Biensüre

This superb debut from Marseille-based Biensüre is a confident and promising start to what may become a highly successful electro-pop career. The band's name, taken from the French catch-all retort (meaning ‘Of Course’) sums up the positivity and enthusiasm that the talented quartet bring to these seven tracks blending traditional Kurdish and Turkish sounds with catchy 80s Euro disco and slick 70s funk. Euphoric, high-energy pleasers, such as opener ‘Eyvah Eyvah’, give way to a more mellow, soulful mood. ‘Aman’ and the reflective ‘Zivistan’ draw on the emotions of living in exile, as experienced by keyboardist Anselme Kavoukdjian who is of Armenian heritage (Marseille has a large Armenian community who fled genocide in the early 20th century). Parts of the album are unashamedly 80s in style. Whether intentional or not, there's more than a passing resemblance to German synth-pop masters Alphaville at their height. Turkish vocalist Hakan Toprak, who also plays saz, even sings like Alphaville's frontman Marian Gold on the excellent ‘Çawa’. Biensüre may not be Big in Japan yet, but if they keep knocking out material like this, a place among the Jet-Set might just be on the cards.