The Prisonnier Du Temps project has caused quite a sensation in the subcultural scene I move in. It reminds me a little of the excitement surrounding the release of Béton Armé’s Renaissance by La Vida Es Un Mus last year. The first album by this French project came out in 2022 on Une Vie Pour Rien?, and this year it is followed by a second full-length, released on the London-based La Vida Es Un Mus. As for the background of the project, its main driving force is Lionel Cadiou from Brest, who has been involved with bands such as Thrashington Dc, Black Spirals, The Night Stalkers, Justice Divine, Cuir and Syndome 81. Just looking at that list gives you a pretty good idea of the different punk territories he has explored, ranging from fastcore and hardcore punk to Oi! punk with coldwave influences. Elements of all these styles (with the possible exception of fastcore) find their way onto this album, and the excitement surrounding its release is more than justified. This is an absolutely brilliant record and one that definitely deserves a place in your collection.
The album contains eight tracks, played with precision and packed with ideas and interesting musical details. I’d describe the overall sound as hardcore punk with strong post-punk, coldwave and Oi! undertones, built around excellent melodic and rhythmic ideas. All of this is complemented by a great production and powerful choruses that take the whole record to another level. If this sounds overly enthusiastic, I honestly can’t help it. I’m simply blown away by this album musically. It has energy, it has punch, there’s not a single dull moment and the whole thing flies by in the blink of an eye. It’s exactly the kind of record that makes you want to flip it over and play it all over again as soon as it ends.
The excellent build-ups and the sheer energy running through these songs are what really get me going. A perfect example is La Liberté S’Obtient Par Le Sang, where the band manages to maintain the tension, gradually build it up and finally release it in the form of a melodic singalong chorus. It’s brilliantly simple yet incredibly powerful. This formula is successfully repeated throughout the album and, in my opinion, represents one of its greatest strengths. Lyrically, the songs deal with both social and personal subjects, resulting in an overall rather bleak atmosphere. This also fits perfectly with the cold feel of the musical arrangements.
The tracks on the first side focus mainly on social issues: Trahisons Et Mensonges (Betrayals and Lies), La Liberté S’Obtient Par Le Sang (Freedom Is Won Through Blood), L’Armée Des Ombres (Army of Shadows) and Dans La Douleur Et Les Larmes (In Pain and Tears), a song dedicated to the current situation in Palestine. On side B, we get a glimpse into the author’s more personal inner world. There’s the deeply personal Dernier Regard (Last Look), the determined Et Jusqu’à La Mort (Until Death), the emotional Le Genou à Terre (Kneeling on the Ground) and the slightly darker À Bout De Nerfs (At the End of My Nerves). I don’t know whether splitting the album into these two thematic halves was intentional, but it actually makes quite a lot of sense. First, you deal with the world around you, and then you deal with yourself. This kind of sequencing gives the album another interesting dimension.
The booklet includes all the lyrics, as well as a quote about freedom by Bakunin, which already gives the listener a hint of the ideological direction we’re heading in before the music even starts. The stripped-down artwork fits the overall atmosphere perfectly and doesn’t distract from the actual content. Musically, this is an absolutely fantastic record and one of the strongest contenders for album of the year. This is one of those occasions when all the excitement surrounding a release turns out to be completely justified.
TOP TRACKS: La Liberté S’Obtient Par Le Sang, L’Armée Des Ombres, À Bout De Nerfs
