Lou's album review !

French Cicadas and Multicultural Music 

By Lou Callet

Y'a des cigales dans la fourmilière by La Rue Kétanou is not my favorite album.

This only sentence reveals the challenge scope of this article. Wordplays, slang and foreign words sprinkle the whole musical creation of this French band.

La Rue Kétanou proclaims its ownership of the streets. « C'est pas nous qui sommes à la rue, c'est la Rue Kétanou » (It's not us who are on the street, it's the Street Which'sour) is their tagline that induced this pavement's tamers name-Street Which'sour. From the French streets to the best stages of Paris passing through performances in squats, this band lived a success story that pushed street art in the news.

        Let's call Y'a des cigales dans la fourmiliére a contextual preference more than a favorite album. Music surrounds us and sometimes some melodies meets personal events, intimate feelings. This album loudly runs many times a week in the living room of the house I rent during my year in exchange in the Philippines.

             Six months in this country pointed out how population's diversity was an integrative part of my life in France. The Philippines have a really homogeneous population. Most of the citizens are Filipinos and Catholics. I daily experience their amused surprise to see a western fair skin girl. On the contrary, Paris is one of those globalized hubs. Origins and nationalities have melted since centuries in France. As street arts, French culture keeps on evolving over the course of the migrations.

              Y a des cigales dans la fourmiliére echoes this French diversity. La Rue Kétanou melts gypsy, folk, reggae and pop music style. When I switch to the fifth song of the album, São Loucas, a slow guttural male voice breaks the silence. It sings the Portuguese widow's sadness.

« Elle pleure son marin/ Son marin n'est plus le sien/ Elle dit que les vagues sont folles/ Quand elle chante le fado/Son chant est un oiseau/Un oiseau qui s'envole »

( She laments her sailor/Her sailor is not her anymore/ She says waves are crazy/ When she sings the fado/ Her song is a bird/ A bird that flies off).

And this voice is joined by two others, they rise more and more loudly. Guitars speed up to follow them.

« On dit que la vieille est barge/Mais dès qu'elle porte le châle/Le silence s'installe/On écoute ses paroles »

(One says the old woman is nuts/ But as soon as she wears the veil/Silence comes/ One listen to her words)

La Rue Kétanou puts together portuguese and French lyrics. I take off to the narrow streets of the old Lisbao. Lyrics flows with the melody to recreate a modern fado- this traditional dramatic portuguese song.

            At the beginning of the second song of the album, Les Hommes que j'aime (Men I Love),the accordion loudly starts, it repeats those three chords faster and faster. The musician proudly handle this instrument that some grandpas still keep in their closets. The song takes place on the banks of the Seine, this river crossing Paris and the singer creates a Bohemia atmosphere.

“Je voudrais vous parler, des hommes que j'aime/Ceux qui m'ont embrassés, au bord de la seine/Ou j'allais me jeter, jeter par une reine/Que j'avais, aimé, plus que les hommes que j'aim”

(I'd like to talk about men I love/ Those who kissed me, on the Seine banks/ Where I was going to throw myself, throw by a queen/ That I had loved, more than the men I love.)

            Laid on the floor, I grab the CD case and have a look at the back.

They are three men in La Rue Kétanou. Mourad Musset is a 35 tall bold man. He has some origins from Morocco. A part of Florent Vintrigner's family is from Belgium. He is the older, almost in his 40's. He usually carries a large accordion and on his face a smile almost larger. Olivier Leite has dark hair, a long noise. He plays the guitar, the percussion instruments and he has this voice which excels to sing the Fado thanks to his Portuguese origins.

To the French accordions, to the Paris landmarks present in their songs, they add with brilliance cultural references and creations from their background.

          Album's name is quite revealing. Y'a des cigales dans la fourmilière means “There are Cicadas in the Ant Hill”. It refers to a French fable opposing working ants to lazy and partying cicadas.

Before to switch off, the stereo system, I play the first song of the album, Les cigales, (Cicadas). The gypsy violins get crazy, one can hear hands clapping. I close my eyes and I clearly visualize an incredible party that would take place in a large barn.

“Eh bourgeois entends-tu/passer dans ta rue/une parade d'espérance/et qui chante et qui danse/et vogue, vogue la galère/le cap sur la bohème”

(Hey bourgeois, do you hear/passing by your street/ a hope parade / and which sings and which dances/ Come what may ! / Head for Bohemia)

Cicadas from the old fable are over, they don't get lonely and poor at the end as it happens in the book. When they criticize, when they protest, they dance and chant the loudest possible. And ants don't have any choice.

“Il y a des cigales dans la fourmilière / Et vous pouvez rien y faire”

(There are cicadas in the ant hill / And you can't do anything)