Alas, GRAM (aka Marg van Eenbergen, former singer of this band) doesn’t sing in French. But the intro-tape to her live-shows features ’69 Année Erotique’ by Serge & Jane. Her new single is very much inspired by ‘my female French collegues’, she said. I’m thinking Mareva Galanter, France Gall and Jeanne Cherhal. That single, the summer-anthem Play Me, is a free download on her site (where it says ‘downlaod hier de single’). Higly recommended! See a live version here.
She looks and sounds so much like Adele, you can understand why there’s a big buzz around Juliette Katz. This article says she’s de coup de coeur of singer Alain Souchon, that she signed with a good record label and that Sia is a guest on her album. Parts of which were recorded in New York, with producer Scott Jacoby. Albin de la Simone lend a hand, so did Bardi Johannsson. If you google her, you get this acoustic session, this coverversion and this interview (for a series of talks with ’round’ girls). First single Tout le monde sounds promising – nice groove, not too poppy, touches of Fender Rhodes piano and some Hammond. Looking forward to that album. This could be big. Photo by Steph Dray, stolen from here.
Juliette Katz – Tout le monde
Brigitte – great name for a female French duo. Just like Serge is a great name for a music magazine. The blonde and the brunette, Aurelie (or should we say Mayane?) and Sylvie, first popped up on this blog in 2009. A few posts below, Misterblog is saying that the irresistable Battez-vous is getting more and more airplay in France. Summer-hit? You guessed it. The first full album is out now, it’s called Et vous, tu m’aimes? That kicks off with Battez-vous, and includes their rework of NTM’s hiphophit Ma Benz (fabulous Brigitte-video here). There are several interludes, ‘hidden tracks’, a song consisting of titles of Claude François-chansons (very funny) and an ‘English song’ to end all English songs by French artists. Battez-vous is by far the best track on the album, but the groove of Oh La La got me hooked as well.
Brigitte – Oh La La
And then the full album by actress Melanie Laurent rattles your mailbox. The girlfriend of Damien Rice (first featured here) sang on some soundtracks. The acoustic music (lots of guitars, piano and strings) and her voice reminds me of Berry. Which is nice. There are two duets with Rice on the album (he sings in English on both, she on one), every song has a little je ne sais quoi, a melody, a vocal thingy, that makes them more interesting the more you listen to ‘m. Yearlist-stuff, people. Several songs can serve as summer-hits. Je connais, for instance. Or the more uptempo, soulful Kiss.
Spring is about to start, a good moment to round up a few candidates for the French Summer Hit badge. Last year, we had Ben L’Oncle Soul, ZAZ and Camelia Jordana. Artists who released albums around this time, so there. So far, I haven’t heard a song by a fille that has ‘summer hit’ written all over, but these hits are hard to predict. Here’s a top 5 of male candidates:
Roberdam – A Tes Avances. Roberdam is the nom de plume of Damien Robert, the former singer of Rapid’vour’voir. Not a big name in France, but Roberdam has potential. His album is very radiofriendly and comes with a series of videos about a scruffy circus. A tes avances from the album is my favourite. See more here.
Roberdam – A tes avances
Sam – T’es gentille. Fierce remix of a single that was released last year. Sam‘s first version has a charming video with charming girls here.
Sam – T’es gentille (remix)
Antoine Leonpaul – Oh Claire. Another new kid on the block, Antoine Leonpaul (‘Three firstnames for the price of one!’) is on par with heroes like Alain Chamfort. This was his first single.
Antoine Leonpaul – Oh Claire
Padam – Nadine. Great band, obviously named after an Edith Piaf song. Padam made four albums already, they toured all over the world. Really digging this afro-influenced track.
Padam – Nadine
Ben Ricour – Dans le futur. Ben Ricour is making albums under his own name since 2001. Dans le futur reeks of summer thanks to the trumpets. Unofficial, yet cool video here.
Ben Ricour – Dans le futur
Martin wrote a guestpost about a remarkable cover of a Françoise Hardy song by former Subway Sect-member Vic Godard:
Vic Godard is one of the great lost talents of the post punk. In 1976, he formed Subway Sect at the suggestion of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. After a few album and single releases in the mid-1980s, Godard retired from music and became a postman. In 1990, Godard wrote the song “Johnny Thunders”, a tribute inspired by reading an obituary of the New York Dolls guitarist. The song was included on the album ‘The End of the Surrey People’, produced by Edwyn Collins (A Girl Like You) and featuring the Sex Pistols’ Paul Cook on drums. In October 2010 Vic released his newest album ‘We Came As Aliens’. Most songs from the album have been evolving since the mid 1990s, with the exception of Françoise Hardy’s Et même, which Vic wanted to record since ’77. The sound of Et même is raw and the vocals are always sung with respect to the original version.
Further information about Vic Godard here.
Vic Godard – Et meme
Françoise Hardy – Et meme
Françoise Hardy – However much (English version) See an Italian version here.
Charlotte Gainsbourg released a limited (500 copies) vinyl-single on Record Store Day, yesterday. It’s a split single with the wonderful Conor O’Brien of Villagers (who wrote the CG-song too). The actual single was unavailable in the Netherlands, and now you have to pay triple the price on eBay. The track, which was co-produced by O’Brien and Renaud Letang in Paris, will be released on Gainsbourg’s next full-length album, Live and Unreleased , due sometime this year (it was announced last year, but we’ll see it when it drops) (hopefully outside of the US and France too). See a fantastic live-performance of Villagers in Rotterdam here.
Guestpost! Sylvester on Axelle Red and Colette Magny:
Like anybody, the Francophone have the blues from time to time. They used to call it existentialism and nowadays the bestselling novels of Michel Houellebecq exhale it abundantly. But they don’t sing the blues. Just try the latest CD of Axelle Red, apparently one of the few bluesy singers in the French-speaking world. Her voice is quite harsh, which could very well go with singing the blues. But it doesn’t really. Perhaps it’s her diction which is to blame, her perfectionism, or just the fact that she was born in Hasselt, Belgium.
To be honest, I don’t particularly like the voice of Axelle Red, but I do like her good taste. On her new album Un coeur comme le mien are some very nice songs, well written and arranged. Among them is Melcoton, in 1963 the only hit-chanson of Colette Magny (1926-1997). Now, thát was a French blues singer! At least that is what often has been said about her. Magny herself preferred to be compared with Léo Ferré, chansonnier par excéllence. For both of them singing often was a way to (rather militantly) spread a message. Magny was certainly influenced by Bessie Smith and other blues singers, but in the first place she will be remembered for her engagement: the way she sang about the Vietnam war, injustice, repression and environmental catastrophes. Sometimes she sounded quite bluesy, but her lyrics overshadowed rhythm and emotions.
In my next radio show at the Concertzender I will give you some examples.
Axelle Red – Melocoton
Colette Magny – Melocoton
Gee, those red fingernails moving along the strings. Two words: Forget Zaz.