Jef Barbara - Contamination (2012)

Concealed behind deceptive appearances, a dubious surname, glam makeover and an ostensibly queer posture, the music of the ineffable Jef Barbara cannot be reduced to the expressly caricatured image that the Montrealer non s'en, with a certain provocation, likes to portray. give. Beneath its obvious and grandiloquent appearance, it hides in its folds a subtle complexity and a strange beauty which make it desirable to say the least. Like the few French geniuses, from Christophe to Jacno, Jef Barabra aestheticizes with irony the prosaic and futile reality of his human condition and, a fortiori, manages to bring out from banality what is most essential, his poetic value. It is therefore in this sense that Contamination – an album initially released by our sweet-crazy Prague friends from amdiscs – is a resolutely pop work managing beyond any question of taste to dress up the simplicity of everyday words. an extravagant allegory. It is therefore no coincidence that this album is now offered a well-deserved reissue by the Tricatel house as we know Bertrand Burgalat is a fan of this kind of original and offbeat pleasure. Between discoid variety and synthetic minimalism this album, like the stories it contains, enjoys musically by mixing genres and contradictory influences to lose us in the whirlwind of its contagious madness.