For the last few years Atlanta has established itself as one of the most interesting epicentres of current music. Rappers like Future, Gucci Mane and Young Thug have been making waves well beyond the frontiers of hip hop and the USA with their psychotic and clammy, dirty and virtuoso productions, somewhere near an off-kilter and lascivious R’n’B with its erratic convulsions and minimalist beats. Deconstructed and radical, their offerings are an invigorating counterpoint to the more mainstream tunes of Drake and Kanye West. It’s in the midst of this crazy galaxy that the Awful Records label is making its mark as a brilliant group of producers, rappers and singers who seem ready to take everything that comes their way.

In the heart of this motley crew Abra undoubtedly embodies its most poppy aspect. Since 2014 in an Atlanta suburb this young prodigy has been crafting her mutant sounds that can’t be traced to mere R’n’B and hip-hop influences. Driven by a voice with powerful soul inflections, her tracks fuse out-there electro with DIY pop in an old school bedroom convoking the ghosts of 80s Wham and Patti LaBelle. More haunting and sensual than those references, her compositions form a coherent and incredibly sexy ensemble. She’s more of a Southern Grimes and a less affected FKA Twigs than yet another Beyoncé ersatz.

Abra embodies what a generation bottle-fed on the internet does best as an apostle of that confusion of genres, music and cultures. While passing through Paris this summer, the young woman confirmed: “Our generation is without a doubt the first to be exposed to such a diverse range of cultures. I’m Black but you cannot reduce my music to R’n’B. I am Black but I don’t just play basketball and listen to rap music. I am Black and I like manga and spending the afternoon programming on my computer. That’s our big thing in common at Awful Records, we don’t ever do what people expect of us.” 

Raised in London until she was 9, Abra arrived with her family in an Atlanta suburb and discovered a State of Georgia ground down by the issue of race: “Like lots of Black people, my family settled down in the region because of the work opportunities. In the 90s and 2000’s minorities could easily find a job there. But my first impression was very negative. I found the people close-minded. I was always getting pigeon holed and trapped by clichés because I was Black. As if I couldn’t decide myself who I was, what I was thinking and what I wanted to do!”

In the early 2000s on the streets of Atlanta the kids played at being punks listening to Linkin Park, Green Day and Blink-182 while others swore by the R’n’B revolution of Aaliyah and producer Timbaland. Abra was part of the latter crowd. But more important was that they all hung out on Edgewood Avenue and this passion for music overcame any social or genre divides. “We weren’t all friends,” explains Abra, “but we shared the same sense of community, a feeling of pride about belonging to Atlanta. Whatever our differences, our common language was always music.” It was at a party one night that she met Father, the founder of Awful Records, and the other members of the gang. Quickly they realised – without having known it – they were hanging out with the same friends and went to the same high school. More than just a label, Awful emerged as a creative support system.

1. 1. A MUTANT GROUP

    

   In spite of the name, Bon Voyage Organisation is actually the work of one man, Adrien Durand who started by officiating as song-writer and producer for Les Aéroplanes. Through a series of encounters Bon Voyage was born and this futurist disco band continues to swell in numbers. Their last EP Xingyé released on the same label as La Femme (Disque Pointu) in 2012 cleverly blended synthetic pop with oriental influences. Now Columbia is releasing their new cosmic EP Géographie.

1. 2. ECLECTIC INFLUENCES, FROM HONG KONG TO THE USA

    

   More inspired by exotic atmospheres and cultures than by actual styles of music, it was the result of several melodic slaps that Adrien started doing music. “Among the major musical discoveries I’ve made over the years, Soft Machine and Miles Davis play an important role. Hong Kong pop from the 1970s is also a huge reference for me. Generally speaking I like fusion in music, I like mixing it up.”

    

1. 3. A TASTE FOR TRAVEL AND THE UNKNOWN

    

   When talking to him about travelling, the musician is very precise about what the word means to him: “It’s not travelling in a touristic sense that inspires me, but more the idea of travelling linked to exodus and exile. It’s linked to an idea of the unknown, discovery and curiosity.” As his explorations gathered momentum he worked with the techno label Mathematics Recordings in Chicago in 2009, he released his first two EPs in London and finally ended up in Paris at Disque Pointu. Like the pinnacle of this thirst for discovery their music became a melting pot of African, Asiatic and European inspirations that all fuse together to create this unique, unclassifiable sound.

