Coralie Clément
This Friday just got a shot in the arm, FS-friends. Feast your ears on this, a duet between songwriting genius Jacques Duvall and the guardian angel of this blog, Coralie Clément. Listen (and/or download) HERE.
Carly Sings (Elli & Jacno)
Everytime I see pictures of Carly Blackman (aka Carly Sings), I think: girl, interrupted. She’s gorgeous, but in a fatalistic way. She exploits this quality in her slightly disturbing songs. That breathy voice, described before as a cross between El Perro del Mar and Inara George, makes the picture perfect, but with sharp edges. Carly was born in Ireland, went to school in Lyon and works from Paris, she writes songs in English and French. And sings the latter with a sensual, Blossom Dearie-like accent. She discovered the work of Elli & Jacno last november, she told me in an email, and decided to record the happy/sad Je t’aime tant (see video here). A new album is coming up, and should include songs arranged by J-C Vannier. A new song is out now, see the very beautiful video here. There will be French songs on that new album as well.
Carly Sings – Je t’aime tant
Elli & Jacno – Je t’aime tant
Walter Sobcek
My current obsession is Walter Sobcek, not the guy from The Big Lebowksi (that’s Walter Sobchak), but the Parisian producer. Who claims he’s a German-Franco-duo, too. Anyway, his eighties-influenced, tad kitschy dancemusic is very charming. His videos are an essential part of that charm. See his YT-channel here. I absolutely adore his use of the movie Career Opportunities (with the supersexy Jennifer Connelly, oh, the scene on the playhorse…) for the She’s Gone cover. But the video (and the girls in it) linked above is just as great. And anybody using an Amber Lynn-movie is a friend in my book.
Bruni vs Bowie
“It has to go down as one of the worst covers in the history of rock, although there are certainly a few by Tom Jones I would rank lower.” “Absolute Rubbish.” “What did David do to deserve this?” Random comments from French magazines and websites (see here for more) on Carla Sarkozy-Bruni’s take on David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners. She recorded it for the (DB-management approved) tribute album We Were So Turned On, a double-album with covers from Duran Duran, A Place to Bury Strangers, Warpaint and John Frusciante. (See also here) Some are good, most are so-so. The odd thing for a charity album is the limited availability – you can only buy it in the UK iTunes store (and listen to it on Spotify, worldwide), but webshops outside of the UK don’t sell it. Yet. Now, is that version by Bruni really as bad as the French would like you to think? Have a listen yourself. And be sure to check Keren Ann’s contribution, a wonderful fragile version of Life on Mars?
Carla Bruni – Absolute Beginners
Keren Ann – Life on Mars?
Poney Express
Always wondered how Joy Division would sound if they were fronted by a fragile French fille? Here’s your chance. Brest, from the new Poney Express album, sounds like they ripped the rhythmtrack from JD’s Atmosphere and then added PE-singer Ana’s vocals (well, sighs) over it. It’s like heavy petting against the Berlin Wall. Like watching Brix Smith put on black stockings and clipping them to her garter belt. Like Susan and Joanne from Human League having a… let’s not carried away here. If you liked the countryfied nouvelle chansons of Poney Express, like this great single, there is a danger of being disappointed by their new take. Martin Rushent produced the album, and you can certainly hear his mark. I’m all for it.
Elodie Frégé
Ooh, to have an affair with the ravissante Elodie Frégé – I’m sure I could write a concept album about that. If I’m not mistaken, the beautiful redhead is one step ahead of me: she wrote a concept-album about being the girl on the side, or La fille d’après-midi. The long version of the video for the title-track is telling, songs like Nous ne parlons pas and La belle et la bete are too. On her second album, Benjamin Biolay lend a hand. His influence is felt on La fille…, but he’s not on board as producer. Dunno what happened, I heard Elodie was supposed to contribute on Bio’s La Superbe but bowed out. Anyway, the strings, the dramatic piano-chords, phat bassline and the subtle electronics all add to the sensual songs. I’m not having an affair with Mme Frégé, and I never will. That could be a fine concept-album too, by the way. If only I had the talent…
Elodie Frégé – L’imperméable beige
Peppermoon
Peppermoon, the beloved trio from Paris returns with on October 18 with a great new album. Because of the 5th birthday of this blog, I can post some new tracks. Main man Pierre Faa tells all:
Happy birthday Filles sourires ! Joyeux anniversaire… Thank you Guuz for these five years of passion, thanks for opening doors to artists like us. We owe a lot to Filles Sourires and the Filles Fragiles compilations. And we keep only good memories from the Filles Fragiles tour you set up.
