Though predominantly a Scottish label, Fence Records seem to have found a rich vein to mine in Bristol, with OLO Worms, Rozi Plain, and now François Marry all being signed to the label. Marry is, as his name suggests French, but came to the label’s attention through playing with Rozi Plain, and clearly has excellent credentials having also toured with Camera Obscura. 

Plaine Inondable (which translates as flood plains), is a rich, piano-based album with some shades of Herman Dune in the likes of the trumpet laden French language lament ‘Moitiée’, whereas the upbeat-to-the-point-of-daftness ‘Be Water (Je Suis De L'eau)’ is Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot frolicking in a ball pool after eating too many smarties. 

There is plenty of the expected French tweeness then, but this is offset nicely by some gorgeous instrumentation influenced strongly by 70’s African funkadelia. Marry’s own voice is a low gentle croon, accompanied beautifully by gorgeous harmonies courtesy of Bost Gehio who to quote the press release are “an all-female polyphonic voice group from the Basques country”. He is also joined on the album by a band called Unkle Jelly Fish, from his hometown of Saintes on France’s West Coast, where he recorded the album.

Tracks like 'Otage' have a more reflective mood, feeling like a summer afternoon spent writing a letter to a long-lost friend, and Years of Rain is full of archly epic anger and faded grandeur, like an episode of Poirot scored by John Barry. It’s an album with a massive breadth of musical and geographical influences, but which nevertheless feels absolutely natural and genuine - and well worth discovering.

François & The Atlas Mountains - Years of Rain

Buy on Amazon

Read Portis Wasp's interview with François Marry