    

It all started on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. Erick Arc Elliott and Meechy Darko had known each other since they were kids. At high school they met Zombie Juice. Together the three of them soon formed Flatbush Zombies. Today these three highly complementary artists embody a unique sort of psychedelic hip hop sound. Close to other rappers in theBeast Coast rap movement such as A$ap Rocky and Joey Bada$$, they emerged from the shadows with their first mixtape D.R.U.G.S in 2012.

Sometimes hovering, sometimes forceful, their style – like an ode to acid trips with a visual identity inspired by comics and references to Stanley Kubrick movies – is instantly recognisable.Their rap is acidic, mesmerising and rocky all at once, like an amalgam of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and the Beastie Boys. It’s no surprise then to hear that rappers Jay Z, Busta Rhymes and the Notorious B.I.G play as an important a role in their list of influences as the group Nirvana and singers John Mayer and Beck. “We were always among those kids who listened to a lot of things beyond rap. When I was little, people called it ‘white folk’s music’.” Erick Arc Elliott 

Last March and six years after the release of that first mixtape, the Flatbush Zombies are busy promoting their first album 3001: A Laced Odyssey produced by Erick “The Architect” Elliott. While they first achieved recognition by evoking their own drugged out trips, they also deal with more political themes as with the track Blacktivist. Through their lyrics and the accompanying video that features several snippets of footage showing police brutality against the black community, they denounce the level of insecurity in deprived neighbourhoods.

As for the track Trade-Off from this first album – whose video was shot in Shanghai – they invite reflection on the alienating nature of the work place. At the end of their concert last Sunday, the opening notes of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit rang out and the Flatbush Zombies delivered their closing message message: “Open your mind!”

 3001: A Laced Odyssey de Flatbush Zombies. Now available. 

thegloriousdead.com

By Rafaëlle Emery

Norskov (SF Films) : the thriller coming from the cold  

A new drama series straight in from the cold, Norskov continues the excellent line of Scandi-noir shows begun with The Killing, The Bridgeand Borgen. Created by Dunja Gry Jensen, it starts out on a fairly classic note – an inspector goes back to his home town – but moves off on an instantly efficient tangent : a unique atmosphere and biting tension has this detective show serving up a chiselled and crystalline narrative chord. Tom Noack, the policeman with no background, goes home to Norskov to fight drug dealers who’ve honed in on the local teenagers and along the way meets up with former friends, lovers and acquaintances : the small community he left behind. Over the course of ten 40-minute episodes, the web of characters is intricately woven and the intrigue so tight you’d think the little town of Norskov represents the whole of Denmark with its issues and cultural peculiarities. An excellent introduction to the world of Nordic noir carried brilliantly by Thomas Levin.

One Mississippi (Amazon) : the endearing tragicomedy

Heir to a movement of autobiographical art-house series including Fleabag and Master of None by American humourist Aziz Ansari, it’s now the turn of stand-up actress Tig Notaro. Inspired by a more gritty, realistic and darker vein, in direct contrast to the feel-good sitcoms a la Friends, the singularity of One Mississippi comes from an intimate storytelling based around illness and grieving. We follow the eponymous character of Tig as she returns to her home town following the unexpected death of her mother, and has to face her own health problems in a daily existence that’s anything but smooth (a family busy imploding and a high maintenance girlfriend…) Concentrated into just six episodes, each one 20-minutes long, she deals pertinently with this particularly sensitive moment in her life by focusing on key moments, sometimes touching, sometimes comic, always authentic. As we watch Tig evolve, it’s hard not to be reminded of Maura Pfefferman inTransparent, where the tragi-comic beauty of that transitioning character was so endearing.

