Frakture on Buzz on Web

April 2016

https://www.buzzonweb.com/2017/04/sergei-papail-frakture-premiere-partie

https://www.buzzonweb.com/2017/04/sergei-papail-frakture-interview-part-2

 

            
23/04/2011 : FRAKTURE - 30 dreizig- eine Anthologie

FRAKTURE 

 

30 dreizig- eine Anthologie [CD]

Cold Wave • New wave

[72/100]   

Brouillard Définitif  Brouillard Définitif
23/04/2011, Didier BECU
 

If we’re mentioning Frakture then we have to dig into French history. And no, we’re not talking about the adventures of Marie-Antoinette, this is all about Sergeï Papail.

Influenced by the mighty electro punk from Suicide, Frakture were one of the many bands that were around back in those days.

Frakture became a sort of household name especially as Sergeï also was part of cult bands like Marquis De Sade and Marc Seberg, even if after their split in 1983 they only got one release: “Sans Visage/Nagasakind”.

Sergeï always stayed around in the French underground and during the  “Des jeunes gens modernes”-happening in 2008 they formed the idea to release an album to celebrate their 30thbirthday.

The idea became reality when the Parisian label Brouillard Definitif decided to release an album that appears to be some kind of retrospective.

The cd can be divided in three parts : four songs from 1980, five from 2010 and nine live songs.

Of course the studio recordings are the most interesting tracks. It is kind of fascinating how some raw artpunkband develops a sort of melancholic wave, like only a French band can deliver.

Not all tracks on here do obtain the same quality and it has to be said that some live songs suffer from an inferior quality but it still contains enough quality to get this at home if you’re into 80’s bands that only made it to the footnotes of history.

 

Didier BECU
23/04/2011

BlackVeilGothic ~ DJ De'Ath -Gothic music & Djing Leeds York Yorkshire (UK)

https://blackveilgothic.wordpress.com/tag/frakture-sergei-papail/

Founded in the late 1970’s in Rennes by Sergei Papail, Frakture made Kamikaze punk-rock, mainly sung in german, expressionnist aesthetics, cubist and angular tones… inspired by Bertold Brecht, Otto Dix caricatures and Egon Schiele dislocated silhouettes. The band split in 1983 and reformed around 2004. This collection captures the best tracks of Frakture.
The album opens with Schliesst Die Wände – a punk/new wave track which easily stands shoulder to shoulder with more well known bands of the time. Nagaskind – reminds me of The Stranglers but with Dave Greenfield playing his keyboards on a guitar. Love It! Wasserstoff Bäby – Manic new wave. Die Sackgasse (Epic 1981) – has a hint of Skids Epic! Eis Und Nebel – downtempo new wave ballad. Auskinder – punk guitars and what sounds like a flute fused perfectly reminds me of The 3 Johns. Inventive! Zusamen – has a hint of Spear Of Destiny’s You’ll Never take Me Alive. Burning Rain (10 000 Soleils)- see’s the punk fury left behind and for a change this one is sung in English with almost a hint of Virgin Prunes . Silent World – very experimental. Misshandlungen – is a live recording which reminds me of the excellent band The Opposition. Spaziergang – is new wave song with a sax which has sound which is familiar but hard place from where it was heard before! Fraülein Erika is another live track. Damen Und Chamagner – another live track with sax. Kinheit – a live track. Schwarze Und Licht is again live and has a wide new wave appeal. Vierte Weltkrieg live track which again has the feeling of The Opposition about it. Scarlet Fashion sounds like an 80’s chart hit. Du reminds me of The Teardrop Explodes. In Der Kasernen – is live and the final track on the album and is a deutsche cabaret type ballard.
John Peel would definately have been a big fan of this band! Recommended for fans of punk/new wave, The Stranglers, The Skids, The Opposition, The Teardrop Explodes etc.

Guts Of Darkness

https://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/home.php

Frakture/Sergeï Papail  30 dreizig "eine Anthologie"

