In June 2025, French punks Flippeur released ‘Pacman’, a frenetic single that took punk’s energy, added a bunch of bending synth sounds and a relentless jangle to create a really punchy track that hit its audience so hard that, even for those non-French speakers, it couldn’t fail to impress. In and out in just seventy nine seconds, it barely gave the listener time to over-think what they’d just heard, and that feeling of pure, unrestrained energy went a long way to suggesting Flippeur would be worth keeping an ear for in future.
Three months later, their double release bringing together ‘Plastique’ and ‘Peur De l’Avion’ works a similar formula, but in doing so, proves that Flippeur’s chaotic brilliance wasn’t a flash in the pan; nor would it wear out its welcome quickly.
‘Plastique’ opens with a solo guitar, its reverbed sound immediately suggesting this track will sound very different from past works – but it’s merely a ruse. After a few seconds, a classic, speed driven punky riff crashes in, combining influences from the early Damned with the slightly more contemporary punch of indie punks Public Access. Within seconds, this creates something incredibly sharp; something that sounds absolutely thrilling beneath a French vocal that’s just as distorted as the music itself. Using a shrill two chord riff as a bridge between the verses, the arrangement doesn’t dig too deeply for anything complex, but when the simple riff is transposed from guitar to the keys for the climax, introducing some of the band’s beloved Devocore/egg punk tones, it becomes clear that this raw sound is just deep enough, and layered enough, to appear far more impressive than so much of 2025’s rough and ready garage punk sounds.
Scaling back the distortion, ‘Peur l’Avion’ hits the audience with more of an old school punk vibe, but this doesn’t affect Flippeur’s obvious love for the speed and sharpness. The rhythm guitar work appears especially angry, in turn becoming a perfect fit for a semi-shouty French vocal, barking the chosen lyric throughout. Listen more closely and you’ll discover an effect on some of the guitar lines bringing a new wave/art punk slant that leans a little closer to ‘Plastique’, stylistically speaking, but for all of the pogo-worthy riffs, it’s actually a bright keyboard sound colouring part of the performance that makes the track. This adds the “egg punk” element, although rather strangely, it sounds like something with more of a 90s Fall influence than the Euro egg scene’s typical love for Devo. Whatever the motivation, though, it really works, and gives Flippeur a pleasing quirk that lifts this track beyond its retro punk origins.
Like a mangled science project pulling together the best bits of early Wire, early Devo and the guts of French egg punk peers Technopolice, Flippeur create absolutely electrifying sounds on this pair of tracks. The riffs are impressively sharp; the vocals share a flippant, sometimes cocky edge that compliments the music brilliantly, and in a little over four minutes, this Euro act should be able to convince their awaiting audience that punk is far from dead.
November 2025