With an illustrated CD booklet featuring a pinup girl in full bondage regalia a la Betty Page, one expects the Parisian quartet Frix to sound like some kind of heretical stand in for John Zorn and his “games of cruel women ». However, the music that awaits is neither stridently hardcore nor a sonorous strangulation. Instead, this new opus from Petit Label presents yet another French jazz group that merits wider listening. Frix has an irreverent Brooklyn tinge to its sound, mixing and matching sound effects, Balkan beats, and rarely heard instrumentations. With groove drummer Donald Kontomanou and a healthy dose of manipulated electronics, the group has concocted a crazy repertoire that compares nicely tothat of Medeski Martin and Wood and Sex Mob. Between its two saxophonists, the division of labor is clear : one proposes a diverse palette of woodwind instruments while the other plays tenor with a focused intensity that lies somewhere between Seamus Blake and Tony Malaby. Listening to this music, one’s often reminded of the early sounds of the Julien Lourau Groove Gang. To hear that inspiration and freshness anew is more than encouraging - JAZMMAN # 135 Frix, it’s Chic ! – NEW TALENT – First discovered thanks to their album « girls inside » , this slightly crazy eclectic quartet have published a four track CD « the show was not good », an embryo of a future album. F as in fresh: Frix has two sides: one side acoustic – two saxophones, alto and tenor, a double bassist, and a drummer – and an electric side – computers, little keyboards, samplers, effects pedals all controlled by the group leader, Etienne de la Sayette, when he isn’t blowing his alto! R as in ridiculous : the effect of collage, recycling, of editing… tinkering is at the heart of Frix which lets loose grooves, happily throwing in samples pinched from world music CDs whilst at the same time spreading layers of saturated vintage keyboard sounds à la Medeski Martin & Wood. Freaky you say? I as in independant : in the same way as groupes associated with the New York downtown scene, Frix refuses to be labeled, and crosses genres diagonally (afro-beat, klezmer, funk, dub, everything you can imagine) and asserts itself as a completely unique group stylistically rather like Sex Mob, which they site as a reference. X as in « X » : on their flyers, on their disc covers, the quartet cultivates an erotisism of another epoch, playmate hollywoodienne retro and stars of bondage like Betty Page. The group has vivid and off beat identity which flirts with the universe of B-movie films in the style of Ed Wood. Perhaps a prologue to possible attempts to incorporate video extracts into their concerts. - JAZMMAN # 143 A rare pearl - JAZZ MAGAZINE # 581 A joyous quartet with hip grooves - JAZZ MAGAZINE # 568 Accomplished musicians, original compositions, a communicative energy, worth checking out on stage. - CITIZEN JAZZ - jully 2007 A jazz with no hang-ups, nourished with diverse grooves (funk, drum'n bass, lounge, afro-beat) which gives you tingles. Not to forget the promise on the cd cover - Réchard, Kontomanou, Méchin, de la Sayette... But where are the girls then? - LYLO n° 239 Frix : « the show was not good » - The CD cover is scary! A giant very fifties pin up plays King-Kong and bestows panic on Paris! We find once again here the off-beat humour of the four protagonists of Frix, one of the most delightful and stimulating groups of the young hexagonal jazz scene. After Girls Inside released on Petit Label, remarked in these pages, this CD seems like a wink towards “FM” music in a nutty way. In three tracks, plus a remix, the quartet presents its current preoccupations, more rock orientated (having had a change of drummer with the departure of D. Kontomanou and the arrival of D. Georgelet) with a more systematic use of samples and keyboards… A choice the relevance of which one would need to check on during one of the quartets’ shows. - CULTURE JAZZ – january 2008