MIQUELA E LEI CHAPACANS - MIQUELA E LEI CHAPACANS

Released: 14/10/22

The fantastic female vocal group Miquela E Lei Chapacans have been a going concern for four decades, but if you’re only just now hearing about them, it’s hardly surprising. Lei Chapacans (roughly translated as ‘The Vagabonds’) were the first progressive girl group of the French Occitan language pop scene, and their hard-to-categorise ‘Dizco Rural’ sound - taking in baroque psych, Palestinian poetry, post-punk, sun-baked bossa, jazz, and comedic synth skits – meant that their records were often misplaced in record shop cassette racks alongside ‘traditional’ spoken-word and scholastic albums. Chancing upon the group, then, was a big ask for even for the most assiduous of European record collectors.

Thankfully, the eponymous debut by Lei Chapacans, the group assembled by the enigmatic Miquela just two years after her debut solo release, is finally reaching a wider audience, which is both cause for celebration, and also a smidgen of chagrin, as upon hearing this wildly inventive album you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. A must-have, especially, For fans of ESG, The Slits, Electrelane, Sleater-Kinney, and Stereolab.