See a radio-interview with CdP here, in which she talks about the exploding heads in the Adieu-video. You do check Beatrice’s Tumblr, right? (thx Mark)
Musique
Mademoiselle Nineteen
I can almost hear you frown: this FransS guy falls in love too easily. Two weeks ago I declared my love to Soko, and now to yet another darling. My love for Mademoiselle Nineteen’s album. We already spotted Juliette Wathieu (as her real name is) some time ago, and recently saw her sweet video of “Quelle Importance“, and her first album “Mademoiselle Nineteen” (highly original) is just out.
The album has the atmosphere we like: great voice, to-the-point-songs, lot of sixties references but it certainly doesn’t sound like a retro copycat. Maybe it is better to state that this is how France Gall would’ve sounded if she wasn’t born in ’47 but in ’91, as Mademoiselle Nineteen is.
Some songs have a 70s vibe, like “Je danse dans le noir” (although it includes a wonderful sixties organ).
And of course if you sang backing vocals for Lio, you always get extra points from the FS headquarters!
Mademoiselle Nineteen – Je danse dans le noir
FM Laeti
Born on Guadaloupe, raised in Canada and blessed with a lovely voice and great features, FM Laeti walked in my life thanks to Dutch Radio6-dj Jaap Boots. When he mentioned she duetted with the new African goddess Fatoumata Diawara, I was sold! The duet, Coco, is a French-Westindian-Malinese culture clash, that works very, very well! Like a cool wind on a hot summer’s day. FM Laeti (the FM is a tribute to the radiowaves, and to ‘different moods’) grew up in a very musical family: ‘My father is a drummer, my step father a classical pianist and my mother an avid music lover. I grew up in quite different places, met a lot of different people, but there was always a lot of music. At home it went from world music, to jazz, to soul and old R&B to classical. With my friends we were always thirsty for new or old musical discoveries from rap, to rock , to folk etc…’, she says in this interview. The rest of her album is all English. Soulful, but not as surprising as this duet. Hope to hear more of that in the future.
FM Laeti & Fatoumata Diawara – Coco
Fanny Bloom
Remember quirky Canadian trio La Patère Rose? In 2009, they made the Filles Sourires Album of the Year-list. Alas, they called it quits in 2011. Singer Fanny Bloom recorded a solo album that’s about to drop soon. First single Parfait, Parfait fishes in the same musical pond as Lykke Li and The Dø – 80s synths, fierce drums, soothing voice. Which is nice. Very much looking forward to that album, we love that voice.
You can download the last ever single of La Patere Rose for free here.
Fanny Bloom – Parfait, Parfait
Barbara Carlotti
A new single by Barbara Carlotti! It’s the title track of her new album that will be released in April. On the Atmospériques label, no less.
Barbara Carlotti – L’amour, l’argent, le vent
Charlotte, remixed
Charlotte Gainsbourg in the remix; it usually leads to something good. Take Superpitcher’s remix of The Operation, or Diskjokke’s version of IRM. Recent case in point: Joakim’s rework of Paradisco. A tribute to the long hypnotic disco-re-rubs of dj-legend Larry Levan. The dub-version, with more volatile vocals, is downright brilliant. Watch out for those lasergun salvo’s! Find more reworks of Paradisco via HypeMachine. I like Tempogeist’s discofied version a lot, too.
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Paradisco (Joakim’s “Paradisco Garage” dub)
Benjamin Schoos & Laetitia Sadier
Go HERE (or HERE, if you want to download the song) to listen to the duet between Benjamin ‘Miam Monster Miam’ Schoos and former Stereolab-chanteuse Laetitia Sadier, from Ben’s upcoming album that also features Marie France and Chrissie Hynde. According to The Guardian, this duet ‘makes you want to run around the streets of Paris with a Super 8 camera and a coy but knowing smile on your face’.
As Mordi pointed out in the comments, the song was originally sung by the magnificent Mademoiselle Nineteen. (I wonder, will she change her name, now that ‘Mademoiselle’ is banned?)
Agridoce
Brazilian correspondent Luciane strikes again, with ‘cute folk’ duo Agridoce. Who cover Serge.
“Agridoce” is the debut album and name of the parallel project by Brazilian pop rock singer Pitty with her guitarist Martin Mendezz. It’s unplugged and explores different instruments and minimalistic sounds, textures, details, it’s quite the opposite of what’s she’s used to do with her über-popular solo work.
