Musique Pour Enfiler Des Perles EP by Poison Gauchiste

Eric Labbé has been producing music under the name Poison Gauchiste since 2020. Before that, he was better known as a DJ, event organizer, and nightlife activist who played a key role in revitalizing the Parisian scene over the past fifteen years.

But that doesn't make him a newcomer to music. His new alias (a tongue-in-cheek jab at the general shift to the right) is simply the continuation of a winding musical journey that includes jazz (he was once a drummer) and electroclash (with the duo Headphone Karaoké in the 2000s).

What might be somewhat unique about his music is that he’s never tried to filter out his wide-ranging influences - from bebop to krautrock, afrobeat, Italo disco, and American minimalism - all of which resurface subliminally in his tracks, structured by a classic yet joyful Detroit-Berlin electronic grammar.

"Musique Pour Enfiler Des Perles" is the third EP by Poison Gauchiste, aka Eric Labbé, following "Musique Pour Faire Différentes Choses" and "Musique Pour Monter En Haut". It is the result of a slow maturation process, shaped by summer idleness and long winter evenings over the past two years. The EP features five compositions that, as always, blend quirky influences with distinctly personal oddities.

Caution: several of these tracks contain rhythms that might inspire dancing - though it’s unclear whether listeners will actually follow through, given the spells of languor and melancholy that occasionally drift onto the dancefloor.

“Légumes Farcis” ("Stuffed Vegetables") is a little refrain built around several arpeggio motifs and a few pretty far-out synths - including one (the one that opens the track) that drives my dog Mylo wild: he starts growling and/or singing when he hears it. If anyone plays it for their dog, I’d love to get some feedback.

"L'Amour, La Danse, La Révolution" ("Love, Dance, Revolution") is a straightforward answer to the question: "But really, what are you into in life?" This track has the scent of early-2000s electro, with a slightly new wave-style bassline, some brain-tickling motifs that call for raised arms, and a bunch of weird little sounds doing their own thing deep in the background.

"Sept Petits Pas Vers Nulle Part" ("Seven Small Steps to Nowhere") is named that way because - strangely enough - one of its main motifs is in 7 counts instead of 8, even though the track is fully binary. So the motif shifts out of sync with the rest of the instruments every bar. Otherwise, it reminds me of my early love for the Cologne scene around the Kompakt label. I’d love to know what Michael Mayer thinks of it.

"Le Junkie Du Cosmos" ("The Cosmos Junkie") is both a bold statement about my fondness for altered states of consciousness and a love letter to astrophysics and cosmology. Its full title is “Le junkie du cosmos sauvé par JB” ("The Cosmos Junkie Saved by JB") because Jean-Baptiste Madry did the final edit at a moment when I was this close to giving up on it. And now it’s the one that works best, in my opinion, in the middle of a house set - so thanks, JB.

“Bergerie” ("Sheepfold") is a kind of Balearic adventure: with its 100 BPM, acoustic guitar, and pizzicato strings mixed with dubby synths soaked in reverb, it clearly evokes a late afternoon sipping cocktails on a deserted beach.

Poison Gauchiste - Musique Pour Enfiler Des Perles EP
Release Date 20th September 2025
Label Paradise Children Records

Tracklist
1. Poison Gauchiste - Légumes Farcis
2. Poison Gauchiste - L'Amour, La Danse, La Révolution
3. Poison Gauchiste - Sept Petits Pas Vers Nulle Part
4. Poison Gauchiste - Le Junkie Du Cosmos
5. Poison Gauchiste - Bergerie