There's something about the French slur. It may no longer bring the same heavyweight clout that it used to (a One Poll survey produced in 2009 ranked the French accent fourth in the sexy stakes, behind Scottish, Italian and the eventual winner, Irish) but, when used correctly, it can still be pretty potent. It's precisely this combination of savvy, blasé cool and charmingly mispronounced vowel sounds that We Are Enfant Terrible, a Parisian trio firing out synth-riddled electro pop virulent enough to make the most despondent of hipsters weak at the knees, are banking on with their latest double A single, "Wild Child"/"Flesh 'n' Blood Kids".
Everything about it screams "fashionable". Although the aching desire to be smartly relevant is almost asphyxiating at times, the odd witty remark still manages to surface ("His father is so old/he thinks a Blackberry is a fruit" on the commiserating-pop of "Flesh 'n' Blood Kids"). This studied approach is equally evident on the music front; dipping into various rising genres from the last couple years, the twinkling lights of the neon "nu rave" scene, the metronomic electro hop of the Ed Banger label and, perhaps most interestingly, the 8-bit sampling of the nascent chiptune scene are all evident in "Wild Child". With the recent growth in the appropriation of gaming sound bites (see Crystal Castles, Anamanaguchi, Animal Style's geekily breathtaking/breathtakingly geeky "Gameboy Madrigals" and the success of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), it is perhaps the presence of Nintendo's Gameboy that shows just how close to the ground We Are Enfant Terrible have their collective ear.
The staccato "Wild Child", all rhythmic pops and whirrs cut with waves of fuzz, is surprisingly dense dance music for the day-glo 'tween generation. Peppered with perplexing images - similar to Lovefoxxx's curious turn of phrase - that marry vagaries of grammatical conjugation with pop culture nods ("Sid was not so vicious/and punk are not all daft"), the track is driven by throbbing synths and Clo Floret's very French vocal delivery. Any track that can include the baffling line "Ah dun't care 'bout you to joyn us" and still remain listenable must have something going for it.
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The crushing distortion-doused guitars of "Flesh 'n' Blood Kids", on the other hand, put the track squarely in the bright plasticky dance-rock arena, shared by CSS and Klaxons. Although hardly revolutionary, this electro-clash tale of adolescent isolation has the odd amusing moment (including a future chant-along in the form of wry Tourette's-esque uttering "explicit pictures! Back-handed compliments!) and Cyril Debarge's hi-hat heavy percussion gives the track a fidgety but nevertheless measured tone.
It's not half as cool or clever as it thinks it is, but this amalgam of DIY-dance-pop, slathered liberally with the sort of disinterested ennui that the French do so well, will no doubt strike a chord in the kind of trendy establishment where po-faced post-dancing is not only likely, but de rigueur.
We Are Enfant Terrible online
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