Birdy Nam Nam

by Stewart MasonTaking their name from a line in the 1968 Peter Sellers film The Party, French DJ quartet Birdy Nam Nam's music is equally obscure and backward-looking: created entirely on turntables, the quartet's music consists of expertly manipulated shards of old records combined into new configurations that sound not like the usual turntablism grooves and displays of scratching prowess, but actual composed pop songs. The six-minute "Abbesses" sounds like post-rockers Tortoise jamming with a gypsy violinist and the drum section of a marching band, and the melodic drive and rhythmic swing of this track is testament to the skill with which these pop song collages were created. Elements of jazz, classical, funk, sound effects records, and unidentifiable bits of world music can be heard in instantly appealing, poppy songs like "Body, Mind, Spirit" and "Rainstorming."