MNNQNS

French experimental rock quartet MNNQNS call themselves "a rock band that hates rock & roll." Post-punk, noise pop, psychedelia, the avant-garde, and electronica all feed into a ragged, raw aesthetic whose foundation rests on memorable melodies and direct song forms.

The group came together in Rouen in 2014 when singer-guitarist Adrian d'Epinay—pronounced "Mannequins"—returned from studies in Cardiff, Wales. There he had absorbed the local scene's left-field British indie sounds, especially noise-punk and Welsh psych, and had already started composing material with the notion of forming a band. Back in France he assembled personnel through repeated shifts until the roster stabilized around Marc Lebreuilly on guitar, Félix Ramaën on bass, and Grégoire Mainot on drums. Their self-released debut album Worthless slipped out unnoticed that same year. Embedded in Rouen's informal network of local acts, the quartet sharpened its live skills through constant gigs; the work culminated in victory at the Ricard Live Music Prize, an accolade that accelerated their momentum. Following the self-released EP Capital they joined cult British imprint FatCat in 2018 and issued the Advertisement EP. Their first full-length release on the label, Body Negative, arrived in 2019.