I don’t have too much to say about Damien Saez because I don’t speak French. I notice that when I watch a sporting event with the sound off I notice more and enjoy it in a different way. It’s the same with music, though the variable in this case is language, not volume. These are great videos, though I only have a general idea of what Saez is getting at. Whatever the specifics are, it clearly isn’t complimentary to capitalism.
Obviously there is a lot of social commentary in each of the videos. On a Pas la Thune (above) is particularly haunting, with the lyrics–whatever they are–playing over what in essence are home movies of a desperately poor but loving family. You don’t have to speak French to know what Saez is saying once you see the last few seconds. The sheer video making of J’accuse, below is impressive.
Here is AllMusic’s bio on Saez:
Damien Saez was a French singer/songwriter who first studied music — piano — at the Conservatoire National de Région de Dijon before signing to Island/Universal in 1999. Influenced by classic rock artists such as Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols, and U2, as well as ’90s giants Jeff Buckley, Blur, and Radiohead, Saez — born in Savoy, France on August 1, 1977 — recorded and released his first album, Jours Étranges, late in 1999, and the collection sold well and earned him quite a good number of plaudits. 2001 saw the release of his first collection of poems, À Ton Nom, and in 2002, he released album number two, God Blesse — which was meant to be a companion to the online experimental instrumental album Katagena available as a free for download and contained the highly controversial single “Sexe.” His 2004 album, Debbie, was his last for Island/Universal. In April of 2008, he released his fourth album, Killing the Lamb. (Continue Reading…)
