FIN DE CYCLES TRACKS

4:52 PM (10 hours ago)
Antonin Gaultier
 to me>>
Hi Alin,

There are many songs that come to mind when one thinks of cycling...
The individual experience of speeding down the hill on a bicyclette -
or zigzaging the urban environment - is of course very personal and
one of those situations where no pre-defined soundtrack should apply
- it’s about the moment, the weather, the time of the day - but a few
tracks come to mind when I think of velo, guidon, pedales or roue-libre.

Allow me to start with the obvious - Kraftwerk. Yes, Tour de France (1983)
would be a no-brainer, but I’d rather take Metal on metal (1977) any
other day. It’s about the man-machine symbiotic connection, not about
winning a race and I like it that way.
If you still need some Euro-cyclisme reference, how about Telex’ very own
Tour de France (1980)? I like it a lot, it’s more Belgian for sure, could
almost fit for l’enfer du nord (Paris-Roubais).
Another obvious song is Queen’s Bicycle race (1978). Yes it works,
but how about Carl Stone recontextualization of the song? His version
(2006) opens the possiblities.
Cyclo, Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai iconic piece (2001)
comes to mind too. It makes me want to build an interface between the bike and
the music, something that could interprete your movements and generate sounds.
Not too far stretched is Carl Craig’s recent works, especially his reComposed
album (2008). The repetition, the movement etc, you get the idea. As I am get-
ting older I like Craig more and more, especially when riding in the early mor-
ning on my way back home from yet another party.
The search (for a path, for oneself, for a challenge) should be balanced with
more straight forward moments. Many times I found myself listening to pop,
hip hop or (let’s face it), grime core, and almost killing myself on the bike
(it’s not me it’s the pedestrians). I sometimes wish I had a _Heavy helmet
(2007) especially when remixed by the great Mock & Toof. (I should really
write about Mock & Toof and the uniqueness of what they are doing, the weird
balance of the instruments in the mix, their “disco-dub on the autobahn” way
of remixing others, but well, it’s not really the topic here and autobahn are
not bicycles friendly anyway).

So this is called Fin de cycle, like in Fin de siecle? it reminds me of that
Divine Comedy album of the same name (1998). Divine Comedy could actually work
for a bike ride... OK let’s try fin de cycle / fin de cycle...  Anything by
Stereolab would make sense too, as a protest against cars. Miss modular and
the Dots and loops period (1997)? if it’s sunny yeah, could work.

So: blah blah blah. ANYWAY, you don’t have to take my word for it,
you can download this selection and see for yourself.

Got to pump those tires...