lockdown : vinyl find #3.

The time of good deals and bargains is over. Vinyl is bought by youngsters, not so young people, middle-age people with comfortable income, and old people who undusted their old turntable. We've hit that wall. Vinyl has value, again. When stores started increasing their prices for second-hand records, and news articles started spreading the word about the vinyl comeback, folks at flea markets followed the trend. 

But four years ago, people were still unloading their records for cheap. This is how I got my copy of "Brigade Mondaine - La Secte De Marrakech" by Cerrone, published on his own Malligator Records imprint. Once again, it was at the flea market of a small village in the rural part in the north of Paris. As usual, I didn't wake up very early, but when I arrived, there was still this baby waiting in a crate. Sometimes, flea markets in villages are as good as in bigger towns ; people sell the music they used to listen when they were teenagers, or the records that their kids had left behind. And most wanderers are not looking for records in these villages. Big records hunters won't be going to such places either. 

I don't especially have a thing for the work of Gérard de Villiers, the French writer behind "SAS" and "Brigade Mondaine", but Cerrone's music is something I can easily relate to. Being a teenager then a young adult when the French Touch wave flooded the Western world, I had to acknowledge that before the Daft Punks, the Airs, the Justices, the Mehdis, the Bob Sinclars, there was Cerrone, the godfather. 

With a feet in disco, another one in electronic music, Cerrone can talk to many audiences. And the mix of both is perfect for soundtracks. It is the sound of an era. 

This soundtrack is filled with nice instrumentation, especially fat basses, raging guitars and whirling synths, at least at the beginning and at the end. Of course, it's danceable sometimes, but at other times (ore... most of the time), it's hypnotic as it reaches electronic grounds in a Jean-Michel Jarre or even Tangerine Dream kind of mood. Almost meditative, which is quite unusual in the disco-filled world of Cerrone. 

Cerrone - Brigade Mondaine : La Secte de Marrakech.

Here's the full album : YouTube.