French For Cartridge

French For Cartridge’s recently released double A-side 7"/download EP with Oooh! and Picture Negative is a bizarre mix of piano, dreamy guitar twiddlings and almost sounds like Mary Poppins on an acid trip.
‘Oooh!’ starts off with an almost cringe-worthy dark ‘Oooh!’ none the less, which seems a bit forced, but quickly makes up for it with its jaunty carnival like bounce. I feel like I’m always comparing bands with female vocalists to Deerhoof, but it’s not a bad thing, and in this case is definitely true - on this track at least.
‘Picture Negative’ is probably my preferred one out of the two tracks, but only just. Henri’s vocals lightly introducing the sounds to our ears, and then when the main melody kicks in, we have a definite resemblance to the Magic Numbers - if they were a bit more obscure and less smiley. (Who said anything about crash diets?!)
This band are fair-ground, and probably what Alice would have as a soundtrack if she fell down the rabbit hole in 2009, and was confronted with scary bobbing sunflowers.
Check out the band’s Myspace here - and order the EP there. Tell them to hurry up and release a second album whilst you’re there. I want more.”
- Stephen McLeod –
www.artrocker.com
- www.artrocker.com

London art pop duo with a sound that's somewhere between Japanese twinkle-core and David Vorhaus on one side, and is wedged between The Left Banke and music for Disney films on the flip. Pretty damn progressive! In an arch sort of way.

- The Wire Magazine

Une Cartouche Is...

London's genre defying, style blending, art-pop geniuses (or should that be genii?) Cartridge changed their name to the very similar if slightly longer French For Cartridge. While they've been busy changing their name they've thankfully not tinkered around with their incomparable sound.

If you check your dictionary (do people still have dictionaries in these days of the internet and smart phones??) for the definition of unique you'll find a picture of French For Cartridge. If you don't then you need a new dictionary.

The duo's new single 'Oooh!' has more originality than a Salvidor Dali retrospective, a Terry Gilliam box set and a Yoko Ono happening. If you don't check it out today your ears will never forgive you!

French for Cartridge herald the changing of the avant-garde.

http://besttuna.blogspot.com/2009/11/une-cartouche-is.html

- The Devil's got the best tuna blogspot

CASES

This 9 tracker from pan-european group cartridge is great fun. Mixing up a heap of styles (all played with remarkable assurance and chops), there's elements of jerky, spiky u.s. new wave, mars volta's complex chord blasts, bearsuit / melt banana frantic pop, lush harmonies, avant-rock stylings and hummable tunes. Schizophrenic yes, but rewarding, energetic stuff.
- Rough Trade website

One of the most intriguingly interesting of new London based bands out there right now (and as we keep on pointing out, we are in a golden age if you're prepared to go mine it for yourself rather than waiting for the establishment media to tell you where it is). A self released debut album and a fine collection of avant-pop treats that don't obviously fit anywhere (good). Easy breezy glowing Pan European jazz pop (with post-rock flavourings) a sound that swings from deliciously flowing, glowing, simple, almost lounge-lizard tinged, clever easy-listening, right over to hard edged new-wave progressive pronk rock. A fine sound that bends like Primus dancing with Bjork and gets all left-field art rock as it drags you in. Oh yes, tango away as you do your laundry lullaby. Sunny day Beach Boys all gone off-hinge... And now the tango has switched to the Charleston. If it is art-rock then it's Art Nouveau (and there aren't many in that swimming pool). There's all these warm, slightly discordant piano bits and Cartridge are just so so unlike anything else and we're squinting like a coward in a line (or a lion) and she sings so well and so does he. They all flow so so well (however musically awkward they're being). Even when Cartridge are getting really hard-boiled and complex they're still so so easy to listen to (and enjoy). Right now (as I write) it's just a delicate voice and a quiet piano that explodes with graceful sea nymph splendour that can't be put in any box. Ah yes, and such fine detail as well, a unique and recommended album. This is why we do this Organ thing.
- Organ magazine

www.bubblejam.net/ears/new_releases/rock_and_indie/ JUNE 2006:

Artrock is a term that can be lazily misapplied. But for Cartridge -- a band that came together at an art college and are named after a John Cage composition -- the term is appropriate.
Opening track Fooling Around switches tempo and style with effortless ease -- not unlike the Cardiacs. It's a collage of piano stabs, guitars that alternate between grunge and jazz, male vocals that go from rasped to harmonic and a female vocal filtered through pools of shimmering reverb.

