Probably the best video you’ll see all year.
Anna, Charlotte
‘Anna’ is the new single by Charlotte Gainsbourg (who’s coming to my hometown! Whoo!), with remixes by Moonlight Matters, Clock Opera and, posted here, a very FS-friendly, floating version by Tom Furse.
This is a very nice rework of Paradisco.
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Anna (Tom Furse remix)
Amylie, Carlotti
We don’t overuse the expression ‘yearlist material, people’ on this blog, yet were not afraid to use it either. This year, Fanny Bloom got tapped, and now I’m adding Barbara Carlotti’s L’Amour L’Argent Le Vent and Amylie’s Le Royaume to that Indispensable-list. Quebecoise Amylie released her sophomore cd, it’s richer in sound (orchestral, if you like) than her extraordinary debut, but there are heavy beats too, like in Comme un reine. Amylie flirts with classic chanson the same way Coeur de Pirate did on her second album, but updates it. Overall, the atmosphere is upbeat, her voice is strong, serene and sexy, and rockabilly workout Les Filles deserves to be a big summer hit.
Carlotti is a little more seasoned, L’Amour… is her third album, and less girlie then Amylie’s. The atmosphere reminds me of Air’s first EP (that’s meant as a compliment), her lyrics are based on literature, her travels to Brazil and India made an impression and she revisits the music she listened to as a 14-year old (Kraftwerk, Lio, Daho) on the track Quatorze ans. It’s less folky than earlier stuff, but as gentle and breezy. Love her duet with Philippe Katerine as well.
Both albums sound elegant, detailed and classy. Did I mention that they’re both yearlist material, people?
Barbara Carlotti – J’ai changé
Amylie – Bouche coucuse
Public Serge
You must’ve noticed the stream of ‘public domain’ compilations with Gainsbourg-songs recorded pre-1962. Most of those rehash the same stuff, the first EPs, the Gréco-versions, the Alain Goraguer-filmscores and the odd Michèle Arnaud or Les Frères Jacques-cover. Very rarely, as fellow FS-writer Sky also noted here, such a compilation is done right, i.e. with all the relevant recording data, informative liner-notes and/or remarkable ‘new’ material. The Frémaux & Associés-released triple-cd ‘Intégrale Serge Gainsbourg et ses interprètes 1957-1960′ is a noteworthy exception. Though it’s claimed to include ’13 Titres Inédits Sur CD’, it actually has five songs that I hadn’t heard before, or couldn’t track on other compilations. Four Gainsbourg-songs recorded in 1958 in the Paris’ Alliance Française, and a live-version of Le poinçonneur… by Hugues Aufray, recorded in L’Olympia. The Gainsbourg-tracks, with their introduction and little interview, show that the stories about Serge’s stagefright weren’t exaggerated – he sounds like a rabbit in the headlights. This new comp is fairly cheap, expansive and includes enough nice covers and versions (Trumpet Boy, Simone Bartel, Francis Lemarque, the odd Los Goragueros-cover) to recommend. So there.
Serge Gainsbourg – Douze belles dans la peau (live @ Alliance Française 1958)
Hugues Aufray – Le poinçonneur des Lilas (live @ Olympia, 1958)
Marianne Dissard
She’s in Europe again, our beloved husky Tucsonian seductress Marianne, performing for crowds in Lyon, France and more in Germany (*sobs*). But she’s bringing a touring cd, that you can also download via her Bandcamp (here). You only see two tracks, but there’s more. Way more. A duet you can’t afford to miss, with ‘a Belgian friend’ with a very distinct singing voice (*cough*), there’s a remix (listen here!), there are several beautiful versions of great MD-tracks like Cayenne and Fugu, and, well, it’s Marianne, so what else do you need to know? Go see her if you’re in Germany, kiss her from us, and say we’re very much looking forward to her collab with an Italian composer.
And because Marianne loves us back, here’s a free download of Fondre, from her Berlin Takes touring cd.
Marianne Dissard – Fondre
New Amylie video
More on the AMAZING new album later. See HERE too.
Ghost Loft, Possimiste
Every now and then I get ‘music submissions’ from artists that have a FS-feel (i.e. sultry, kooky, Gainsbourgian) but who don’t sing in French. At FS HQ, we like to keep it clear what we post on this blog (i.e. sultry, kooky, Gainsbourgian AND French), but these two tracks I recently received are just too good to keep from you. And when Possimiste replied to my email in French, well, I just couldn’t resist.
I loved the artwork for Blow by Ghost Loft, the moniker of LA-resident ‘Danny’. This track reminds me of Everything But The Girl mixed with Junior Boys, melancholitronica. If you ever try something in French (or with French samples), lemmeknow Danny!
Go HERE.
Amours Perdues
First sight, nice one. A compilation about the life and times of Serge & and highly underrated singer Bébé, titled Lost Loves, of course a reference to Gainsbourg’s Les Amours Perdues. Actually, and we’re in a mild mood today, the album is a bit of a miss: The ten Gainsbourg-sung titles that open the album have nothing to do with BB, and the „cool sounds from her hot scenes“ rehash some pseudo-swelty jazz instros from BB’s early movies; including no vocals, of course, and though the bag includes Brigitte’s version of Sidonie, issued as a flexi disc by Sonorama magazine in 1961, it’s not even a Gainsbourg song, spelled Sidone here – probably the final indicator that the guys at Cherry Red Records already had lost love and interest when they cobbled this cheapo together in one and a half min, the most intriguing tune here being Isabelle Aubret’s (!) version of La chanson de Prévert. And, believe it or not, that’s really a Gainsbourg song.
Isabelle Aubret – La Chanson de Prévert
Brigitte Bardot – Sidonie
Ormonde
Ormonde = Anna Lynne Williams (of Trespassers William) and Robert Gomez, whose debut album will be released soon on Hometapes. They met at a the recording of the John Grant album, found a lot of musical similarities (‘Sotol, Gainsbourg, Nabokov, Neil Hamburger, stars’), rented a house later on and recorded an album. Machines, for which I don’t know a release-date, will feature a Serge Gainsbourg cover, Lemon Incest, that you can already hear on Robert’s Soundcloud.
Emma Solal video
Posted earlier about this song here.