French TV are probably the best thing to come out of Kentucky since the Colonel’s fried chicken. Yet they’ve managed to lurk almost unnoticed under the prog radar since 1983, despite releasing a family bucket of music that is cheerfully complex and unpredictable, all served up with a side order of Canterbury-ish humour.
I got my first taste of French TV in 2021 when I heard what is generally regarded as their best album, 1999’s The Violence of Amateurs, and immediately fell in love with their quirky, anarchic jazz-prog, in which Soft Machine and National Health meet Frank Zappa, Brand X and Happy The Man via The Mahavishnu Orchestra – frequently during a single five-minute track.
After that, I scooped up everything they had released and have been keeping tabs on them ever since. I mean, how can you not love a band with song titles such as Clanghonktweet, Look at the Bears! Look at the Bears! Look at the Bears! and That Jigsaw Puzzle Is Tearing Our Family Apart.
Inspired by ‘60s and ‘70s bands who ‘got away to the country’ to find musical inspiration, French TV got away to another country for their 16th album, spending two weeks writing and rehearsing in Northern Spain. The result is The Spanish Caper, a double CD combining new tracks and covers of their favourite deep-cut rock songs by the likes of The Kinks, Mountain, Procol Harum and Traffic.
The first CD is pure French TV, eight mostly instrumental extravaganzas that sometimes sound as if they recorded dozens of little melodic snippets ranging from sophisticated cocktail jazz to meaty heavy rock riffs then fitted them together while blindfold. So, yes, the music appears to lurch from one idea to another yet, somehow, it all seems to fit.
Entrance of the Small-Faced Man opens with sliding power chords and pounding drums, before settling into laid-back, easy listening jazziness, then entering a fast section with reggae-style guitars under sweet sax melodies, followed by heavy rock riffs, before returning to the introduction and finishing on sax and tinkering keyboards. And all this in just five and a half minutes.
Who is X-35? drives along nicely with a hint of menace before incorporating soaring sax over a slow 6/8 blues, then fast keyboard solos over chopping guitar chords. Just Another Tapdance On The Frying Pan Of Life displays hits of country music over bubbling bass, thanks to Ludo Fibre’s busy and nimble violin, while on An Unusual Tolerance for the Detritus of Memorabilia he bows away over funky, Eastern-style backing before the track abruptly changes into a slow, minor-key reggae shuffle.
The title track is the only one that ‘Basques’ in its geographical and cultural location – after a sedate opening followed by heavy rock crunching, it channels a bit of Latin rhythm, with bassist Mike Sary yelling what sounds like some Spanish lyrics but could be just soundalike gibberish. Whatever it is, it adds to the general anarchy of the music. Emma is also credited with vocals on the funky, jazzy The Eyes Roll For Thee, but I’m damned if I can hear her.
If it all sounds a bit cut and paste to you, well, that’s because it is, and there is a danger that some of the tracks lack a bit of identity because they are packed with so many different ideas and styles. On the other hand, that means there is never a dull moment – there’s a sense of playful joy to it all, emphasised by the cheeky song titles.
You don’t produce music of this complexity and calibre with being uncommonly talented on your instruments, so three cheers and a tiger for bassist, band leader and chief composer Sary, and powerful drummer Jeff Gard, who together provide much-needed anchors for the musical madness, while Nico Fabre channels meaty Hammond organ and Moog sounds, Karl Ledus plays restrained and melodic sax and Katsumi Yoneda provides solid but, IMHO, underused electric guitar. Yoneda, however, fulfils another role – he was brought on board for 2016’s Ambassadors Of Good Health And Clean Living to bring some order to Sary’s sometimes chaotic compositions. Thankfully, his is a light touch that doesn’t dull the band’s jagged edges.
And now we come to the second disc in this release, which Sary describes as a ‘bucket-list’ of slightly obscure covers from the 60s and 70s by bands and musicians who ‘haven’t been active (or breathing) for a few decades’. He further adds (and I quote this because it is clever and funny): “I look at these recordings as performing a public service, as the notion that the cultural evaporation of these gems from my younger days is an inevitability I find disturbing, and hopefully this delays it slightly. My suggestion for an optimal listening experience would be listening to this around 10:30 at night on a transistor radio (preferably with the album introduced by a DJ named Doctor Danger) while in bed on a school night.”
So you get songs such as 20th Century Man by The Kinks, Freedom Rider by Traffic, A Million Miles Away from the late Northern Ireland blues guitarist Rory Gallagher and Fresh Garbage by Spirit. The band clearly had a lot of fun recording these but I’m not sure the fun extends to the listener. In my opinion, they don’t add anything to the originals and, occasionally, Sary’s vocals explain why the vast majority of French TV tracks are instrumentals.
Thankfully, the first CD is a cracker – in fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s finger-clickin’ good. As for the second CD, I suggest deep-frying it in the Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices.
TRACK LISTING
CD1
01. Entrance of the Small-Faced Man (5:33)
02. Who Is X-35? (4:05)
03. Just Another Tapdance on the Frying Pan of Life (4:30)
04. The Eyes Roll for Thee (4:42)
05. In Pursuit of Element ‘Z’ (5:42)
06. An Unusual Tolerance for the Detritus of Memorabilia (5:51)
07. The Spanish Caper (5:46)
08. Forest of Forgotten Skulls (6:16)
09. Refreshing pause between CD1 and CD2 (0:10)
CD2
01. 20th Century Man (5:57)
02. Nantucket Sleigh Ride (5:46)
03. Goin’ a Little Crazy (6:46)
04. Fresh Garbage (3:25)
05. Butterfly Bleu (8:24)
06. Dead Man’s Dream (3:59)
07. Take a Look Around (5:53)
08. Funky Judge (3:27)
09. Freedom Rider (5:10)
10. Days and Nights (7:08)
11. A Million Miles Away (7:31)
12. Renegade (6:14)
Total Time – 112:30
MUSICIANS
Mike Sary – Bass, Vocals (CD2)
Katsumi Yoneda – Guitars
Jeff Gard – Drums
Nico Fabre – Keyboards (CD1)
Pat Stawser – Keyboards (CD2)
Ludo Fabre – Violin (CD1)
Karl Ledus – Sax, Weirdophon (CD1)
Gregory Acker – Sax, Flute (CD2)
Emma Gobin – Vocals (CD1: 4)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record label: Cuneiform Records
Country of origin: US
Date of Release: 24th April 2026
LINKS
French TV – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp (Cuneiform Records)