While it may be surreal sounding on the surface, but vocals like "When we set out to make a movie about the guy next door / We didn't know that he was making a show for us to see" provide a menacing counterpoint.

Simple is anything but. Starting slowly and building to an epic crescendo, it evokes some of the melancholy of Radiohead without the whining of Thom Yorke to spoil proceedings. Truly anthemic.

Sweat is a slowly fizzing firework of a ballad. Jangly guitar and a summery sounding female vocal segue into a swell of harmonies and it ends up exploding with a bang.

Mesmerized starts off sounding like a performance from the North Sea Jazz Festival, with smooth-sounding piano and guitars topped with a laconic male vocal. Just as you're getting comfortable, the tempo gets ratcheted up before breaking down to jazz-rock.

Or should I say artrock? For sheer musicianship, this has to be one of the best debuts I've ever heard.
- www.bubblejam.net

**** (Artrocker Magazine, January/February 2010)

“Liquorice is an early contender for sleeper hit of the year, fusing together mischief and inventiveness. The album branches out beyond the usual constrained art pop boundaries, flying out of the common room and landing smack bang into the exhibit hall.” (God Is In The TV, February 2010)

“Pretty damn progressive! In an arch sort of way.” (Byron Coley/The Wire, December 2009)

“Like Mary Poppins on an acid trip.” (Artrocker.com, September 2009)

“Still as different as ever, still as unique, still as good.” (Organ, September 2009)

“London’s unusual French For Cartridge continue to mix up their genres as effectively as the Dulux Colours machine on the B&Q paint counter...Odd but infectious." (manchestermusic.co.uk, December 2009)

"More originality than a Salvador Dali retrospective, a Terry Gilliam box set and a Yoko Ono happening." (Devil Has The Best Tuna, November 2009)

“This 9 tracker is great fun. Mixing up a heap of styles (all played with remarkable assurance and chops), there’s elements of jerky, spiky u.s. new wave, mars volta’s complex chord blasts, bearsuit/melt banana frantic pop, lush harmonies, avant-rock stylings and hummable tunes. Schizophrenic yes, but rewarding, energetic stuff.” (Rough Trade, April 2006)

“One of the most intriguingly interesting new London based bands out there right now...This is why we do this Organ thing.” (Organ 158, May 2006)

“Boldly different and cogent, Cartridge prove that originality doesn’t have to come at the expense of a tune. Genius.” (manchestermusic.co.uk, January 2006)
- Various

fair while ago we had a preview of some indie-upstarts French For Cartridge, and they’ve followed up the single release with a full-blown album. It’s been sitting in my to-do pile for far longer than it should have been.

I never did like liquorice, unless it was cherry flavoured. I like this though.

Since I was familiar with the opener ‘oooh!’, I skipped forward to track 2 - ‘Loosening the Structures’, and was greeted with a charming guitar-led song that wouldn’t have been out of place on the About a Boy soundtrack.. Not that it’s a Badly Drawn Boy ripoff though; the clever combination of the darker bassier sounds with the upbeat feel harks back to the lighter moments on the Smashing Pumpkins’ mighty Gish.

…and is that some political statements in amonst it all I hear, with lines like ‘It’s your patriotic duty to spend?’

This is a delightful oddity of an album, with all the integrity of an indie heavyweight, but all the jovial frivolity of a European circus. They’re not trying too hard to be ‘weird’, or to bother fitting into any particular style or direction, which is refreshing. A casual meander into the world of sound. Brilliant.

Catch them on June the 10th supporting Stereo Total at 93 Feet East in London, and for those of you into vinyl, there’ll be a lovely release of Liquorice coming up in June/July time.

- artrocker.com