Monday 7 November 2011

Silmarils – Original Karma (1997)





Silmarils, who hail from a suburb south of Paris, emerged on the French music scene in 1995, establishing themselves as one of the major rock revelations of the year. But the group has actually been around a lot longer than that. Silmarils's six members - David Salsedo (vocals), Brice (trumpet), Jean-Pierre (sax), Jimi (guitar), Aymeric (drums) and Côme, the most recent recruit (bass) – have been playing together since the late 80s when they formed their group at the local lycée.
Silmarils went on to develop an exciting type of rock fusion, incorporating a broad range of influences into their sound. Despite their interest in musical fusion, Silmarils were pigeonholed in the early days of their career, critics cataloguing them as ersatz Rage Against the Machine or Red Hot Chili Peppers wannabes. Indeed, French journalists tended to dismiss Silmarils as an opportunistic band uninterested in playing their own personal style of music.

Silmarils went on to release their second album, "Original Karma", on 16 September 1997. However, this second opus car, which found the group branching out in a totally different direction and experimenting with hip-hop, techno and groove influences disappointed many of Silmarils's early fans. "Tant que parle l'économie", the first single release from the album received relatively little airplay on French radio, but the following singles, "Karma" and "Disco", fared much better on the nation's airwaves.
With two studio albums and a live opus under their belts, Silmarils decided the time had come to make a bid for recording independence and they went on to set up their own studio, "Run Fast Record" in Ivry-Sur-Seine, near Paris. It was here that David Salsedo, the group's lead singer and songwriter, turned his hand to producing. Salsedo's early production work included the debut album by a French band called My Favorite Dentist is Dead. (Salsedo also co-wrote a number of songs on the album).


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