Musique

Jane Birkin & The Lilies

  • Posted on 22/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

A few quotes from reviews of We Are The Lilies:’A collaboration between Sérgio Dias, founder of cult 1960s/70s Brazilian psychedelic group Os Mutantes, and French indie outfit Tahiti Boy and The Palmtree Family. Written and recorded in five days, their album is a blast, blending the French band’s twisty, intricate pop with Dias’s free-wheeling tropicalia. Jane Birkin and Iggy Pop, an apt mix of sophistication and wildness, pop up as guest vocalists.’ (FT)

‘Sounding every bit like a vintage Trevor Horn production, with beautifully descending Belle and Sebastian chords, raucous shout-alongs comparable to early Bees and some hysterical saxophones straight out of the Ian Dury catalogue, this is a slightly woozy house party album for when LSD gets in the punchbowl and revellers start getting into the first phases of debauched undress.’ (BBC)

‘The two big moments on We Are the Lilies come courtesy of special guests Iggy Pop and Jane Birkin (the actress/ singer most famous for her recordings with ex-husband Serge Gainsbourg), and both are most unexpected. The Iggy-assisted “Why?” is great fun, but almost only because he seems be having most of it (“Why do the French smoke? Why do Americans fight? Why do Brazilians dance?” he yelps over a spotty appropriation of a little Motor City rumble). Birkin’s “Marie” fares better with its stripped-down approach, channeling Blue-era Joni Mitchell with a bit of that perfectly flat-but-pretty French affectation.’ (Pitchfork)

The Lilies feat. Jane Birkin – Marie

Erin Ivey

  • Posted on 18/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

Norah Jones’ sexy sister with a reggae beat. Intrigued? Erin Ivey is from Austin, Texas, a town brimming with singer-songwriters, but she stands out. With her looks (she was voted one of Austins most beautiful women), with her husky voice that makes ice melt, with her band (organ based R&B/dub trio the Finest Kind), with fine lyrics and with solid songs. And, you guessed it, a wee bit of French singing. In Chocolate, she quotes from Marie Laforet’s Mon Amour, Mon Ami. I’m listening to Erins album Broken Gold, that’s just out, and three songs in I want me and the mrs to slip in something more comfortable. See Erin perform the song before a very unappreciative audience.  [Thanks Cameron]

Erin Ivey – Chocolate

When Beatrice met Jay

  • Posted on 17/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

Two authentic musicians collaborating together doesn’t automatically yield the best of both worlds. But with their project ‘Armistice‘, francophone musician Beatrice Martin (Coeur de Pirate) and anglo rocker Jay Malinowski (Bedouin Soundclash) prove that things can work out.
Beatrice and Jay first met while recording the Coca-Cola Open Happiness song (click is on your own risk) for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, which probably led to their next collaboration at Bedouin Soundclash’ latest album Light The Horizon. Beatrice takes part on one song, the stunning track Brutal Hearts. The result of their next musical collaboration is this sultry refreshment from the mariachi playgrounds: Armistice. The two Canadians (who became a couple meanwhile, sorry guys!) recorded it with help from hardcore punk band The Bronx, who recorded a mariachi album themselves in 2009 under the alter ego ‘Mariachi El Bronx’.
Armistice makes you feel where you want to be, in love and free. The only thing is: this feeling only lasts five songs long, ’cause sadly that’s all there is on this superb debut.

Mariachi El Bronx – My Brother The Gun
Bedouin Soundclash ft. Beatrice Martin – Brutal Hearts
Armistice – City Lights Cry

See earlier post with video here

Titties & Ski

  • Posted on 13/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

The first half of the 70s saw a virtual shitload of soft sex comedies. While the wave of the enormously successful German Schulmädchen Reports gushed over Europe, French-Canadian filmmakers also tried to cash in on the phenomenon. 1971’s Après-Ski (a.k.a. Snowballin’ – The Exciting New Indoor-Outdoor Sport!) was among those movies, and while the funk-scored hardcore of Deep Throat was still a year away, Ski director Roger Carling jazzed up his story with some legendary grooves as well. For more than three decades, the rare Ski soundtrack was regarded as the Québécois Holy Grail of Funk; for the complete story of the record, see here. Now re-released by Les Disques Pluton, it maybe doesn’t fully live up to its myth, but comes with some remarkably fat, fusion-like moments by Canadian band Illustration, plus a solemn chanson by actress Mariette Lévesque (see right) – une adorable femme de neige.

