Camarade Lézard

Gari Grèu is a stalwart of Marseille's seminal Massilia Sound System and a collaborator with Moussu T e lei Jovents. On his first solo album, he forsakes rapping for rather melodic song, with a collection partly self-penned, partly contributed by luminaries such as Moussu T's Tatou Ridel. The tone is very much in the Moussu T school: alternating between jaunty and reflective, with a semi-acoustic accompaniment including plinking strings by banjo or cavaquinho, and a lyrical preoccupation with old popular culture and politics, expressed in a mixture of French and Occitan. ‘Les Cheminots de Sainte Marthe’ evokes the vanished world of working men's friendly football matches, with a touch of ska trap-drum. ‘Les Arbres du Parc’ leavens its resigned indignation at municipal planning philistinism with a hint of zouk and vintage Wailers guitar. On a culinary note, ‘Faut Pedaler’ is the perfect tempo for whisking the emblematic Provençale sauce aioli. You might think the musical recipe would be wearing thin by now but no, Grèu pulls off another slice of Marseille trouba-muffin with aplomb.