Je connaissais bien entendu Marquis de Sade et Marc Seberg mais j'ignorais que l'équation rennaise contenait un troisième élément sous forme d'un projet du nom de Frakture crée par le bassiste des premiers, le temps d'un single ('Conrad Veidt'), Sergeï Papail. Personnage visiblement culte de la scène underground française, pionnier du punk dès la fin des 70's avec son groupe Fracture (dont le C se verra vite remplacé par un K), il se présente comme un artiste sans compromis, original dans ses choix notamment celui de chanter uniquement en allemand (il refusera même une offre de EMI qui voulait les signer mais à condition d'user de la langue de Shakespeare) ou de cesser sa collaboration avec Marc Seberg avant qu'ils n'enregistrent leur premier album. Un premier Ep sortira en 1980 marquant paradoxalement la fin de la période 1 de Frakture. Délaissant le mélange d'énergie punk et d'existentialisme post punk qui caractérisait le son de leurs débuts, le temps d'une ultime composition pour une compilation, Sergeï Papail s'en va lancer un nouveau projet, Sergeï Papail and the Scarlet Empresses, qui louche vers l'avant-gardisme que l'on retrouvait également chez Clair Obscur: post punk glauque et dissonnant où les basses lourdes, les saxos grinçants rythment des morceaux toujours principalement interprétés en allemand. Beaucoup d'énergie, un chant émotionnel construit sur des phrases lancées comme autant de coups de cravache mais une fois encore, l'homme passe à autre chose en collaborant avec la chanteuse Sapho, entre autres, avant de renoncer à la musique pour se tourner vers le syndicalisme et le journalisme. Mais comment résister aux sirènes musicales ? En 2004 sort une compilation sur un petit label de Rennes avant que l'exposition 'Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes' ne le rappelle sur scène pour une sublime interprétation du 'In den Kasernen' de Marlène Dietrich version cold wave contemporaine aux côtés de DC Shell. Dans la foulée, c'est Frakture qui est ramené à la vie pour de nouveaux morceaux côtoyant les anciens sur cette belle compilation signée Brouillard Définitif. A l'écoute de ces derniers on réalise tout d'abord à quel point le son de l'époque était moderne tant les trente ans qui séparent le tout ne semblent pas avoir de prise, ensuite que la flamme d'aujourd'hui brûle avec la même ferveur. Feeling punk intact, énergie torturée, paroles en majorité allemandes...Rien d'une nostalgie poussive, ces nouvelles pièces auraient pu être enregistrées à l'époque tant leur pêche est communicative, leur conviction sincère et l'artiste peut également s'autoriser une forme de calme un peu triste, de celles que seules les années permettent ('Burning rain', 'Silent world' au début étonnamment proche, me semble-t-il, d'essais ambient des Young Gods). C'est tout cela et plus encore que vous découvrirez sur ce disque, tentés ? Vous avez raison. Note 4,5/6 (lundi 2 mai 2011)

Grave Jibes fanzine (Russia)

https://gravejibes.ru/archives/y2009/gjf5/frakture-check-point-cd-review/

 

 

This release of one of the greatest French post-punk bands of the late 70’s-early 80’s you’ve probably never heard of, was out five years ago, in 2004, by “Westsound” label and mostly was ignored. And this review of this release is a kind of a try to improve the situation. “Check Point” consists of 18 songs, recorded from 1979 to 1982 and its stuff has incredibly vast musical range from post-punk / and new/cold wave to some punk’77/hardcore. It’s remarkable that Frakture doesn’t belong and wave as “school”, they were one of the first who started to play this kind of music in the distant 1977, having only some rumors and echoes of the (post) punk boom in other countries. But in general, and very approximately, Frakture can be called a kind of that middle which balances Dead Kennedys and Marquis de Sade.
The release doesn’t have a chronological order, but during listening to “Check Point”, the sound becomes more wild and raw, so a listener can notice such punk-sounding “dirty” and cynic hits as “I Hate Ya” or “Guy” instead of “soft”, but driven “Sans Visage”, “”Jungfrau”…. The release is filled with hits, which actually sound very different, partly due to using a language (German, French or English). For example, it absolutely can’t be imagined if “Die Sackgasse” and “Wasserstoff Baby” were sung on any other language except German, this language out down its roots in the most original way it could. On the contrary, “the most punky” side of the band couldn’t be imagined without English, probably because of its world famous rude words, but who knows. But it would be wrong if a one thinks that Frakture is a punk band. This band was one of the first marked as “coldwave”, and this release contains enough songs, such as “Sans Visage”, “Rires du temps” and others which can be called a kind of “coldwave” close to Marquis de Sade, but performed in more aggressive manner as if Marquis de Sade was performed by early “The Stooges”.
Hard to say, why Frakture faced this kind of historical injustice. May be because there was no any “wave” in the times when the band played, may be because the band didn’t have any full length release (there was the 7” EP “Sans Visage” and a song on the compilation “Rock’nRennes”) before 2004… but it’s exactly not because of the band’s music which can be appreciated by many fans of (post) punk / wave music.

 

Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’