Remember the Baby Alone in Babylone/Brahms-mashup that dj Von Rosenthal de la Vegaz & Stefan Schmid made for the 5th anniversary of this blog? Turns out that Von Rosenthals vj, Aineko, made a video for it. Nudity involved!
Doba
Doba is Doriane Fabreg, together with Carole Facal she formed the eclectic duo DobaCaracol. Best known for this song, they made sunny, folksy songs with sunny, folksy influences. But they broke up, Carole released a soloalbum in 2008, musically she fished in the same pond as DobaCaracol. Doba, who’s releasing her first solo album now, has a different approach. Almost all songs on her self-titled album are in English, bar one. Her songs are more orchestral, listen for instance to her ode to Lhasa. Her heavy accent is maybe a turn-off, the lyrics don’t show a big vocabulary (ok, well, I’m maybe not the right person to critize that, but come on, read this). Le pont, the only French track on the album, isn’t exactly a highpoint in wordplay either, but it does stand out on the album. Like the Miles Davis-y trumpet in that one. All’n all, I’d say that Carole got the upper hand after the split.
Doba – Le pont
Karen Jo Fields
Karen Jo Fields is an Oslo-born singer who has a little Cherokee blood in her, if I understand this bio correctly she has an American father. From a certain angle, she looks a bit like Carla Bruni. I ran into her while working on this Spotify playlist featuring soft sighing girls who sing in English. Karen usually sings in English, but on a recently released EP there’s one French song. Electronica-based, with dark synth-string lines and her husky voice. Dig! When you read Karen Jo’s blog, you can tell she’s a sensitive, moody and spiritual person. She writes things like ‘A song perhaps finds something, but I’m probably busy looking for my keys.’ Which is both deep, and funny.
Karen Jo Fields – Danse mon amour
François & Françoiz
French artists who get signed by cool British indie-labels, there aren’t that many. Barbara Carlotti’s part of the 4AD-family, Françoiz Breut’s albums were at some point distributed by Bella Union and now Domino has taken François & the Atlas Mountains under their indie wings. François Marry is no stranger to overseas labels, though. He was part of Movietone, and joined Crescent (who both released records on FatCat and Domino). After three albums (self-released or on Fence) the fourth F&tAM cd gets a worldwide release via the home of Franz Ferdinand, Anna Calvi and The Kills. Next year, that is. But in France it’s already out. Shame, ’cause it’s a very good album. François sings both in English and French, has a pleasant voice and likes his songs groovy, with African popinfluences. He also likes to add a good string section, and when Françoiz Breut is his duet partner, we at FillesSourires HQ are definitely all ears. La Breut with strings, in a tristesse song – Cherchant les ponts sounds like a track from Breut’s masterpiece Une Saison Volée.
See/watch the new F&tAM single Piscine HERE
Francois & the Atlas Mountains & Francoiz Breut – Cherchant les ponts
Marianne Dissard in China
The lovely Marianne Dissard went to China to play and to record, and she wrote a nice diary about her journey. Below’s an excerpt. Read the whole thing here.
September 19th – We fly back to Beijing. The taxi drops me at my hostel. I am on my own again. I came to China with a mandate to record an album, “Beijing Three Takes”. I raised a bit of money from my friends, promising a collaboration with Chinese musicians on this third installement of the ‘City albums’ series that I’ve been recording while on tour. But, truth be told, I don’t know who I might be able to record with or even what. But I’ve been thinking and listening to and observing the Chinese bands I met at the Black Rabbit Festival. Today, I know. I make the decision that this album will be different from “Paris One Takes’, different from “Berlin Two Takes”. And this is how I will proceed for the next eleven days : I borrow a Sony Zoom handheld recorder and set out to record the sounds of Beijing. Then, when I have edited and shaped this audioscape, I will ask Hanggai – at this point, you’ve figured out I have a musical crush on them, no? – to create the soundtrack to this movie-without-images. I’ll incorporate some of the writings I’ve done in the Transsiberian, first sketches of future songs. In the evening, I go to my usual hang, YugongYishan, to hear Huun Huur Tu and my friend Song Yuzhe’s band, Dawanggang. The place is packed.
Listen to Marianne’s music played on the streets in Beijing HERE
For French radio, Marianne recorded a track, Fugu. Download from HERE
Lulu Gainsbourg & Scarlett Johansson
Poo-doo pa poo-doo! The full version of the Lulu-Scarlett duet is out there, a cut from the upcoming From Lulu to Gainsbourg-album. Shame: Scarlett sings in English. Serge recorded an English version without Brigitte Bardot, with different lyrics. There are various other English versions of Bonnie & Clyde, for instance by The Walkabouts, Steve Wynne & Johnette Napolitano, James Iha & Kazu Makino – all with slightyl different lyrics.
