After a blistering EP released in 2025, the Parisian group—adept at abrasive rock geared toward trance—lives up to the expectations placed in them with its excellent debut album, untitled and with no dull moments.
Launched in 2023, Dééfait brings together in its tumultuous core four activists from the Paris underground rock scene, who are active in other musical ventures as well: Lucas Valero (guitar), Pablo Valero (drums), Enir Da (bass), Grégoire Couvert (drums). To this instrumental quartet joins Ricardo Lara, a fierce singer-performer from Mexico who has lived in the French capital for about fifteen years.
After honing their craft for two years by playing in independent venues, the band released in December 2025 its first EP, untitled, published by the Nancy-based label Ici D’Ailleurs… It features an incandescent magma of sound, punctuated by Ricardo Lara’s incantatory vocal surges (in English, Spanish or French) across six expansive and gripping tracks. Evoking particularly the early Sonic Youth and also Ulan Bator, the collection lasts thirty-five minutes—providing more than enough material to get electrified, far more than many albums.
Recorded in the illustrious Black Box studios
A year later, we now receive Dééfait’s first album, also untitled. The five collaborators carried out two intensive residencies in a community space in Pas-de-Calais to extract the material needed. “We were locked in with the prospect of composing for the album, explains Pablo Valero. We could even rehearse at night. Most of the tracks were written during these working sessions. It gave us a big acceleration boost.” For the recording, carried out in the summer of 2025, the group had the privilege of accessing the illustrious Black Box studios, near Angers, and working with the seasoned producer Peter Deimel, a tireless workhorse of the venue. “He works ten hours a day, with hardly any breaks, tells Pablo Valero. He is hyper-focused, very attentive, always ready to try things.” Appearing as the sixth member of the band, “he truly participated in the creation of the album”, adds Enir Da.
Rich in seven tracks, the final result turns out to be more contrasted than the first EP. The album delivers a sinuous rock that oscillates between electrical spasms, atmospheric swaths and melodic shards. One often thinks of Blonde Redhead, especially on I Promise To Divide You, Endlessly Beautifying the Experience of Drama and Fôlatre, Fissure, Crie !—three pieces as floating as they are hypnotic. The highly convulsive Will More Y Su Winston 100’s, at the opening, and Satan’s Brew, in the middle, supply the most turbulent moments and should wreak considerable havoc live, where Dééfait thrives at full power.
Dééfait (Ici D’Ailleurs…/Kuroneko). Release on October 2. Live at the Trans Musicales de Rennes, on December 3, and at Petit Bain, Paris, on January 7, 2027.
