Rinocerose
V2 Records
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Hailing from the southern Montpellier region of France, Rinocerose
(who really spell their name with all sorts of cool accents that unfortunately don't show up here) are musical outsiders and mavericks. The band formed itself well outside the scope of Parisian hype, and also began shaping its musical direction before France really had any sort of a dance scene.
Founding duo Jean-Philippe and Patou work as psychologists by day, and the name of the band stems from a rather psychotropic rendering of a rhino done by a psychiatric patient that appealed to the band's aesthetic and outsider status. Both Jean-Philippe and Patou decided to create a unique variety of house music using only guitars, which seemed impossible given the highly electronic or sequenced nature of the genre. However, by working on repeated, layered grooves, they began to amass and demo some seriously hypnotic sessions.
Realizing they needed a programmer to assist in locking down more of a dance groove, they brought in Johnny Palumbo to play with plenty of electronics skills and a love of dub.
The chemistry proved propitious, and within mere weeks the threesome had coalesced into the musical tour de force they are now. Their combined vision for layered, funky rhythms led to something very unique sounding, if utterly alien to their native country.
In early 1995, before the Daft Punk effect had kicked in, very small pockets of like-minded souls across France were forced to look elsewhere for an outlet. For the Parisians, this proved to be London. For Montpellier, however, the natural route was south. Rinocerose
quickly released their eponymous debut EP on Spain's Elefant imprint.
From here the band decided to take the act out of the studios and into a live arena with quite an impressive live line-up: three guitarists, a bassist, a percussionist, a flutist, a synth player, and a drummer on stage, and Palumbo and a video jockey at the mixing desk.
In France, the band's live experience was creating enough waves for them to sign to PIAS (France). In June, 1998, they released the four track Le Mobilier EP, and they supported new friends Underworld in Paris.
The current mini-album, Installation Sonore (Aural Installation), allows the band to take their early work to beautiful extremes. Created on guitars first, before the programming commences, the music shows a band that is unrestrained by conventions and allowed to soar into new sonic territories.
last updated:
08/16/01
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