J’ai Mal à Mon Folklore

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the Québécois trio De Temps Antan are back with a new raft of songs and tunes from ‘La Belle Province’, all tied together with bombastic arrangements and the pounding rhythms of the French-Canadian foot percussion, podorythmie. Each artist in the trio, Pierre-Luc Dupuis on harmonica and accordion, guitarist Éric Beaudry, and fiddler David Boulanger, is a leading light of the tradition, but the group excels here at crafting huge arrangements for such a small band. With a robust masculinity behind their singing, it's perhaps no surprise that the songs here are mostly upbeat, specialising in Québec's tongue-twisting, speed-demon lyrics. Going for a vintage feel for the new album, the trio found themselves looking at Québécois prog folk from the 70s for inspiration, resulting in reverberating overdriven voices and instruments that pack a punch. They looked too at some modern sources for the songs, including ‘Reel des Piasses’ from Québécois songwriter JF LaMothe. But the traditional songs shine here, especially ‘Les Filles d’Orléans’, which benefits handsomely from the singing and some psychedelic influences in the instrumentation that bring to mind Steeleye Span. The trio recorded the new album at home in Beaudry's recording studio in the tiny village of Saint-Côme in Lanaudière, renowned as the heartland for traditional Québécois song.