Five years ago, I was just about to meet Benoît and Iris, and form the band with them. It’s been quite a slow and difficult process to get the first album released. So slow… Amazingly slow… I wish I could release albums once a year, like they did in the sixties. It’s a good rhythm, it keeps you busy and creative. No time for procrastination and debates. Anyway.
We’re now about to release our second album Les moissons d’ambre (=Amber harvests). It begins where the first one was ending : the piano piece Lonelunaire has become a little song named Larme de lune. It’s like a bridge between albums, a magic link… It also shows that we intend to explore the same territory, in terms of music and mood. It’s like visiting the same island, but at a different season. Same landscape, different light. Different colors in the sky… Nos ballades was a spring album. Les moissons d’ambre has definitely warmer shades. It feels like late summer / early autumn. Hence the title…
Hopefully, we managed to create something that is not a photocopy of Nos ballades. Iris’ singing still has that very unique innocence and freshness, mixed with new colours, new layers of sensuality. May be we have a few more electro sounds here and there – probably under Jay Alanski’s influence. I bought a kantele (a finnish harp) that you can hear in C’est la pluie qui veut ça. And lyrics wise, I tried to escape from the clichés of modern french chanson (the worst one, to me, being the obscure-meaningless-poetry-but-let’s-pretend-it-means-something-with-a-pretentious-pose). “Impressionnisme” says that happinness is never delivered in one piece – most of time, you have to connect the dots, to find the pieces of that personal jigsaw. “C’est la pluie qui veut ça” is about the memories brought back by the smells of the rain : schoolyards, old lovers… Les moissons d’ambre is about the beauty of transformation times – in nature, and in ourselves. Poupées Russes is some kind of funny Yin-Yang metaphor, saying that opposite feelings are often contained in each other (love and hate, to begin with). Gaspillées is about all the unknown family stories running in our blood… and Le refuge is about Iris’ childhood shelter, in the woods, where she hides away from Paris’ pollution and music industry people !
This new album is also more open to collaborations : our guitarist Benoît gave me the melody to Cocoon. Our friend Toshiya Fueoka, from Mondialito, composed the music of Le refuge. And my friend Ludovic Perrin wrote the lyrics to “Gaspillées”.
Now, I’m already thinking about our 3rd and last album. I see a turquoise-light green-light blue cover, something mineral, with water, crystals, air… I hope to record it next year, and then peppermoon will be over as a band. May be Iris will do solo albums, as I plan to do myself. And we’ll probably go on working together on new songs. But we definitely want peppermoon to be limited in time. There are too many bands and artists who don’t know when to stop… and that’s where I stop writing.
Enjoy the music !
Peppermoon – Poupées Russes
BONUS:
Peppermoon recorded a few covers for the Asian release of their album. This is a lovely version of a Sylvie Vartan-track
Peppermoon – La plus belle pour aller danser
Yelle
Yelle’s new single is out! First I thought it was a cover of Riot in Belgium’s La Musique, but no. Several remixes are all over the interwebs. SOM send me two beautiful piano-and-guitar-only versions of earlier Yelle-hits, recorded for KEXP.
Yelle – La Musique
Yelle – Je veux te voir (acoustique)
Yelle – Ce jeu (acoustique)
Le Tour #5
Though Thomas Bohnet, compilation svengali behind the Le Tour collections, lives in my old ’hood and still only a few kilometres away, we have never met. That may have to do with tastes. Le Tour volumes 1-4 were competently anthologized, but there always was some diminutive irritation factor. Now, with Le Tour #5, I figured it out. The assortment contains impressive and appealing stuff, like Féfé’s Clichés, Biolay’s Padam, or a minor track by FS faves Mickey 3D, but some songs here, despite being French, would easily qualify for Munich’s famous Oktoberfest: The opener, La Crise by L’Homme Parle, features German boof-tah at its very grooviest social-democratic street festival feel, and the As de Trèfle and Babylon Circus tracks are surely great, if … well, if you’re into Stimmungsmusik of this kind. I’m more into Mélanie Pain, also on Thomas’ compilation. Kind of a French Schlager as well, but a more sexy one.
Mélanie Pain – Ignore-Moi