Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.
TRM BSR (Terminé Bonsoir) are from Nantes – the home of Christine & the Queens, or Chris or Redcar, or Sam le Pompier or whatever today’s name is – and is composed of Valentin and Pierre-Edouard, who previously played in indie live rock bands and now the project is moving to indie rock with electronic influences in the way of New Order, Stones Roses and so on, and a touch of the old psychedelia.
Their latest single is ‘Décharge électrique’ (‘Electric shock’) and In fact, you’ll recognise the New Order effect in the opening bars from about 20 seconds in ; it is quite prominent.
Having said that, I did even detect an element of Christine as well in their early bangers, in the punchy immediacy of this song and the catchiness of the electronic melody.
I’ve watched the video a few times now and I still can’t get a handle on it.
It seems to be set somewhere on the northwest coast of France I’d guess, on an Atlantic beach perhaps, and around what could be a deserted second home, changing rooms, a municipal storage shed, or even a disused public toilet.
Anyway, someone has passed out in it and is obviously the worse for wear. After sharing un café noir and a gauloise with his mate the lookout spots the D-Day naval fleet steaming their way and legs it to the shed/toilet/whatever to get a better view and then charges off again, this time pursued by a crab.
Eventually they both end up in a World War 2 bunker where they join a rave that is already going on there. The crab eventually catches up with them.
One of the party-goers looks like Timmy Mallett (you’ll have to Google him), another like Buster Bloodvessel (et lui, aussi).
Then they both leave and sit at a table at a café in the town where one ponders a newspaper headline, “Do French people work less than foreigners?” Then they both walk to a jetty where it looks as if they might be about to ‘enter the water’ as the British police say about suicides in the sea or a river or canal.
There might well be something deeply profound about the video that I’m missing, something Proustian perhaps, or existential in the way of Camus or Sartre; or on the other hand it might be no more than a bit of fun on a bleak, cold afternoon.
Either way it adds a bit of charm to a song that will grow on you with each successive hearing.
I imagine it plays well in a live version too, and you’ll get a chance to see them live at three English venues soon as they play their first UK mini tour, namely:
Liverpool, The Zanzibar (30th April)
Manchester, 33 Oldham Street (1st May)
Birmingham, Scruffy Murphy’s (2nd May)
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086506697031
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/termine_bonsoir.music/
