Fran - single review

It’s hard to think of any dance music in recent years that had any message deeper than “shake your ass” or how someone is “absolutely flawless”. It comes as a refreshing change to have some confrontational agitprop to a dance beat.

Fran, a gorgeous 37-year old Italian-born singer-songwriter who was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1994, is a man with a mission: to raise awareness of an illness that the media circus have long left behind, and to tackle head on the social prejudice that stems from ignorance. His first single, ‘Violent Silence’ is eerily reminiscent of the old ACT UP “Silence = Death” message of the late eighties, though still as relevant.

“A rather naughty Madonna sample” is the rather opportunistic way of saying that Madonna’s ‘Why Is It So Hard’ forms the entire foundation of this song. Taken from the controversial and under-estimated Madonna album, Erotica, this neglected track has Madge in vituperative mode demanding to know, “What do I have to do to be accepted / What do I have say” and encouraging “Why can’t we learn to challenge the system / without living in pain”.

It is little wonder this track yelled out to Fran as the perfect vehicle for his personalised representation of the invisibility and isolation of those who are HIV positive. “This peace is violence / It kills in silence / It makes me feel the pain” raps Fran in gravelly-tones pitched somewhere between Lou Reed and Belouis Some. The repeated refrain, “Can you listen to me” underlines the import of Fran’s message.

‘Violent Silence’ is an agonisingly sincere and heartfelt effort in an undeniably important cause. Fran’s impulse of hope and positivity over cynicism, apathy or superficiality must be respected.

The question that was always posed to explicitly socio-political artistes such as Jimmy Somerville and Tom Robinson remains: how much impact can you make with such a transitory and disposable medium such as dance / pop music?

That aside, even if not cutting edge, ‘Violent Silence’ is a thoroughly enjoyable dance record. Even better than the original mix is Marc Almond’s synthy, almost Bjork-like ‘Replicant Mix’.

Originally published 29th November 2004