Camera Silens - Realite LP
Camera Silens - Realite LP
Label: Les Troubadours du Chaos; Year: 2005; Format: Vinyl LP
Punkers and Punkettes listen up because I won't repeat myself here too often. All of you out there need to get their greedy hands on a copy of this outstanding full length by Camera Silens from la belle France, Bordeaux to be exact. Back in 1984 the band self-released this smasher of an album, and I don't think it to be an exaggeration to assume that most copies were distributed either locally, or at the least nationally. I personally got to hear Camera Silens for the first time through one of the 'Chaos en France' compilation LPs, released through Chaos Productions in the '80s as well. France had a lot to offer in the early to mid-80s when it comes to anthemic and melodic yet hard-hitting street punk bands such as Komintern Sect, Trotskids, Collabos amongst many others who were always loved by punks and skins around the globe. For the longest time though it has been extremely difficult and above all very expensive to get original copies of those excellent releases, until in the 2000s the French finally woke up from the dead with mainly Euthanasie Records having been at the forefront of reissuing a lot of the sought after releases. This LP here is already into its 3rd round of reprints, and a couple of years ago also landed on a U.S. based label. There is really not much I need to say here as all ten songs on here deliver the goods, the production is well above standard, and the song-writing simply phenomenal. Many U.K. bands playing this brand of punk rock back then could just dream of being able to produce an album like this one here, but convince yourself and tell me if I misled you!
12-20-24: Back in 2014 when I originally posted the review on my blogspot the incredible story about the Camera Silens singer Gilles Bertin hasn’t even broken. Unfortunately in 2019 Gilles also passed away (Rest in Peace), but a documentary movie about his life did come out in 2022.
An interview with Gilles can be found here.