Better Things (FX) : the twisted Hollywood parody

After several years of featuring in the American show Californication, it was the 2010 series of Louie– the comedian Louis CK’s eponymous show – where Pamela Adlon was finally able to really show off her acting skills. Six years later her bitingly off-beat role would give birth to the ultra-biographical Better Things. Produced by the brilliant afore-mentioned comedian himself, she exposes the warts-and-all life of a 40-something actress slash single mother-of-three living in Los Angeles. In the same register as One Mississippi but with a less weighty tone, the series delights as its creator’s top notch writing deftly dissects the clichés and crosses of Hollywood with cynicism and a delectable honesty.

By Marion Ottaviani

Le 22 novembre 2013, il épuisait jusqu’à la mort un Indien de 44 ans. Viswanathan Anand, champion du monde d’échecs et grand maître international depuis 1988, se voyait détrôner par ce petit jeune de plus de vingt ans son cadet. Et Magnus Carlsen ne comptait pas mettre fin à son périple meurtrier avec cet exploit. Le 24 janvier 2014, il tournait en ridicule l’homme le plus riche du monde. Bill Gates était terrassé en soixante-dix-neuf secondes par ce nouveau champion du monde. Et pourtant, comme toujours chez les génies – des échecs comme du mal – des signes avant-coureurs avaient été décelés. À 8 ans et demi, n’avait-il pas déjà remporté son premier tournoi ? Le Washington Post n’avait-il pas sonné l’alerte, dès 2004, en conférant à ce garçon de 13 ans le titre de “Mozart des échecs” ? En vain. Dans la foulée, Magnus Carlsen obtient le titre prestigieux de grand maître international, multipliant les victoires, et atteint ainsi les sommets du classement Elo, le système de classement des joueurs d’échecs. En 2010, il s’arrogeait la première place. Il avait 19 ans. Kasparov lui-même avait dû attendre ses 20 ans pour accéder à de tels sommets.

Pour l’interview, le jeune homme nous a donné rendez-vous dans la banlieue d’Amsterdam, au sein d’une bâtisse froide et massive forgée par le maître Rem Koolhaas. Il n’y dépare pas. Alors qu’il pénètre dans la salle de réunion, le prodige a faim. S’emparant aussitôt d’une banane délicatement posée sur une corbeille de bienvenue, il n’en fait que quelques bouchées ravageuses. À l’affût du moindre de ses gestes, la petite cour qui l’accompagne scrute, inquiète, ce premier mouvement. L’effroi s’empare des corps alors qu’une même question émerge dans les esprits : que doit-on déduire de ce geste inaugural quant à l’issue de la rencontre ? Las, nul profileur du FBI dans la place pour y répondre…

Numéro Homme : On vous a récemment comparé à un boa qui enserrerait lentement son ennemi avant de l’étrangler… Est-ce ainsi que l’on doit définir votre jeu et votre état d’esprit ?

Magnus Carlsen : Si l’on entend par là que je n’essaie pas de briller par un coup flamboyant, ni d’écraser mon adversaire, mais que je joue, coup après coup, en restant concentré et créatif, c’est sans doute vrai. Je joue jusqu’à la fin, sans rien lâcher. Je ne me cache jamais derrière des coups “sûrs” ou des lois prétendument immuables. Certains pensent, par exemple, que si deux joueurs se retrouvent dans une position égale en ouverture, cela devrait forcément aboutir à un nul. Eh bien je refuse de penser ainsi. Je me refuse à penser qu’un quelconque résultat puisse être inscrit dans le marbre avant même que la partie ne soit définitivement terminée. Même lorsque l’on est en mauvaise posture, il est toujours possible de gagner.

THE CROWN (Netflix)

Crowned with the prize for best drama series (and the best actress in a drama series award for Claire Foy), Netflix must be delighted to have invested a hundred million dollars in The Crown making it one of the most expensive series of short episodes ever. Adapted by its author Peter Morgan (a film writer on The Queen in 2006) from his own play The Audience, the first season is all about the post-war years of Queen Elizabeth II starting with her marriage in 1947. It focuses on her relationship with husband Philip and Winston Churchill, but also the pressure of such power being bestowed upon someone with no experience – she was crowned in 1953 at the age of 27. The young British actress Claire Foy was chosen to embody the woman the world knows today for matching hats. And it looks likely she’ll be wearing the queen’s clothes for a little while to come with six seasons in the pipeline – sixty episodes in total – which should bring us up to current times with a bit of help from the cosmetic and prosthetics department. Stephen Daldry, who directed Billy Elliot, is also in charge of the series. 

