various: des jeunes gens modernes volume 2

The long-awaited follow-up to Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes, with five killer previously unreleased tracks. Volume 2 continues to explore the vaults of French post-punk, electropop, and no wave. Between the late '70s and mid '80s, in the wake of punk wave and in parallel to other types of music like disco, funk, ska, and reggae, a prolific and chaotic music scene began to develop in France, combining the energy of rock and the nihilism of punk with electronic experimentation. The period was not, on the whole, one of optimism and joy, played out as it was against a background of economic crisis and the cold war. A whole section of France's youth found itself confronted by the contradictions of the times it was living in: young people were torn between the sensation of living on the edge of an abyss and hope for the dawning of a new world; they were deprived of tangible ideological landmarks but resistant to the post-hippy utopias of the previous generation. In search of an identity, they recognized themselves in the dark lyrics, the cold synthetic music, and the laid-back attitude of the new groups bursting up all over the country, as much in the provinces as in Paris. Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes (Modern Young Men) reactivates this French post-punk/novo diskö/new- and cold-wave scene, highlighting a cross-section of the specific creative diversity of this scene. The new wave drew upon artistic avant-garde movements from the past (Constructivism, Futurism, symbolism, Dadaism, socialist realism, and so on), as well as literature (Romanticism, science fiction, etc.), cinema (new wave, German expressionist cinema), and the latest technological advances (electronic, robotic, nuclear). Drawing on traditional culture as well as the underground subcultures to which various magazines and fanzines gave voice (American countercultures; endless references to William S. Burroughs, for example; pop art, etc.), the new wave embraced all areas of creativity together, and built bridges between the different artistic disciplines (music, visual art, design, literature, cinema...) to an extent never before seen. Digipak CD includes 32-page booklet. LP includes 12-page booklet. Includes tracks by ADN Ckrystall, X Ray Pop, Eli & Jacno, Les Fils De Joie, Les Stagiaires, Medikao, La Bande Au Col Roule, Radio Romance, A.R.T, KaS Product, Frantz Kultur & Les Krames, Meca Rythm, and Perspective Nevski.