# The Inspector Cluzo

The Inspector Cluzo is a French rock group from Mont-de-Marsan (department of Landes) formed in 2007. The group is composed of Laurent "Malcom" Lacrouts, on the guitar and vocals and Mathieu "Phil" Jourdain, on the drums, both Mont-de-Marsan natives. Both are former members of the band Wolfunkind [fr]. The name of the group was proposed by their friend Angelo Moore, singer in the group Fishbone, and references the character "Inspector Clouseau" that appears in the Pink Panther movies.

## History

Lacrouts and Jourdain met during their first year of Physics studies in Mont de Marsan. After playing in the band Wolfunkind the two formed a duo.
Their first EP was recorded in 2008, produced at Jet Studio in Brussels by Stephane Kraemer. The same year they released the first full-length eponymous album, which included two notable songs "Two Days" and "F*ck the Bass Player". The album was covered in French and International press, including in Japan where they participated in the Fuji Rock Festival.
In April 2010 they released their second album The French Bastards. In February 2012, their third, The 2 Mousquetaires, was released inside a comic book as its official jacket. By 2016 they released two more albums Gasconha Rocks and Rockfarmers, have given more than 800 concerts, visited 44 countries, and sold 100,000 albums.
In 2018 they recorded their 7th album We the People of the Soil in Nashville, with Vance Powell, marking the duo's tenth anniversary. At the beginning of 2020, the group released a "best-of" unplugged entitled Brothers In Ideals, recorded during their American tour. In January 2023 their eighth album, entitled Horizon, was released. Both were produced by Vance Powell.
The band is the subject of a book, biography of the band, as musicians and farmers, by Romain Lejeune, and illustrated by Marc Large.

## Farming & Do It Yourself approach

The duo runs a 15 hectare organic family farm in Gascony called "LOU CASSE" ('the oak' in the Gascon language). The farm, which they bought in 2013, is self-sustaining. On the farm they produce organic wheat and organic corn with their own free seeds, raise gray geese and other plants and animals. While they consider farming their focus, they split their time between the farm and their work as musician-composers, spending six months on each.
The duo work to apply the tenants of Agroecology on their farm and teach it to local kids and the greater public, for example by including lectures on the subject as the opening act for their concerts.
The duo, in music and farming, pursue the goal of being autonomous, independent, and ability to do all with what they have and by themselves. They manage their own label "F*ckthebassplayer Records", which, since 2012, acts as the distributor of the Ter a Terre records in France, also of their own making. Besides the farm, and their music, the duo manages, with family and trusted friends, on their own the concert bookings, publicity, recording, sales of their music and farm produce.

## Musical style

The "Les Inrockuptibles" when writing about their album "The French Bastards", called their style a fusion between funk rock and heavy metal, with a note that the band does not have a bass player. In the description of the same album Crossbeat also noted that the band's style is a fusion, at moments reminiscent of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. In 2011, an article about the Art Rock festival described the duo's style as being funk'n'roll, somewhere between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and AC/DC.
Their live performances are characterized as energetic, lively, accomplishing with just two musicians a large sound that transforms between blues-rock and hard-rock.
The duo sings in English.

## Discography

* (2008) Cluzo, EP, (Ter a Terre)
* (2008) The Inspector Cluzo, CD, (Ter A Terre)
* (2010) The French Bastards, CD, (Ter A Terre)
* (2012) The 2 Mousquetaires, CD, (Ter A Terre/FucktheBassPlayer Records)
* (2013) Gasconha Rocks, CD, (FucktheBassPlayer Records)
* (2016) Rockfarmers, CD, (FucktheBassPlayer Records)
* (2018) We the people of the soil, CD, (FucktheBassPlayer Records)
* (2020) Brothers in Ideal - We the People of the Soil, Unplugged (Universal Music Division, Virgin Records Distribution Deal)
* (2023) Horizon, CD, (FucktheBassPlayer Records)