Cheval de Frise

Many of my blogs are beginning to start in quite a similar fashion. I hear some band I know nothing about, get over-excited and post stuff with little or no information on the musicians involved. Well guess what, I've done it again.

I have a small excuse, they're french and don't appear to have much written about them in english. Cheval de Frise are a duo from Bordeaux comprising of Thomas Bonvalet on nylon string acoustic guitar (albeit amplified) and Vincent Beysselance on drums. It's essentially a kind of math rock but don't let that put you off. Whereas similarly designed bands like Hella can lack harmony and emotion, relying on fireworks to impress; Cheval de Frise bring in elements of classical and jazz tonality from a heavily french palette. They seem to be born from a very different pool of aesthetics than that of their art-punk contemporaries. There are even Spanish folk/classical guitar influences in there that remind me of guys like Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos.

Below is a slightly subdued example of their music.

Mp3:
Cheval de Frise - 'I'
Buy it

Check out the drumming at the end of this clip (but please watch it all!):