Blank Generation

The so-called Relax series is the chillout compilation line of German dance/ house producers Blank & Jones, Café del Mar style. Relax Volume 6 also features a French language track for summer patios and Freixenet ads – a cover of Francoise Hardy’s Comment te dire adieu by Gallic schlager starlet Berry which brings to mind some all-too-fitting words by T-Bone Burnett: “We live in an age of music for people who don’t like music. The record industry discovered some time ago that there aren’t that many people who actually like music. For a lot of people, music’s annoying, or at the very least they don’t need it. They discovered if they could sell music to a lot of those people, they could sell a lot more records.”

Berry – Comment te dire adieu

Bâtard Pop XXI: In Bed with Bonnie

  • Posted on 02/06/2011
  • /Under Musique

Mash-up time again: On I’m in Love with Jane Birkin, a skateboarder and bootleg artist hiding behind the moniker B.A.R.T.O. & His Pop Orchestra fuses Serge & Jane’s immortal cunnilingual dialogue with Beres Hammond’s reggae tune I’m in Love – a daring, but smoothly executed operation. Another Gainsbourg aficionado is Nantes-based dancefloor entrepreneur and DJ John Poincarré: his amalgam of Serge’s Bonnie & Clyde (pic: Brigitte B. as Bonnie) and the Beastie Boys’ hiphop classic Body Movin’ feels like a first-class pas de deux, gangsta-style.

B.A.R.T.O. & His Pop Orchestra – I’m in Love with Jane Birkin
John Poincarré  – Bonnie’s Body Movin’

FS Rerun: Clare Torry

  • Posted on 02/06/2011
  • /Under Musique

„I think she only did one take. And we all said, ‚Wow, that’s that done. Here’s your sixty quid’“, Roger Waters remembered quite ungentlemanlike about Clare Torry, the sadly unsung chanteuse who did the orgasmic wordless vocals on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky – arguably the best song on 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon. Soon after Clare was hired to do background vocals for Serge G., as well on the acridly funny Rock Around the Bunker as on L’homme à tête de chou, his histoire maudit of a sadistic murderer, including Ma Lou Marilou, with Clare adding a few moments of big-eyed innocence to Serge’s half-erection porn funk.

Serge Gainsbourg w/ Clare Torry – Ma Lou Marilou
Serge Gainsbourg w/ Clare Torry – Eva

Pink Floyd feat. Clare Torry– The Great Gig in the Sky

Clémence Poésy

  • Posted on 25/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

French actress Clémence Poésy sings a duet with Miles Kane on his just released solo-album. You might know Miles from Last Shadow Puppets (their album cover is so gorgeous) and The Rascals. Clémence is of course in the Harry Potter movies, 127 Hours and In Bruges. If you see this video of them doing the song (in English) together, you migth think they’re long time friends. They are not, Miles had not  heard from Clémence prior to this duet. Someone from the record company met the actress in Paris, said Miles was looking for a singer and askes if she was up for it. Kane’s reaction: ‘You stupid prick!‘. But it all turned out well. In some reviews, the song is compared to Serge-and-Jane-duets. Hmm.

Miles Kane & Clémence Poésy – Happenstance

Brigitte Fontaine & Emmanuelle Seigner

  • Posted on 25/05/2011
  • /Under Musique
Can we agree on saying that Brigitte Fontaine is an acquired taste? The grande dame of the odd chanson started her career in 1965, sang traditional chansons but made things more interesting for herself by working with The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Jacques Higelin, Sonic Youth, Stereolab and a whole lot more. She’s in her 70s now, but does not tone down. ‘I am God’s nightmare’, she, erm, ‘sings’ on her most recent offering, the duet-stuffed L’un n’empêche pas l’autre. Her partners have, just like her, instantly recognisable voices, like Arno Hintjens (great track!), Grace Jones (they do an Arab rework of the jazz-standard Caravan together), Higelin of course, M(athieu Chedid), Christophe, Bertrand Cantat and Emmanuelle Seigner. You can see what she made Mrs Polanski do for her track in the video above. Acquiring from the top of your lungs, yessir.

Brigitte Fontaine & Emmanuelle Seigner – Dressing

 

Dutch Dolls

  • Posted on 25/05/2011
  • /Under Podcast

Without Mordi and his fabulous Blowupdoll-blog, my own blog would’ve never existed. Blowupdoll is the blisteringly beautiful mother of all blogs dedicated to singing girls. So it was a huge honour when Mordi asked me to put together a mix-tape with my favourite ‘dolls’. I chose only Dutch meisjes, singing in Dutch, English, French and even German. My tape, and a lot of other fantastic zips with gorgeous girls, can be found HERE. Pictured is, of course, Mariska Veres of Shocking Blue. You can hear her marvellous voice on two songs on my ‘tape’.

Claire Denamur

  • Posted on 23/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

First there was Dingue Dingue Dingue. Then there was Non Non Non. And now we have Bang Bang Bang. All good things come in threes. And Claire Denamur is a very, very, very good thing. The singer with Dutch, Argentinian and French roots blipped on our radar in 2009. Her first album still is a gem, and from the sounds of it, the sophomore cd will be too. On the just-released EP are four songs, the aforementioned summer hit, two ballads and a very nice rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt, inna Johnny Cash-stylee. Is it a coincidence that the best contender for French summer hit is this track? I think not.

Claire Denamur – Bang Bang Bang

N’Relax

  • Posted on 20/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

Marine Pellegrini is the sweet husky voice of N’Relax, a jazzy band from Lyon that sound like a cross between early Björk and Dutch diva Schradinova. They released two albums, the most recent is more experimental, less breezy. I bumped into this band while looking for songs about bicycles. And guess what. Find free mp3s and more info on N’Relax here.

See a nice video here. And see another nice video here, in which Marine channels her inner Camille.

N’Relax – Le vélo

 

FS Rerun: Le Grand Jeudi

  • Posted on 20/05/2011
  • /Under Musique

Gimme a board, messieurs. Pour les grandes vagues et les surfer garcons (et filles), here’s a twangy big-ninth-version of Charles Trenet’s „La Mer“ by Psycho Tiki entrepreneurs The Aquamarines, and the probably most liquid version of Serge’s & Jane’s „Je t’aime (moi non plus)“ ever heard, performed by Berlin’s number one surf guitarist and lounge expert Kahuna Kawentzmann – the German „Kawentzmann“ translates as a rogue wave you shouldn’t even try on a Big Wednesday, got my drift, kids? Wet name choice, and even your girlfriend may get instantly … okay, forget about that. Both tracks from the stunning compilation „Beyond the Sea – The Surf Instrumental Bands of the World Fearlessly Expand Their Repertoire“. For now: Wahini!

Aquamarines – Beyond the Sea
Kahuna Kawentzmann – Je t’aime

Extra: The original “La Mer” plus a few cover versions, including Cliff Richard en francais, Kevin Kline’s fine cover from the movie “French Kiss”, and a very charming mid-60s bubblegum adaptation by Francoise Hardy.

Charles Trenet – La Mer
Cliff Richard – La Mer
Dalida – La Mer
Django Reinhardt – La Mer
Francoise Hardy – La Mer
Kevin Kline – La Mer
Bobby Darin – Beyond the Sea
Helen Shapiro – Beyond the Sea
The Three Suns – Beyond the Sea

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