Paris Violence – Quand Les Berges Se Resserrent

Casse-Os Records / Islika Produktions

 

With all of last year’s (2019) reissues (celebrating the band’s 25th anniversary), you would almost forget that Paris Violence’s last, real new releases date back the Summer of 2018 already when the band released a single and an EP for Spanish label Ediciones Limitadas. I sure loved those reissues, but the single and EP – namely “Amante Glaciaire” (7”) and “Absinthe Et Suites...” (12”) – definitely tasted like more!

 

And with six tracks total – including the short, instrumental intro “Le Long Des Quais” and the outro-ish “Les Jours Reculent” – more is exactly what we are getting on Paris Violence’s latest EP (or mini-album if you prefer) “Quand Les Berges Se Resserrent” for Casse-Os Records (12”) and Islika Produktions (CD). But before you lay the vinyl on your turntable or put the CD in the tray of your CD-player there’s the artwork by Alexis Bert – looking like a mix of 50’s horror to 16-bit era videogames and everything in between, the artwork is far more bizarre than usual, but superb as always!

 

Another thing that is superb as always is the new music by Flav and co. in the form of the aforementioned tracks and “De L’eau Sous Les Ponts”, “Pertes Et Fracas”, “Les Berges De La Quarantaine” and “Alerte Au Malibu”. Delivering more of that dark, post-apocalyptic Oi!-wave the band is known for, the French still have that unique, gloom sound after 25 years and still manages to crank out that melancholy with style – love it! Especially “Pertes Et Fracas”, which could easily be labeled as my favorite track on this EP, sounds perfect in all its despair.

 

Available on either vinyl or CD, the 12” by Casse-Os Records is limited to 300 copies, while Islika Produktions’ CD-release is limited to just 100 copies. Now the CD is just a CD of course, but Casse-Os’ orange marbled vinyl with different color effects on either side looks absolutely stunning and in combination with the artwork on a 12” cover highly recommendable as well! With that being said, they used the print of the CD for the labels of the vinyl as well, therefor those labels include the SACEM and Compact Disc Digital Audio logos as well, but as far as I’m concerned this is the only flaw on either version.