OBSESSED WITH FABIENNE DELSOL
By Orion Simprini
Graphic by Elle Starlight
I don’t remember exactly where I was the first time I felt the lo-fi sorcery of Fabienne Delsol.
If my memory serves, and it mostly does not, I was at Harvard and Stone in Hollywood to see Johnny Majestic. I remember that it was dimly lit and crowded, I was somewhere near Jumbo’s Clown Room (the world’s best strip club), I remember Johnny’s green fur polkadot coat, and I remember stopping dead in my tracks when the DJ spun up the sexiest, swingingest sound I’ve heard in a long time. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes I hear a song and I’m obsessed. Instantly.
“I remember stopping dead in my tracks when the DJ spun up the sexiest, swingingest sound I’ve heard in a long time.”
I made my way to the DJ booth to find out what this mono-mixed masterpiece was called. The DJ was surprisingly kind about me pushing my head into his booth and invading his sacred DJ space. “WHAT IS THIS SONG CALLED??” I respectfully screamed in his ear. “FABEE*inaudible*DEESOOO,” he screamed back. It was useless to try and make sense of the cacophony, so I just nodded politely and snapped a picture of his laptop screen.
When I got to my truck I was able to piece together the artist and song title from the blurry picture on my iPhone. Fabienne Delsol - Laisse tomber les filles (“Stop messing around with the girls”). Serendipitous…
I drove through the late-night streets of Los Feliz, windows down in my old red Chevy pickup blasting this song. The irresistible snake-like bass line, the nihilistic French vocals, the retro-tastic drums, the surf guitars. Every part of this song was perfectly crafted for my weird brain. Who was this artist?
Who was this Fabienne Delsol??
Every song is perfectly crafted with a psychedelic lo-fi glow that hypnotizes and mesmerizes, transporting you to a lava-lamp lit rock club, Paris, 1964.
It turns out that Fabienne is not, as I had presumed, a singer from the “Yé-yé” French music scene of the 1960s (Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Françoise Hardy). She is a French-born, contemporary British musician with a refreshingly small social media presence. She has four albums, each one as good as the last. As I delved deeper into her library I kept discovering gem after gem. Like this song - Your Queen - this song is so damn vibey. Produced by the mysterious master of lo-fi analog sound, Liam Watson. Liam, you’re a genius. And this song - I’m Gonna Haunt You - and this one - When My Mind is Not Live. Every song is perfectly crafted with a psychedelic lo-fi glow that hypnotizes and mesmerizes, transporting you to a lava-lamp lit rock club, Paris, 1964. Fabienne and her crew love this kind of music and it shows.
You can hear Fabienne Delsol on most streaming platforms, and her physical albums are available from the good folks at Damaged Goods.
