#soupir

When I found out about @terrorculturesandlanguagesfest I knew I had to make something about french culture™, but what ?

And then I remembered this absolute treasure of an interview, and it hit me.

La dame du café — gardienne des silences parfumés, elle soulève son chapeau comme on entrouvre un secret. Chaque éclaboussure de couleur est une histoire versée, chaque dentelle un soupir suspendu.

Church of Soupir, damaged during World War I, Picardy region of France

So, for Black History Month, last month, I made a playlist with one album a year, from 1975 to 2025, from Black artists, and it made me discover a lot of really good music !

As usual : Song titles link to individual mp3 file download

All 5 songs can also be downloaded together in a zip file from the link at the bottom

Let's go for my BHM '26 highlights :)

Soupir - Tatou

There's very little information about Soupir, as they were a very short-lived band, so yep, the wikipedia page is the french one :) Tu te rappelle peut-être de (Larmes de) Métal, it really was their only hit, and people seem to often attribute it to only Normand Brathwaite (the singer here), like I did. So I went to find this album (and forgive me this is a yt rip, as I couldn't find that anywhere else ⚰️⚰️⚰️), and found a decent album ! It sounds a bit inexperienced, but i think it adds to the indie charm ! Not gonna lie, I didn't want to go for their one hit wonder lol, and then I hesitated between Zig-zag, Graffiti, and this one. C'est rien qu'un trop grosse peine d'amour was a strong contender too, cause that synth in the begining is killing me ajksajhk. In the end, the dream-like sound of Tatou won :3

Tatou was on Éclipse, which was Soupir's only album, released in 1983

(merci d'avoir uploader ça Bryan ♥)

Queen Latifah - Inside Out

Oooh this album was fun and it makes me want to look further into old school hiphop ngl ! I first was gonna go with Evil That Men Do for the message she sends, but I found that Inside Out got stuck in my head more. It also give a good idea of her rapping persona, I think. I really enjoyed Ladies First too !

Inside Out is on the All Hail The Queen, released in 1989

Skindred - Invicible

Skindred is suuuuuuuch an underrated band omfg. In my opinion, they should be as big as Korn or something, they've been around that long too ! Now, I put this album in the playlist specifically because of their cover of Electric Avenue, but I want to use that song in another rotation ! So I went for something new to me, which also is something that got stuck in my head a lot

Invincible is the closing track of Shark Bites and Dog Fights, from 2009

Imparfait - Ritournelle

This album hit me like a ton of bricks ! I would put them in a similar vein as Nova Twin (no wonder they've already opened for them !) but with a French twist :3. In places, this album reminded me of Eths, and, I wanna say, Gojira, but I'm also not suuuper familiar with them so take that with a grain of salt ! It's the chorus of Ritournelle that made me chose this one for the rotation, though :

"Pourquoi on oublie les détails du passé en disant c'était mieux avant On s'dit qu'on va de l'avant mais on fait comme avant car c'était mieux avant Défricher le sol en croyant avoir déchiffrer le code J'ai décidé de voir la vie comme Benjamin Button" (loose translation : Why do we forget details from the past, saying it was better before We tell ourselves we're going forward, but we do the same as before as it was better before Clearing the land believing we cracked the code (though here specifically the use of "déficher" (clearing the land, removing the trees and all that to prepare for agriculture, specifically its a very french colonial thing) opposed to "déchiffrer (le code)" is *chef's kiss* excellent !) I decided to see (my) life as Benjamin Button) I also really liked À L'Américaine, Stockholm, and Panique (well the whole album, but you know...)

Ritournelle is on their 2022 album, Telema

Backxwash - History of Violence

It also was really hard to chose a song to upload here cause that album also is really fucking raw and good. I listened to her first album, God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It, last year, and this was part of what began to make me want to do a one album a year playlist, cause I wanted her 2025 album to be my entry for 2025. And THEN february hit and the one album a year playlist became Black artists focussed. And that probably was the best choice possible for a '25 entry tbh ! Dissociation, and Wake Up are also must-listen !!

History of Violence is on Only Dust Remains, released in 2025

Bonus :

Yseult - Le plus beau des astres

Ok so I almost didn't put this one in. The thing was that it pretty much was a tie between her and Skindred, and then I read that she didn't like her first album, which I'm guessing is because she couldn't do what she wanted to do (and now im looking at the cover of the album and it doesn't look like a lot of Black people worked on this aside from her, huh...), so I figured that this wasn't her actual sound and that I should go listen to her more recent stuff ! This being said, this song really got stuck in my head (do you see the thread here lol), and her lyricism sometimes reminds me of Pierre Lapointe, and I really, really like her voice, so I decided to add it as a bonus, in the end ! I also wanna point out the wordplay of "des astres" and "désastre" because yes !! ("le plus beau des astres" translating to "the most beautiful of all stars", but "des astres", depending on one's accent, is pronounced the same as "désastre", or "disaster", so "the most beautiful of all the stars" becomes "the most beautiful disaster of all" (again, rough translation), and her lyricism suggest it can be interpreted both ways, I think)

Le plus beau des astres was on Yseult's eponymous album, released in 2015

(like look at this cover, you can't fucking tell me that the stylist and MUA and hair stylist and and and... any of them, really, were Black 😭 im sorryyyy look how much paler her face is compared to her neck 😭😭😭💀💀)

You can find all 6 of these neatly zipped up ↓↓

Made this 2 days ago for fun

J'ai mal au cou. J'ai mal au cœur. Tout me semble tordu en moi. Dans l'âme rampe une langueur Étouffant sans pitié ma voix.

Je lâche un long soupir montant Tel l’encens en quête de Ciel. Mes espoirs se dissipent dans Des nuages artificiels.

Dans la fumée des industries Se perdent mes yeux solitaires. Dès que prend son envol l'esprit, Le sol l'arrache aux bras de l'air.

Ma pensée, autrefois légère, Sent peser pluies de muets pleurs. La voilà chargée de tonnerre, Porteuse d’éclairs et noirceur.

Mes désirs deviennent énormes Mais vagues comme les nuées. Dès que j’en devine la forme, Ils partent avec la buée.

Ah, que j'envie les oiseaux libres S'élevant loin de la grisaille! Là-haut il ne suffit, pour vivre, Que de l’amour, azur sans failles.

Mais telles les florales gerbes, Je repose sur des dépouilles. Les mélancolies, comme l’herbe Douce et lascive, me chatouillent.

Une heure est un après-midi; Mourant d'ennui, je gis à terre. La nuit, je danse à l’étourdie Dans la lueur des lampadaires.

Et ne se lève avec le jour Que le soleil, pas moi du lit. Quand j’en tombe comme toujours, Tel le ciel ma face pâlit.

Je ne saute que vers le bas. Quelle falaise, volontiers, M’accueillerait, pas après pas, Sans me donner de coup de pied?

Derrière moi est suspendu Un brouillard flou tel mon passé. Mon dos est droit comme un pendu Que tout le monde a délaissé.