OK frenchattackers, here’s the first try of the crew to let you (re)discover one of the mythical label from France. Despite his image of totally cheesy wax and cheap car boot stuff, Les Tréteaux is mostly linked to the name of two great musicians from this country: Daniel Janin & Jean Claude Pierric. They provide a majority of the production in the label, some are totally excellent, best of the best from France in the seventies, some are totally awful orchestra shit. That’s the funny side of this label: up and down are overexagereted. Good side of this label is you can find it in big quantities in the flea markets, it’s probably the best price /quality rate of the french records, usually euro bin and the equivalent of MFP label in England or stuff like Percy Faith in USA in term of availability.

TO DISCERN THE GOOD FROM THE BAD
First, don’t be cheated by the covers of the label. Most of them look very cheap and cheesy, with some almost nude women and very bad graphic art, but it’s pretty all the same, so it’s not like this you can separate the good one from the bad. There is 3 big categories in the label with numerous references:

MARIO CAVALERRO Pop Hits
You definitly have to avoid this one, except if you like ugly remake of seventies pop hits. Mario is cheesy as hell and don’t know the “funk” word at all. However it could be good for people looking for nude covers, some hot cheeks are revealed..

The Mario Cavalerro serie is noted as “Mario Cavallerro & Son Orchestre” and usually you have “Pop Hits” written on the cover. Unfortunatly this is the ones you find the most in France, some people even has 15 or 20 references in their crappy crates.. Lost Fools!

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE
This serie has always the same “structure”: plenty of cheesy remake of pop hits, like the cavallero one, with always pretty bad vocals. The main difference that really save your sell is that you find one instrumental track (called, on the LP track listing, “Version Orchestrale”) at the end of each side, almost always produced by Daniel Janin and Jean Claude Pierric. And lot of these are superb orchestral jazz funk, already used by some hip hop cats such as the Beatnuts.

Here’s some of the best listed by the frenchattack crew:

DANIEL JANIN JEAN LUC FERRE ET LEURS CHANTEURS LP 6326

Yes, Jean Luc Ferre is a name you can find instead of Daniel Janin, so don’t sleep ! This one is a good pick: “Dig Yourself Up (2)” on Aside is a dope funky track led by a nice wah wah guitar and a solid rhythmic section. The moog is pretty sweet, but the real heat is when the vibraphone appeared: funky as hell with a good help of the guitar once again! Finally not really the Janin orchestral veine, probably more Pierric, coz similar to the Harlem pop style: raw jazz funk and perhaps the best dancefloor track of the serie. “Walking Blues” on Bside begin pretty hard with some good orchestra action, and the drums are big, put ahead on the mixing. Bad news is the moog which came in the game and f***ed up the vibe of the track for my part, it depends if you dig cheesy cartoon sound.

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 13 Super Succes N°32

The track listing makes you dribble: Daniel Janin with Nancy Holloway on “Kiss And Tell” at the end of Aside. Unfortunatly, this is very far from “Hurt So Bad”, the orchestration is very cheesy and easy “Loveboat” style, plus Nancy wasn’t in top form, emotion wasn’t printed on wax that day. “Swingaboo” on Bside is more interesting, with a very cool electro loop at the beginning ready to be sampled, then the track continue on the funky orchestral veine conducted by Daniel Janin. The strange detail here is the same needle jump (you can hear it on the soundclip) at the exact same place in my 2 copies, probably a factory bug, anyway a good one for the loop.

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 13 Super Succes N°34

Forget the one at the end of Aside, totally awful, and go to the end of the LP to find the devastating “Saramina”, a classic by Daniel Janin and really the better example of his sound: fabulous horns and funky big band, a real classic. One bad point: this version is 2’10, 30 second less than the Eddie Driver one.

 

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 12 Super Succes N°35

“Just For Fun” on Aside is boring, Janin probably forgot to drink his orange juice that morning. On Bside “Fat Fat Fellow” is one of the dopest by the duo, tight beat, tremendous horn loop and big brass a la John Barry for a very spectacular cinematic track. A sure shot with this french leftfield touch.

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 13 Super Succes LP 6358

Whooo… Super sleazy cover with a nice girl and her wet T-shirt… Musically, action is the very cool “Rolly Polly” and its devastating intro break: a real beat juggling tool for the hip hop DJs if they manage to got 2 copies!

 

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 13 Super Succes N°33

“OK You Got It” is another nice orchestral joint, with always great work on the strings by Janin. Plus the cover appeals you with this beautiful… trumpet.

 

 

 

JEAN LUC FERRE SON ORCHESTRE & SES CHANTEURS 14 Super Succes

The last one, specially chosen and found by DJ Peeer is « Move Man », with some tough hi hat and an interesting guitar play.

 

 

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 12 Super Succes N°40

No interesting groove to note on the Aside. But on Bside “Super Position” is a very good one. Funky rhythmic and moog with predominant bass: like Herbie and the Headhunters takin’ ecstasy!

 

 

DANIEL JANIN & SON ORCHESTRE 12 Super Succes LP 6360

Another funky joint by the super duo: “Red Lotus” is phat as hell with its sort of french Enter The Dragon vibe and horns as tight as usual.

 

 

Of course there’s a lot of other one, and the same track can be found on different LPs, this selection is definitly not exaustive, so dig deep and don’t loose the faith!

THE RARE ONES
We end this article with these less ordinary LPs which are simply fake group or simply pseudonym of the two headz and their crew: Daniel Janin and Jean Claude Pierric. They are the most difficult to find of Les Tréteaux cause they probably didn’t sold very good. But they are by far the better, and some are super “over 100$” gems in the rare groove circuit.

PIERRE SELLIN & SON ORCHESTRE

Most of the LP is pretty boring jazz tunes, but "Don’t Play For Me" is a superb modal jazz.

 

 

 

EDDIE DRIVER – A L’Orgue Hammond

Daniel Janin under a dope fake name for a sort of super compilation of the instrumental works by the two french producers. You have the classic “Saramina” plus a bunch of very solid tracks like “Run You’ll Get It”, “Schout” and the wicked “Black Knight”

 

 

VELVET DREAMS

Like the Pierre Sellin, Velvet Dreams is a real one track LP, and of course the only one to go out of the disco cheese is the Pierric/Janin production: “Tabasco Flower (2)” got an efficient disco beat backed up by some bongos and a very mysterious vibraphone play.

 

 

GODCHILD

Yes, this is the LP every serious funk collectors are looking for. Coordinated by Jean Claude Pierric and some secret weapons (Joel Dayde, Eric Leton..), evey tracks are gifted by the god of groove. More various than Harlem P.T, the musical spectrum ranges from blaxplo/chase theme/funky orchestra tracks ("Koun'toukoupak", the baad bass of "Chut Bebe Dort", "Pas Un Brin de Vent") to typical french scat ("Dans C'cas La Oui", "Reveil Matin"), massive hip hop beats ("Perdigouna", "La Tete Qui Bout") and of course these easy jazz funk arrangements with superb electric piano moments JC Pierric is well known for ("Retour De Flamme", "Un Bouquet De Cerise"). But the major thing with Godchild, similar to every great albums, is that you like it more and more after every listening.

 

HARLEM POP TROTTERS

This fake group is in fact Jean Claude Pierric and his crew for one of the best jazz funk album made in France. Tons of loop to grab and a very solid all around album with no filler tracks. Witness the magic on some extracts (1 2 3 4 5 6 7)…

 

 

A big thanks to DJ Peeer for ideas, pictures and MP3s…