Description
The Holy Grail of '70s French punk - all known recordings by Guilty Razors, the Parisian punk band (1975-1978) - file between Metal Urbain and Les Olivensteins.
Guilty Razors signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring "I Don't Wanna be A Rich", "Hurts and Noises" and "Provocate" (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for "class" confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn't play French artists singing in English), it didn't sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped. Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor.
To perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" from the Syd Barrett era, "Wake Up" a hangover tale and "Bad Heart" about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent. On the album you're now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band's music.
But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up after three years.
Available on vinyl LP with pantone silver metallic cover + 6-page booklet and digipack CD with pantone silver metallic cover + 32-page booklet, with liner notes by Eric Tandy (Les Olivensteins) in French and English.