In “Agridoce,” which means bittersweet in Portuguese, guitars are out, acoustic guitar and piano are in, along with drawers with pillows inside and such other new musical instruments. The mood is introspective and folk-ish. The album was quickly nicknamed “fofolk” or “cute folk”.
Fan of Pitty or not, it’s an interesting album to listen, especially for those who never cared about her rock band or downright didn’t like her. This is something else. It shows nuances of her voice that one couldn’t hear before.
I certainly appreciated that, even more when it comes in French.
The first French surprise in the album is the song “Ne parle pas.” They didn’t name any French influences on the interviews they gave about the project. There are a lot of songs in English on the CD, so this one stood out.
And it turns out “Ne parle pas” is self-explanatory. Pitty said she can’t speak French, so this song is precisely about that, and her desire that she could. It’s about having a lot to say, but thinking it would all come out and sound much better if she could say it in french — ah, but haven’t we all been here before?… She said she finds French very musical and embracing. “If anyone who can speak French listens to this song, there’s already a mea culpa in it,” she joked on an interview.
Volontairement kidnappée
Délibérément traînée
Décidément arrachée
Pendant que tu coules entre mes jambes
I’d say is a good start for someone so raw and newly arrived. The piano does wonders for this song.
When I thought that was all, voilà, the second surprise comes as an iTunes bonus track: Pitty singing “La javanaise,” by Serge Gainsbourg. She made it absolutely bittersweet: her voice is mellow and sad, while the piano softens up the atmosphere of goodbye at the end of a love affair.
Covering Serge — and what she said above — could be a good indication that she’s been captured by french chansons. And maybe we’ll see more from her in the future. I’d gladly welcome that.
Agridoce – La javanaise
SoKo
I can’t help it. Really. It is stronger than myself. But I love Soko. She first appeared on this blog in 2008 (see?), she became a minor hype, then she disappeared, and now she’s back with her first album: “I thought I was an Alien”. Video of the title song is available here. And again: I love it.
It’s not that she’s a brilliant singer (kinda thin), or that she has world shocking lyrics (kinda naive), or that she is musically very interesting (kinda dull).
But what is it then? Is it that “French-ladies-singing-in-franglish” accent? Yes, that is a huge part of the attraction. It is downright lovely. Is it ’cause she’s cute? You bet.
But there must be more, too. I think it is also something like originality, or even authenticity. It all sounds so honest. Soko’s a young woman who sings about what is on her mind, as if she is talking to you after a night out.
To give an example of what I mean, listen to a song like “Happy Hippie birthday”. It starts like a happy birthday song for a friend, but you can hear that the tone changed while she was writing the song. She realised that he is much older and that the age difference is exactly like it was between her parents. You can say it is a bit messy song-writing, but I don’t care. It sounds real and authentic to me.
And yes, maybe I get easily deceived. Maybe Soko’s prefab, made up by a clever svengali.
But still, I can’t help it. I love Soko.
Les Soeurs Boulay
Steve from SoCal on his new discovery, two folksy, note-perfect Canadian singing sisters. Any relation to Isabelle? We don’t know, yet.
Thought I’d drop you a line about Les Soeurs Boulay who I “discovered” while trawling Bandcamp after stumping up for Marie Pierre Arthur’s EXCELLENT (can’t emphasis that enough) “Aux alentours” album…
I don’t know that much about les Soeurs Boulay, Melanie and Stephanie, except that they’re from Gaspesie in Quebec have just released their eponymous debut 5-track EP through Bandcamp. There’s a certain sparseness, cleanliness about the sound; absolutely note-perfect harmonies with minimal backing from just an acoustic guitar or ukulele(!) There’s more than a hint of early (think folksy) Simon and Garfunkel in the EP’s opener “Lola en confiture”, although my personal favourite is the slightly up-tempo “Des shooters de fort sur ton bras” It should be noted that there’s a definite “country folk” undercurrent runs through all five tracks, but don’t let that put you off. While there’s a certain “tristesse” to the lyrics there’s also an haunting achingness that forces you to just wants to come back for more.
Highly recommended, and as a taster, “Priere” is available for free from the girl’s bandcamp site
Les Soeurs Boulay – Les shooters de fort sur ton bras