If you are atheist, anti-machist and love irony this album by Los[K]soS is for you

Ska-punk and French-style satire or the festival of politically incorrect

Imagine a shamelessly demagogic politician with his entourage: the chief of police, a high prelate, an army officer, three magistrates. Fortunately, these are not real individuals, but the stage characters of voice, guitar, bass, drums and horns of the French ska-punk group Los[K]soS.

I came across their first full-length album, “Dans l’Urne jusqu’au Cou” (In the Ballot Box up to the Neck), published in April this year, by chance (if it’s okay to talk about chance, since I feed on ska-punk, especially French) and I was literally dazzled. It is available on Bandcamp in digital or cd format, free offer for both options. On their official site you can find all the lyrics.

As you can guess from the title, and from the characters on stage, the album is about political-social issues, addressed with a ferocious satire. Because let’s be clear, Los[K]soS certainly do not speak in uncertain terms, on the contrary… It is rather the festival of politically incorrect, as per good transalpine tradition.

The main target is the current French government with its push towards globalized capitalism and privatization, but there is something for everyone: the mass media (“Grippe Hertzienne”), religions (“Crucifix”), colonialist militarism (“Au Pas”). In this last track they even go so far as to desecrate the Marseillaise!

Musically, it’s ska-punk for sure, with a pressing rhythm guitar and a nice wall of horns, but with the precious addition of jazz-swing sounds, thanks also to the really captivating vocal timbre.

But let’s see my personal top 3, or my favorite episodes of the album:

3. “Un Homme”. We start with ska lines. A male individual, from an early age, is directed towards gender stereotypes, soccer, cars, and should leave kitchen and crying to little girls. The punk refrain explodes. You are a man, so you are made to dominate, to be privileged. And woe to those who question this imposed virility. Applause.

2. “Crucifix”. The protagonist of the song goes around all the main religious beliefs, and in each one he finds nefariousness and contradictions. In the end, after a long reflection, and Alleluja and Allah Akbar sung like in stadium choirs, he finds his way: “I am an atheist, thanks God”. And how can we blame him?

3. “Hommage aux Familles des Vitrines”. Smoky nightclub. Swing starts. Our crooner with his hoarse voice pays tribute to… the families of the shop windows, victims of the demonstration against the infamous Loi Travail on June 14, 2016. His tone is serious, heartfelt, but the lyrics speak clearly. The anger of the “casseurs,” hurled against the symbols of economic inequality, of capitalist oppression, becomes a joyous fury, a savage poetry. And an ill-concealed giggle of satisfaction emerges. Curtain.

Elvira Cuomo

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