Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Press Color (1979)

In the diverse No Wave-milieu, Lizzy Mercier Descloux managed to stand out as uniquely unique. Grown up in France she dropped out of art school to work in a punk record store, and visiting New York in 1975, she befriended Patti Smith and Richard Hell (of the Voidoids, Television and The Heartbreakers), and immediately found her place in the scene. She started playing with D.J. Barnes in Rosa Yemen, drawing from bands like Mars and DNA, but unique for their frantic guitars, and not least Lizzy's half-hysterical, french-english vocals.

On Press Color, Lizzy's first soloalbum, she would pursue a whole other direction. Half covers (including Arthur Brown's "Fire," Lalo Schifrin's "Mission Impossible" and "Jim On the Move," as well as a version of "Fever" where "fever" is replaced with "tumour"), half original material, Press Color was maybe inspired by James Black and the Whites' mutant disco, but it is far brighter. That is also what makes it so different from other No Wave. Her catchy guitar and upbeat basslines mixed with her smilingly charming french accent versus No Wave's attacking-the-audience aesthetic; but the No Wave influence is still loosely to be found. "Wawa" has that darkness of mutant disco, while "Torso Corso" would perhaps sound like a Teenage Jesus & the Jerks minus the noise and aggressiveness.

"No Golden Throat" is one of the catchiest songs ever.

Described by Richard Hell: "At 17 she was more sophisticated than anyone I'd known"; next she would prove herself by delving into world music, and combining it with her Press Color-sound, her second project would later become the genre-bending Mambo Nassau, that has its similarities to the Talking Heads' takes on world music, but yet is something to itself.

Press Color

Note: this is the 2003 reissue, and contains the 6-track Rosa Yemen EP, as well as a few outtakes, an alternate version of "Mission Impossible" and a collaboration with Patti Smith.