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Varius Funkus – Get on the Beat
From S/T: [Available via email for 15.00 EUR]

Poitiers, new capital of French Funk?

When I was living in France in 2001, going clubbing meant stepping back to 1982. OK, this was in Mulhouse, hardly a trend-setting place, and I’ve heard the town described unfairly by other French people as “un trou“.

The uncontested hit du moment was Tomber la Chemise by Zebda – involving a lot of waving your shirts in the air at 2am. It’s a good thing that the song never made it to the anglo-saxon world and that nobody in 2001 had cameras in their cellphones.

Mulhouse – not the capital of French funk. But a nice town when you get to know it.

These experiences left the impression that fever for disco froth never quite died out in France. Indeed, discothèque is a French word. The ‘French touch‘ electronica that gained global prominence around the turn of the 21st Century reflected this continued fascination, and was exemplified of course by the success of Daft Punk. When their single One More Time came out in 2001, a provincial French city was surely the song’s true native context.

Varius Funkus is a band that proudly continues the funky theme in French pop. They hail from the unlikely city of Poitiers (famous previously for its university and the Futuroscope theme park), and offer a fine line in funk inspired by Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band.

The groups is led by guitarist/singer Cédric Morisseau, drummer Gwenael Drapeau and Manuel Gablain, a polymath trumpeter of some considerable talent. Varius Funkus is party music, it’s “on the one”, and their 12 track debut album Varius Funkus is so indie that foreigners can only order it by email…

Varius Funkus on myspace