Combo Daguerre - Fracassines [LP]

After dealing in mostly Latin tropical styles for over a decade with the psychedelic cumbias of his band Chicha Libre, Brooklyn-based Olivier Conan now leads Combo Daguerre, a group that performs original French tunes with a psychedelic edge and a mostly Latin crew. It's hybrid style is informed by boleros, cumbia, 60's rock, French chanson, Gainsbourg and 1930s surrealism. The combo is named after Daguerre, usually credited as one of the inventors of photography, but Daguerre also refers to a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, steps away from where Conan grew up - a street lovingly documented by Nouvelle Vague filmmaker Agnès Varda. Combo Daguerre started as francophone offshoot of Chicha Libre, a cumbia and chicha band that spent close to a decade touring around the world - and like it's predecessor, the project owes much to New York city where cultural and linguistic borders are fluid and Pan-Latin influences can be found in every possible musical genre. It's music is filled with joy and darkness, deep grooves and dirges, nostalgia, and futurism and deals with exile, misplaced nostalgia, and a language adulterated by distance.