Alain Ranval, alias Ramon Pipin, the man behind this French pop rock band, is virtually unknown in France. Here are a few milestones from his particularly bushy CV:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Self-taught guitarist in the Zappa tradition. Pipin’s most recent feat is ALAFU<\/em>, his seventh solo album, for which he wrote the lyrics, music, arrangements and production. This one is flawless, because for a guy who doesn’t seem to take himself seriously, Ramon is uncompromising when it comes to taking care of the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album features 11 generally ironic tracks which fluctuate in genre: electro-AC\/DC in \u201cJe balm\u00e8ne le chien\u201d(perhaps inspired by Rufus Thomas’ \u201cWalking the Dog\u201d), which opens with a riff that sounds like a circular saw biting into a cookie sheet; brass band on the masturbatory nursery rhyme \u201cLa Petite Mort\u201d; nerd-rock on \u201cLes mecs en trottinette\u201d; electro-dance on \u201cJe grouve\u201d; elegy on \u201cQuand je r\u00eave\u201d; Celtic ballad on \u201cLe Quatuor silencieux\u201d; and, on \u201cCoprolithe pour des temps incertain\u201d… silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ALAFU<\/em> is an often comical, sometimes snarky, and always captivating collection by Ramon Pipin, virtuoso of the verb and meticulous one-man-band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 A first group, Io, crowned “the hope of French pop music” by the now-defunct magazine Best<\/em> in the early 1970s.
\u2022 The group went on to set up \u201crock’n’dr\u00f4le\u201d bands such as Au Bonheur des dames and Odeurs, while France was stewing in the humour of Coluche and the magazine Hara-Kiri<\/em>.
\u2022 Creation of the Parisian studio Ramses, where Richard Pinhas, Didier Lockwood, Manu Katch\u00e9, Archie Shepp, John McLaughlin, and Michel Jonasz, among others, passed through.
\u2022 Arrangements of several Renaud’s albums, including Morgane de toi.<\/em>
\u2022 Composition of half a ton of music for cinema, television and theatre.
\u2022 Since 2017, with the shock band Les Excellents, dezincing standards such as \u201cLife on Mars?\u201d by Bowie (\u201cL’iPhone marche\u201d) or \u201cStart Me Up\u201d by the Stones (\u201cStar myope\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n