Day 244: Cerrone – III - Supernature

Guess who has a lot of energy today? Not me. I had pencilled in a gig for today but I was just not up for it, my wildest musical experience today will be my traditional weekend disco shower, this time accompanied by a bit of French disco from 1977.

Album cover courtesy of Malligator

Producer Marc Cerrone is a French drummer, composer, conductor, DJ and producer whose tracks have been sampled by artists like LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Sebastian Tellier, jamie xx and Groove Armada. His third album, called either by its number or Supernature, sold more than eight million copies worldwide.

I’m immediately struck by how modern it sounds, you could not tell that it’s from the ‘70s listening to the beginning of the album, although it does get slightly dated when the singing starts. Still, he’s somehow managed to make disco music that wouldn’t be out of place in a more modern era, and it’s easy to see why contemporary artists are so keen to sample his stuff.

But here’s my gripe: what the hell is that album cover? It has Mark Cerrone hitting some sort of a goblin pose in an anatomy lab with two guys in what appears to be gimp masks with a man-pig to his left. I’d like to know what they were going for with that, I guess it goes with the sci fi theme of the beginning of the album, but it does fall short – either go fully weird or more normal, this is too in between.

Cover issues aside, there is something about the songs that’s both a little bit tongue in cheek but strangely elegant. And it’s just so fun, that three song run at the end with “Give Me Love”, “Love is Here” and “Love Is the Answer” was so good that I felt like I unlocked a secret key to joy by consuming about three beers and then washing your hair to that album in the shower. It’s a formula I could see myself using on a semi-regular basis, it was that good.

The album is an absolute stonker. 9/10, Supernature is going into heavy rotation this summer.