Charlotte Gainsbourg @ Paradiso

Charlotte wasn’t to blame, I think. That’s if you want to blame anyone for the show yesterday in Paradiso. The sound engineer is a perfect scapegoat, but getting the sound right in the Amsterdam venue is a challenge, I know. Yesterday, the first half of the concert had waaaaay too much bass. After about four of five songs, it got better. But it didn’t save the show.
It’s not easy to put the finger on the reasons why it didn’t appeal to me. Heck, I wanted it to be great. The Bruxelles show was excellent. Fierce. Yesterday, it was plushy. Lovey-dovey. Someone on twitter said it was like a pajama-party, due to the white clothes every one wore on stage. Connan Mockasin, dressed like a cult leader on stage, should’ve been the perfect musical companion – see this video. But yesterday, the music was too timid, too tame. To me, it sounded and looked like the band and Charlotte were uneasy with each other. Like they weren’t familiair enough with the material, with the new arrangements. Reviewer Peter Bruyn said to me: Connan’s no Beck, no Jarvis, no Conor J. O’Brien from Villagers, or one of the other men that helped push Charlotte to great heights. He’s sub-top at best. Charlotte needs top guys.

At times, it fared pretty well. The glam-funkin’ way Connan re-arranged songs from Charlotte For Ever, her first album from the 80s that Serge penned, did work. But songs like Heaven Can Wait or The Songs That We Sing, needed more oomph, chutpaz, drive, body – something like that. And that note-perfect cover of Ashes to Ashes…nice. For once.
Were my expectations too high? Charlotte wasn’t to blame. Yesterday, she looked stunning, sang charmingly, smiled a lot, it seemed like she had a great time. Part of the audience did so too (I guess about 400 people showed up, in a room that holds about 1500). But to me, to mrs Guuzbourg, to several people I spoke afterwards like FS-collaborators Maks and FransS, it didn’t even touch the standard we raised for Charlotte.

See an impression on Youtube.
More pictures HERE

Bic Runga

  • Posted on 19/05/2012
  • /Under Musique

Singers from New Zealand are rare on this French-oriented blog. Earlier this week we had Connan Mockasin, a few years back I featured Ladyhawke (who recorded one track in French). And now there’s Bic Runga. A gorgeous singer-songwriter with Maori, Chinese and Malaysian roots, who made four solo-albums. Belle was released last year, the title refers to the French tv-series Belle et Sebastien. She covered the theme-tune, also known as L’Oiseau, in French. Earlier, she covered Autumn Leaves, as you probably know a track of French origin too.

Bic Runga – Belle

Charlotte & Connan

Charlotte Gainsbourg is touring with flamboyant Kiwi (meaning: from New Zealand) artist Connan Mockasin. This weekend, they’re playing Brussels and (hooray!) Amsterdam. They redid Got to Let Go, the track Charlotte sang with Charlie from Noah & the Whale on her Stage Whisper album. A better version, I’d say. I’m not that familiar with Mockasin’s music, but according to It’s Choade, My Dear, he must’ve heard Serge’s masterpiece Melody Nelson.
Watch Charlotte and Connan together here.

Charlotte Gainsbourg & Connan Mockasin – Got to let Go
Connan Mockasin – It’s Choade, My Dear

Ariane and compagnie

  • Posted on 13/05/2012
  • /Under Musique

Two tracks I always play at French parties are Maldon by Zouk Machine, and C’est bon pour le morale by La Compagnie Créole (LCC). The first one is still an energizing piece of 80s zouk, the latter is highly danceable too, but more of an ironic choice. Back in the 80s LCC was an extremely popular band from French Guiana and the French West Indies who scored massive hits in French speaking countries with C’est Bon, Collé Collé and La machine à danser, to name but a few. They still exist and make albums. It was, and is, happy-go-lucky music, danceable yet a bit cheesy because of the synthesized drums and horns. I was surprised to find out, via Oh-La-La’s Natasha, that a bunch of Canadian bands released a LCC-tribute album in 2010. Even Ariane Moffatt is on it, in a drum-heavy cover of La Machine a danser. Not the first time by the way that Ariane sang on music from the Diaspora, earlier she was part of a collective of musicians who raised money for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Together with Moffatt & Yann Perreau, Montréal-based afrobeat band Afrodizz and Mad’moizèle Giraf (never heard of them) take the biscuit with good, danceable and organic sounding covers – the rest is so-so.

Ariane Moffatt & Yann Perreau – La machine a danser

Gainsbourg Degenerado

  • Posted on 10/05/2012
  • /Under Musique

Peruvian blog Revista 69 asked twelve bands and artists from Spain and Latin-America to cover a Gainsbourg track. The exhilirating result is downloadable for free (HERE, scroll down to where it says ‘Descargar’). The bands deconstructed the tracks, added electronics, jazz-elements, latin percussion and what not. There isn’t a bad cover here, I really dig the surfed up-version by Los Protones and the chillwaved Color Café by Algodon Egipcio. I wish that Lido Pimienta (check out this wonderful other track by her) had used less distorted sounds, though. Great initiative by Revista 69, muchas gracias!

Here is a taster by Madame Recamier (pictured) from Mexico: Madame Recamier – Ah, Melody

Alain Chamfort and the girls

Alain Chamfort is a big name in France. He played on hits by Dutronc like Les Playboys and Le Cactus, worked with Véronique Sanson and had Gainsbourg write lyrics for him. He debuted in 1968, released his first album in 1976 and scored big hits. Elles et lui is a duets album, Chamfort revisits old songs with the creme de la creme of French female vocalists: Claire Keim, Keren Ann, Vanessa Paradis, Elodie Frégé, to name but a few. Most songs are great. Take the lovely duet with Elodie, for instance. The original, from 1993, is an overblown, kitschy jazz ballad. Now, the music’s understated, the lyrics stand out and Elodie is doing what she does best. Also very good is Bambou, Chamfort’s duet with Camelia Jordana (a song written by Serge).

Alain Chamfort & Elodie Frégé – L’Ennemi dans la glace

Iggy sings Serge


Iggy Pop singing in French. De indestructible rocker did it before, duetting with Emmanuelle Seigner for instance (here), singing Les feuilles mortes on his Preliminaires-album (see here) and covering Serge Gainsbourg together with Lulu, on the latter’s debut album (see here). On Iggy’s new album, he sings songs by Dassin, Piaf, Brassens and Gainsbourg again, together with covers by The Beatles, Fred Neil and Yoko Ono. When you’ve heard the accent Iggy has when he sings in French, less charming then Blossom Dearie’s I’d say, you know how those covers sound. Funny, not good. Born in 1947, Iggy was the one exception to the rule that you can’t rock out when you’re over 40. Now, he proves that crooning, re-interpreting the classics, is an art that needs more than just a deep voice. I mean, Michelle by the Beatles, by Iggy? Come THE FUCK on. Must be a joke. If you want to hear old guys doing what they do best, listen to the new Leonard Cohen album, listen to Dr John’s Locked Down, listen to Tom Jones covering Tom Waits, even. But not this.

Iggy Pop – La javanaise

See video of Serge singing La Javanaise HERE

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