Articles Written By: guuzbourg

Opposite Sex

We usually keep it plushy, soft-focussed and hoarse on this blog. But every now and then, we take a walk down the stairs, to the humid cellar, where things happen outside of the sun. Where bands like Liminanas play, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Granville. And New Zealand trio Opposite Sex. Alas, singer Lucy Hunter doesn’t sing in French, unless you count “au revoir, la rat…” as French (that should either be ‘La Rate’ or ‘Le Rat’). But hey, her voice is deliciously breathy, the music’s banging and clunking like a garbage truck (I mean that as a compliment) and when you call a track Mary Lu, you sure know your Gainsbourgian speak. Lucy also played the trumpet solo at the end of Connan Mockasin’s Serge-ish ‘It’s Choade my Dear’ as well as keyboards on other tracks on Connan’s album ‘Forever Dolphin Love’.
This is music that hides from the light, that breeds in the dark. Opposite sex, indeed.

Elizabeth Shepherd

  • Posted on 14/10/2012
  • /Under Musique

1974’s Pourquoi tu vis (Porque te vas) by Jeannette is one of the touchstones of doll-fronted pop – it was covered and sampled many times. Canadian jazz-pianist (she plays Wurlitzer, Rhodes and ‘tuned mixing bowls and muted pestle’ as well) Elizabeth Shepherd adds her version to the list, and it’s a good one. Shepherd’s known for her fierce, funky tracks and her hoarse voice. The fact that Elizabeth was pregnant during the recording of her fourth album ‘Rewind’ adds to the charm. ‘The fears and anticipation surrounding imminent motherhood were largely impetus to make this record’, she writes in the liner notes. ‘Rewind’ is covers album. Shepherd: ‘I chose to do songs that I have learned and loved and grown with over the years.’ Songs by Cole Porter (Love for Sale), Cannonball Adderley (Sack of Woe), Kurt Weill (Lonely House) and two chansons; the aforementioned Pourquoi tu vis and a Les Amoureux des bancs publics by Brassens. A very big plus of/on this album are the phat basslines by Ross MacIntyre. One of the three bassists on this album, but he’s the one who really adds to the songs.

Elizabeth Shepherd – Pourquoi tu vis

This song is also added to my New French Pop 2012 playlist on Spotify.

Baptiste Trotignon, Melody Gardot

  • Posted on 14/10/2012
  • /Under Musique

Mashing-up Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas and Gainsbourg’s La Javanaise, it can be done, and it sounds great. French jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon expertly ties these well-known chansons together on his new album. Ne Me Quitte Pas starts gentle, then Baptiste gets mental. Or desperate – just like NMQP. Then, he finishes in a melancholy mood, that fits La Javanaise, after all a song that’s about a love affair that lasts just one song. It all sounds very left bank. Serge and Jacques knew each other well, and toured together. I’m reading the English translation of Gilles Verlant’s indispensible Gainsbourg-biography, in which he tells stories of Brel charming every girl in the little town he, Serge and a small troupe of variety-artists passed through, with Serge taking note(s).
Trotignon covered Gainsbourg before, together with Aldo Romano he mashed-up Valse de Melody and Je t’aime… Mon non plus. On his new album, Song Song Song, Trotignon has another FS-regular as a guestvocalist. Melody Gardot is breezes (or should I say, breathes) through Mon fantôme. Nice.

Baptiste Trotignon – Ne Me Quitte Pas/La Javanaise
Baptiste Trotignon & Melody Gardot – Mon fantôme

Lizzy & the Orca

  • Posted on 11/10/2012
  • /Under Musique

And the flow of great artists from Montréal/Québec keeps on flowing. Lizzy & the Orca are fronted by Lysanne Picard, who has a pretty doodle-blog as well, who plays ukelele, guitar and cello. Partner in crime is Sébastien Ménard (glockenspiel, electric guitar). They play folk-tinged pop, with some country added. I really dig that steel guitar in Le Manteau Rouge. Their new EP is released, you can check their songs in French and English here. See Lysanne play an acoustic version here.

Lizzy & the Orca – Le manteau rouge

Mustang vs Gainsbourg

French neo-rockabilly trio recorded an EP with reprises of old tunes, songs by Brassens, Don Cavalli, Patrick Coutin and yes, our Serge. Most of the time, these cover-EPs consist of throwaway versions, recorded just for fun, material to keep the fans happy. Mustang Reprend is just that – the arrangement of Brassens’ Je me suis fait tout petit is fine, Coutin’s J’aime regarder les filles doesn’t have the bite of the original and Chez les Yé-Yé does swing ferociously, but lacks the contempt of Gainsbourg, your honour. Still, I’ve heard worse.

Mustang – Chez les yé-yé
Video of Serge’s original HERE

Rose

  • Posted on 30/09/2012
  • /Under Musique

Keren Meloul, who looks like an Oriental half-sister of Carla Bruni, took her stage name from the 1979 movie The Rose, based on the tragic life of Janis Joplin. Unlike Janis, or Bette Midler who plays The Rose, Keren has a soft, hoarse voice that channels early spring, meadows with glistening dewdrops. But there’s a melancholy undertone, like you see the autumn leaves already between the blossomming trees. She made two albums, a third one’s about to be released and Et Puis Juin is the first single. Spring colours and autumn leaves all rolled in to one. See a live clip here.

Rose – Et puis juin

Melody’s Echo Chamber

Her name’s Melody. Melody Prochet. She plays music as Melody’s Echo Chamber, ‘a kaleidoscopic fusion of psych rock and warm hypnotic pop‘. Or ‘Jane Birkin backed by Best Coast’, if you like. It’s fuzzy, distorted, colourful, danceable, supersweet and very, very husky. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker produced MEC’s debut album, she herself played all instruments and (as far as I know) wrote all the songs. Melody looks a bit like Gigi Gaston, the mysterious yeye-girl from artist Josh Goshfield’s dreamworld. Melody sings in English and French, I like the very Cocteau Twins-y Bisou Magique very, very much. Pitchfork, New York Times and COS wrote very favourable reviews. See the video for I Follow You here.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bisou Magique

Françoise Hardy

  • Posted on 25/09/2012
  • /Under Musique

In november, L’amour fou is released, the new album by French pop icon Françoise Hardy. Not only that, she will debut as a novelist as well this year. Songs on her new album were written by Julien Doré and Calogero. This is the first single. It’s breezy, it’s well arranged, she makes use of her tattered seasoned voice very well.

Françoise Hardy – Pourquoi vous?

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