ATLANTA (FX)

The best comedy-drama and musical series, with the award for best comedian going to Donald Glover, Atlanta is above all a city that symbolises social struggles in the USA. Crucible of the civil rights movement and home town of Martin Luther King, Atlanta is a major symbol in the social struggles of the United States. Today it’s also the epicentre of an anti-establishment and eclectic hip-hop scene, from Abra and Iggy Azalea to rapper Young Thug. With this powerful identity it was the perfect choice for Donald Glover – better known by his stage name, Childish Gambino – for his very first production which has us following the daily life of two cousins, Earnest “Earn” Marks and Alfred “Paper Boi”, striving to make their mark on the local rap scene, along with the accompanying highs and lows. What follows is a series of questions deeper than their thirst for fame, as they query their identity beyond the systematic clichés of black rapper/bad boy the mainstream is so keen to reduce them to. After four years of playing in Community and appearances in 30 Rock, Donald Glover is now taking his first incredibly successful steps as director, but also auteur, actor and even producer of his own series. Semi-autobiographical, Atlanta follows in the wake of Insecure also about the often confusing daily existence of young Afro-Americans today. Glover’s comic vein is more subtle than ever with just the right dose of melancholia. His 10 thirty-minute episodes, all touching and humorous, are just perfect 

THE PEOPLE VS O.J SIMPSON : AMERICAN CRIME STORY (FX)

The first series created by film writing duo Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, The People VS O.J Simpson: American Crime Story is marked by stunning performances by Sarah Paulson, a lady busy scooping upprizes for best actress in a mini-series. The show also won a place in the best TV film / mini-series category just after being showered with accolades at the Emmy Awards in the shape of 5 statuettes. With this first season focusing on the OJ Simpson case, which had America on the edge of its seat from June 12th 1994 to October 3rd 1995, the program seduces with its razor sharp writing. From the early suspicions to the ultra-mediatised court case of the American football player and the legendary car chase down route 405, every step of the story is perfectly documented and directed. As for Paulson, her impassioned interpretation of prosecutor Marcia Clarck, utterly convinced of OJ’s guilt almost overshadows Cuba Gooding Jr. who stars in the title role. The People VS O.J Simpson marks the beginning of a fresco on crime in recent US history, to be closely followed by an intrigue on the subject of Hurricane Katrina for season 2, coming later this year.

GOLIATH (Amazon) 

It would be something of an understatement to say that David E.Kelley has nailed the judicial genre: to him we owe not only the cult Ally McBeal but also Boston Justice and The Practice, as well as many others. The latest offering from Amazon, Goliath, follows in this well-established vein and works a treat thanks to the nuances of Billy Bob Thornton, who won prize for best actor in a drama series. He plays the role of Billy McBride, a lawyer with a dull career and a leaning towards alcoholism, who is entrusted with an affair that touches him personally. This unexpected combat brings him up against the law firm he himself co-founded and that bears his name, developing over the season in an ambiance much inspired by the 1990s. 

A MAN OF AMERICA’S RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBOURHOODS AND DESSERTED HIGHWAYS

A pure product of Americana, Todd Hido was born in 1968 in Kent, a small city in West Ohio. Throughout a comfortably uneventful childhood he developed a keen sense of observation while skateboarding and then BMXing around town. Wandering through residential neighbourhoods, along deserted roads and paths Hido multiplied his emotion-charged clichés revealing an America as seen from the inside. What began as a passion led him to Boston and then Oakland where he excelled in his studies and obtained an MFA at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1996. 

AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF THE USA

Far from the shouting colours so often used to depict America, Todd Hido’s work is witness to an intimate and unvarnished ambition. Deconstructed, the glorious American myth is replaced by a vision of an empty and bleak country, stamped with shards of harsh lighting. That said there’s no lack of tenderness as the photographer exposes the landscapes of his childhood like intimate reminiscences, while revealing the isolation of city outskirts. This was the subject of his series entitled House Hunting presented at the Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco in 1998. His is a haunting gaze at the desolate houses rising up in the midst of stretches of deserted land like architectural spectres. A mix of strangeness and melancholia that’s become his signature. 

A MYSTERIOUS CINEMATOGRAPHIC AESTHETIC

It’s hard not to think to be reminded of road movies, that cinematographic genre whose main thread is snaking concrete, when you look at Todd Hido’s shots. Once he reached adulthood and swapped his BMX for a car he continued to explore the roadways and maintained this notion of perpetual movement that literally brings his work to life. The photographer nourishes himself on movies every day, admitting the TV is always on in his house ensuring constant inspiration and the capturing of infinite details. He openly acknowledges the impact of David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock on his work and presents his photos like film scripts bursting with colour and light. Another important aspect of his work is embodied by fragile and iconic characters like when he immortalised prostitutes in hotel rooms in his series Between the Two (2008) and Fragmented Narratives (2012).

Big screen muse

When looking back at the career of this intoxicatingly beautiful woman, the word ‘audacity’ instantly springs to mind. It was indeed audacity that saw her star in Liliana Cavani’s Night Porter where she portrayed a Holocaust survivor who falls in love with her SS persecutor. She would go on to play this role of this femme fatale on several occasions, broken, neurotic and obsessive. So much so she was seriously questioned by critics when in 1985 she starred as a woman whose lover is a chimpanzee in Nagisa Oshima’s Max mon amour. In an interview with Numéro in 2000, she explained this versatility: “There’s a call and I have no choice. There’s an interior movement, inside my body, which makes me accept. The fear of what people might think only comes afterwards, every time.”

An audacity with her choice of films and directors but also with her acting, rewarded with an Honorary César for her life’s work in 2001. The ultimate accolade for a career some consider unrivalled and which alternates between great movie moments such as her mind-blowing performance in François Ozon’s Under the Sand, and more debatable roles like Dr Evelyn Vogel in the final season of the series, Dexter. In an industry where actors are increasingly nervous and minimise risk-taking, Charlotte Rampling’s overt sense of daring and experimentation never wavers. 

From Helmut Newton to Juergen Teller: an aura caught on film by the masters of photography 

Legend has it at the beginning of her modelling career, Charlotte Rampling was asked by her agent to have an eyelid lift. They were met with a categorical refusal on the actress’s behalf who perhaps suspected her incandescent gaze could seduce some of the greatest photographers from Helmut Newton and Peter Lindbergh to Juergen Teller. Sometimes nude, often black and white, rarely smiling, the utterly assumed sexuality of the actress gradually came to life through photos. And in a completely timeless manner, whether it be the 1973 shot by Helmut Newton at the Nord-Pinus II Hotel in Arles where muse Rampling sits naked on a wooden desk, legs slightly open, wearing only the most defiant of looks, or in the series Le Louvre dating from 2009 and taken by the ever subversive Juergen Teller who caught the actress nude once more posing on front of the Mona Lisa devoid of any aesthetic or erotic spirit.

The Jean-Michel Jarre years: a myth always sounds better as two

Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, Romain Gary and Jean Seberg or Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni, a myth always sounds better as two and Charlotte Rampling didn’t err from this rule. In 1976 she met France’s electronic music pioneerJean-Michel Jarre. In just a few months they were to become one of the most talked about couples of the era. He transcended the 70s with his first album Oxygène which sold 18 million copies while she went from the set of Yves Boisset’s Un taxi mauve to Woody Allen's Stardust Memories. Their relationship lasted 20 years nourishing every one of the public’s fantasies. And in spite of their split, they were never far from one another and their respective projects: the exhibition held at the Maison européenne de la photographie, Charlotte Rampling – Albums secrets in 2012, was accompanied by a sonic installation by Jean-Michel Jarre, who was also present at the opening night.