Illustration – Le Grand Marc

Mariette Lévesque – Dors avec moi

Emilie Voisin chante Barthes et Kreisler

  • Posted on 12/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

Rottweil, a small town near the Swabian Highlands, belongs to the roughest parts of Germany; there’s certainly a reason why they named a fierce butcher’s dog after the borough. You’d never suspect someone like Emilie Voisin (see right) here, and maybe that’s why FS overlooked her debut album A part ça tout va bien last year; a swell one, featuring a nearly irresistible song about French philosopher Roland Barthes, as well as an alluring rendering of Liebesleid, a mood-piece written in 1910 by Viennese violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, scholar of Bruckner and Massenet, friend of Edward Elgar and one of the very first intertextual artists, passing off his very own melody as an original composition by Baroque composer Giuseppe Tartini until 1935. In 2004, German chanteuse Lisa Bassenge payed another tribute to Kreisler’s immortal charlatanry: a sparse one, amalgamating echoes of new wave romance with some awkwardly hypnotizing Carribean swing you’ll only find on the coast of Berlin.

Emilie Voisin – Roland Barthes

Emilie Voisin – Liebesleid

Nylon w/ Lisa Bassenge – Liebesleid

Mademoiselle Nineteen

  • Posted on 11/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

Download the new, VERY GOOD, single by Mademoiselle Nineteen here, in exchange for your email-address.

Lio

  • Posted on 07/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

Parisian dance-rockers Justice once unveiled for me the glitzy Musique, a floorfiller by France Gall, for this mix. Remixer Bottin does the same with Lio’s 1980 Sage comme une image (produced by Marc Moulin!), a remix he did last year – but nobody told me (well, FS-reader Johan did recently), so that’s why I’m posting it now. He took the long version of the song from Lio’s Suite Sixteen album, and stretched the intro. So now you can enjoy that Chic-like bass-and-guitar-groove even more!

Lio – Sage comme une image (Bottin Sage Oil remix)
Lio – Sage comme une image (original) Super sweet video here.

Daphné

  • Posted on 03/02/2011
  • /Under Musique

First the green, then de red, now the blue: blackhaired beauty Daphné keeps her albums colour-coordinated. Bleu Venise is as sensual as earlier work, but more intimate. No big orchestras, world-class arranger Vince Mendoza kept it calm. More focus on the melancholy in D’s unsteady, husky voice, more jazzy-vibes. Think Norah Jones’ first album. The album comes with a dvd that includes this video, and 1-minute clips for other songs. Shot in Venice, of course. Daphné is a beautiful woman, so it’s no punishment to watch the short clips. But it’s beyond me why you’d wanna put album-teasers on a dvd together with the album. We want full clips! Oh, and about the two English songs: they reminded me of Emilie Simon’s last album. But have no fear: songs like Venise sous la neige, the supersultry Moi plus vouloir dormir seule and closing track Hors temps make Bleu Venise a must-have.

Daphné – Hors temps

Heidelinde Weis

  • Posted on 31/01/2011
  • /Under Musique

You can just as easily make a sexy record in German as you can in French. We’ve proved that before, now let’s prove it again. I recently stumbled upon the first album of Austrian-born actress Heidelinde Weis, released in the 70s. From a biography: “The music world was quite amazed when in 1975 the first album from Heidelinde Weis was placed on the market. Extremely laid back, jazzy bossa nova took turns with slick 70s funk, and above it sizzling, lascivious vocals with often blatant erotic lyrics. This album wasn’t just a major commercial success, but also immediately received the German award from the Phonoakademie.” Weis appeared in several German ‘krimi’s’, like Derrick and Der Alte. With the description above in mind, you’d really wanna see this clip (skip to 00,25 sec). A selection of her albums was put together for this cd, I bought the 1975 debut on vinyl. That one features the song posted here.


Heidelinde Weis – Ich will dich

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