Not sure what to think of Lulu’s and Scarlett’s version, it stays very close to the original, albeit they lost the poo-doo pa poo-doo (or is it whoo-hoo hah-whoo hoo?) effect. Lulu’s singing voice, as Scarlett’s, isn’t very impressive. Another track by Lulu is on the interwebs, one of my favourite SG-tracks, L’Eau à la bouche. Really dig the samba-arrangement. But the voice…hmm. Really looking forward to the album, with vocal help from Rufus Wainwright, Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp, Marianne Faitfull…
Lulu Gainsbourg & Scarlett Johansson – Bonnie & Clyde
Serge Gainsbourg – Bonnie & Clyde (English version)
Mighty Mocambos & Caroline Lacaze
Phat French Female Fronted Funk. Yay! When it comes to funkiness, the French have of course a string of great rappers (MC Solaar and the like), there’s CQMD, there was Vigon, some Eddy Mitchell-tracks, some Ben L’Oncle Soul-songs, but funky French filles? Severine recorded a few fine French covers of soulful tunes, but the whole funk, uncut funk, the bomb, in French, by a girl, I didn’t think I’d hear it. I was wrong. I just heard it. I saw it too. HERE. The band’s called The Mighy Mocambos, they’re from Germany and worked with Kenny Dope, with Afrika Bambaata, with Su Kramer (!) and make supersweaty, fatback funk. LOVE this. Turns out that The Mocambos did an excellent vinyl-single with Lacaze earlier, I missed that one completely. Listen on Soundcloud HERE.
The Mighty Mocambos & Caroline Lacaze – Physique
Ben Mazué & Pauline Croze
Been a long time since we heard from Pauline Croze, the fragile girl with the fragile voice who sang FS-faves like T’es beau and Jeunesse affamée. She duets on the debut-album by Ben Mazué. Like, for instance, Betrand Belin and or Benjamin Paulin, he talk-sings, puts some humour in his lyrics and is influenced by rap music. See Ben play his single Confessions of a rap addict live here.
No news so far about a new album from Pauline (her website didn’t have an update since 2009), but it’s good to hear her again. I always think of Maria de Medeiros talk about blueberry pancakes in Pulp Fiction when I hear Pauline sing.
UPDATE: A new Pauline Croze-album is announced! End of this year, beginning of next year.
Ben Mazué & Pauline Croze – C’est léger
Chloé Lacasse
Montréal-based Chloé Lacasse sounds on her debut album like a cross between the tender ballads of Feist and the emotional outbursts of Marie-Pierre Arthur, with added fatback drums. She did the rounds like so many Canadian singers (various concours de la chanson, winning Francouverts this year), plays the piano and writes intelligent songs. This debut-album is released after two self-produced EP’s, and though you can hear what Chloé’s been listening to in the past years, she does have her own style. It’s rough round the edges, at times up to eleven (loud drums, piercing guitars), but she knows how to keep balance and, like in the song posted here, she can sound sweet as well. This is her single.
Chloe Lacasse – Pyromane
RIP Sylvia Robinson
Sylvia Robinson passed away today. In her honour, and ’cause it’s such a brilliant version, here’s a re-up of Sky’s post about Sylvia’s cover of Je t’aime…moi non plus.
In the so-called 1972 porn classic Deep Throat, a notably sleazoid threesome featuring Dolly Sharp, Jack Byron and Jack Birch is scored with a delirious funk/ soul track titled Love is Strange. The original version was recorded in 1957 by r&b duo Mickey & Sylvia – i.e. Mickey Baker, the hottest session guitarist of his time, who eventually bought a ticket to France and never came back, and Sylvia Robinson, who at least went temporarily to the Paris of her mind.
In 1973, she recorded a cover of Serge & Jane’s Je t’aime, released on the aptly named Vibration label, transferring Gainsbourg’s spirit to the sultry mood of Spanish language moanings. Her partner in cooing was salsa singer Ralfi Pagan, who provided the Latin lover feel, while Sylvia seemed to practice for her smash hit of the same year, Pillow Talk, a premier bedroom anthem foreshadowing Donna Summer’s disco orgasms. In short: Soul Je t’aime wasn’t perfect, but a sexy mother of a song.
Jack Birch, the stud from „Deep Throat“, became father of Hollywood star Thora Birch („American Beauty“). Ralfi Pagan was murdered during a tour in Colombia, while Sylvia founded Sugarhill Records in the early 80s, becoming the mastermind behind seminal pre-hiphop outings like the Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight: She even played bass on the recording.
Mickey & Sylvia – Love is Strange
Sylvia Robinson & Ralfi Pagan – Soul Je t’aime