Beat Ocean" (a lesson for Goldfrapp) and "Headache", for instance, revive the old AFX sound and bastardize it with every element at hand: vocal splinters, microloops, pours of spatial synths, handclapping, deconstructed beats, pinball machines. "TV Dogs (Cathodica's Letter)", featuring Mike Ladd, could be the soundtrack to a cartoon about ghosts, darting here and there, playful as a Mike Paradinas (µ-Ziq) on holiday. "Radio Caca", which in French means exactly what you'd imagine, even brings back the 303: how long has it been since you heard one on such an undanceable track?

Still, we haven't quite explained what shape this sonic blend actually takes. Let's fix that by saying Jackson picks up the "melodic" fragmentation in the style of Prefuse 73. One could venture that records like this are already proof of Scott Herren's growing status and his climb among the greats, the ones who'll be remembered for a very long time. But he's not who we should be talking about here. Not least because Jackson has every trait needed to be judged on his own terms, and above all because even Prefuse doesn't account for everything going on in this young man's music. In his way of composing/playing, he actually comes closer to other new names on the French electronic scene, such as dDamage, who released the fine "Radio Ape" last year, whose squared-off rhythm on "Arpeggio" is a close match. Where the latter, however, happily flirt with new hip-hop, Jackson is more interested in club culture, and in "old" electronic music, especially that of his home country.

Listening to him, in any case, you might well say Jackson found Etienne De Crécy's sampler lying in the street and went off shooting rats with it. Take the first two tracks as proof, two little masterpieces that showcase precisely the side of him most tied to the sound of Paris over the last decade. "Utopia": finely chopped French samples unfold over a sinuous synth theme until the epiphany of the vocal, pure, remarkably age-of-Aquarius, declaring "Have you really tought about Utopia?" before sinking back into darkness. "Rock On": a soul sample glides over De Crécy-style cadences, near-danceable patterns and constant metamorphoses. The interlude "Moto" owes a great deal to the world of Philippe Zdar and Boom Bass, better known as Cassius. "Fast Life", the most song-like track of the lot, boasts that warm, black, sensual voice that once defined old Chicago house and later French producers.

For a definitive placement within today's musical landscape, or to uncover the explicit references, just read the credits, as was the case almost nine years ago with "Homework" by Daft Punk. There's Quentin Dupieux, better known to most as Mr. Oizo, one of the grey eminences of the current French scene: here he mixes a couple of tracks. And among others we find Ellen Allien, Tiga, Double U and Benjamin Diamond. Enough for you?

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30/04/2026