"...for the first time, achieve the non-blend between Nouvelle Vague and Caribbean music." We'll have to look into the matter seriously one day.

Publish an anthropo-ethno-socio-musicological study, maybe. At any rate, try to understand how Cannibale, from some living room in the Northern France town of L'Aigle, managed to perfect a sound somewhere between the Caribbeans, 1960s West Coast garage scene and Tropicalia's Brazil.

CANNIBALE got into "doing nothing" lately. And while doing so, they've put together their third album, Life is Dead.

No doubt here: the influence, sound and hallmark are clearly Cannibale's, once again leaving their instantaneous imprint.

In our post-all era though, this Life is Dead could sound like post-Cannibale. Simmered, gnawed to the bone; everything in that record feels more precise and simmered at length, Frustration's singer Fabrice Gilbert happily guests on track Kings of the Attics.

Welcomed as rookies in Born Bad's laps for its tenth anniversary, Cannibale now sits - comfortably so - at the big table of the label's leading bands.

Authors of totally adulterated shows, the Normans are set, with their new tracks, to keep firing up stages around the continent.

In the future, for sure, this Life is Dead will have its own chapter in their dedicated anthropo-ethno-socio-musicological study - a somewhat post-mortem moment, in the full flow of creation.

Digipak CD