New single by sweet French garagerockers The Liminanas, new album out 5-11. More on the band here.
Articles Written By: guuzbourg
Yasmine Hamdan
If you know that Marc Collin produced the most recent album by Beirut-born singer Yasmine Hamdan, you understand why there’s room for her on this blog. For Monsieur Nouvelle Vague, the mastermind behind Ollano and a whole bunch of others (see an old post here) is King Midas when it comes to les filles. This new album by Yasmine is a fusion of western electronics an Arab atmospheres, just like Yasmine’s former band Soapkills (listen to a great track she re-recorded for her album). If this is Beirut by night, then it’s far from dangerous, it’s humid, sexy, tempting. This is far better than Ofra Haza or Natasha Atlas, at least in my book.
I have no clue what Yasmine’s singing about, but an expert told me ‘the songs are about what all songs are about’. But they sure don’t sound like all songs.
Moongaï
She went to church just to listen to religious chants. He’s obessed with the Motown beats. She listened to her sister and grandma play the piano. He started playing jazz at a young age. She holds Brel, Brassens and Ferré in high esteem, he’s into modern hiphop. She looks like the china doll version of Florence Welch, he’s dressed as a gentleman gunfighter. Together they are Moongaï. They hail from St. Nazaire, Brittany, they’ve toured in England and India and you might now Eva from her guestspot on the C2C album. Their dreampop is reminiscent of Emilie Simon, of Mylene Farmer, of Florene & the Machine, of Gainsbourg (listen to Visage Pale, on their album Cosmofamille). Zombie is the first single, with a heavy heavy bassline and a surprising break. This could be big.
Laibach on the beat
Ah, Mina Spiler. The She-Wolf of Laibach, that bunch of industrial totalitarianism-flirters, the Slovenian funnymen with shiny black jackboots. If women in uniform are your thing, turn to Mina. Never thought I’d ever hear her sing in French, but she does on a live version of Gainsbourgs steamy s&m-classic Love on the Beat (yep, that’s Bambou, bare-chested). Laibach recorded this version at Tate Modern. It’s from a brand new EP, new Laibach album’s coming up. See Mina in full regalia on this great Beatles-cover.
Le Soldat Rose 2
Soldat Rose 2 : Renan, Nolwenn et Francis chantent “La Couleur” from GLORIA on Vimeo.
Le Soldat Rose was a musical fairytale by M(athieu Chedid) and his dad, for the follow-up Thomas Dutronc took the reigns and signed up Nolwenn Leroy, Elodie Frégé and Camelia Jordana, among others. See more here (in French), above is the first video for the project.
Angèle David-Guillou
London-based Angèle is, besides a young Isabella Rosselini-look-a-like, a French-born multi-instrumentalist who just released an extremely beautiful album (Kourouma) that I’ve been playing to death the last few days. She’s the artist formerly known as Klima. She played with Piano Magic, Go! Team and French band Ginger Ale. Kourouma is a neo-classical album, with piano, wurlitzer, strings, bells and the fragile voice (sometimes) of Angèle. Atmospheric is an understatement. There are hints of Yann Tiersen, Satie and Nils Frahm. It’s chamber music, it’s ambient music, it’s very emotional, music for the film in your head. The inspiration for this album comes from novels. From this interview: ‘Typically the title track was inspired by a book by Amadou Kourouma, called “Allah Is Not Obliged”. I read a lot of African literature around the time I was composing the pieces, I love its bareness and aridity, Coetzee is a favourite of mine for instance. I wanted to translate some of that in music. I also started reading in French again, and especially the work of Marguerite Duras and Françoise Sagan. The atmosphere of these books has really inspired me.’
To be honest, I’d never heard of both Piano Magic or Klima and those bands are nothing like this new album. This is goosebumps all over. Because of her looks and her music, I wonder what David Lynch would think of her.
Listen to a preview of the album HERE. See her play live HERE. Listen to Angeles favourite music HERE
Lou Reed RIP
Lou’s dead. Here’s Vanessa paying tribute. More? Here.
Laurence Hélie
Another slice of sweet Quebec Country-Folk… sigh…
“À présent le passé” (“Right now the past”) is Quebec singer-songwriter Laurence Hélie’s follow-up to her 2010 eponymous debut album.
Whereas her first album nailed its colours unashamedly to a Western-tinged Country mast, “À présent le passé” is a far more ambitious affair. To be sure there is still a country influence, but this time around there’s an encompassing feel of pop, folk, jazz and blues. The end result is a far more expansive and accessible affair. Indeed the title is very much a description of the musical road this album has taken. While the songs are very much of today (“Right now”) and mine that rich seam of contemporary French-Canadian folk, there’s a solid foundation (“the past”) in the rich heritage of Americana – country, and the aforementioned folk and blues – that is evident through-out.
it seems that every great record coming out of Quebec this year has at least one absolutely nailed-on haunting ballad and this album is no exception. In fact there are two on display here: The melancholic and semi-autobiographical “trente ans” and “La rivière” – all piano intertwined with snare and base (again), which has rapidly embedded itself into my subconscious. It really is a beautiful arranged and soulful song.
Released at the beginning of the month, “À présent le passé” is an accomplished album containing ten polished gems from an artist expanding her musical horizons with some panache…
(Yup, another guestpost by Steve. Read his blog too!)
Cinema
This is nice. Cinema, featuring Calypso Valois, daughter of Eli & Jacno. EP out in November.