They’re from New York, New York but they have Greek, Japanese and Argentinian roots. Magda Giannikou is the lead singer (hence ‘Banda Magda’) and they play colourful, upbeat music with Greek, Brasilian and French influences. A new album is about to be released, with this easy-on-the-ears track already listen- and downloadable:
Karen Brunon – Pull marine en live dans le… door rtl-fr
Original version (written by Gainsbourg):
More versions:
Nolwenn Leroy:
Sarah Caillibot
Rose:
Alex Beaupain:
Patrick Peronne (instrumental):
Original version:
Duo Brigitte is back! New album in November, this is the first single:
New kid(s) on the block: Clara Yucatan. From the homepage: ‘Clara Yucatan, c’est une fille, son frère et un chauve qui sourit/Clara Yucatan, c’est une voix, du groove et des claviers rafraîchissants.’ Well put. They released two EPs and an album in their three years of existence, quite impressive. This single does have nice claviers and a cool groove:
Also pretty nice, their L’Amour a la Plage cover:
Listen to more tracks on Soundcloud
Relax, people. Sure, we were all a bit shaken when our favourite kooky Quebecoise released her fiesta-anthem Piscine just before summer. We didn’t know she could twerk. But on her just-about-to-be-released album ‘Pan’, there’s at least one song that takes it down a notch or three. Listen to Drama Queens – and don’t be fooled by the title.
Le Monde Môö, the new album by supersweet French psychrockers Moodoïd, is out now. It’s a kaleidoscopic album, with spiraling synths, sweet sighing girlie voices, ‘eavily accented Franglais vocals and weird workouts (try Heavy Metal Be Bop 2). Best tracks are La Lune and Le chemins de traverse, but this song is quite nice too:
Listen to the whole album (with bonus tracks) on Bandcamp.
As Sylvie Vartan turns 70, Mark Sullivan chooses five of her most interesting songs from 1980 to the present day.
1.‘Nicholas’ (1980)
By 1980 Sylvie Vartan had developed her live concerts, bringing together yé-yé pop and the stage style of the Folies Bergères. ‘Nicholas’ is a reflection of her departure from Bulgaria and no longer seeing children she had known. Its elegant performance contrasts with the sombre lyrics. See HERE
The original song is Hungarian : ‘Elmegyek’ (I’m leaving’), written and sung by Péter Maté (1976) – the best Budapest popular composer of his day. A fine song itself – see the live version here. Hungarians do warn foreigners who praise the song that ‘Elmegyek’ is so often played at funerals, as it reflects ‘departure’ so well, that it can’t be used much for anything else in Hungary !
2.‘No more tears (enough is enough)’ 1981
This great disco track by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer is a 1979 studio creation and they never sang it live. The nearest we have is Donna Summer and the Australian singer Tina Arena in 1999. Donna Summer herself is as good as one could hope for,but it is only 4½ minutes long.
Sylvie took on the challenge of performing ‘No more tears’ solo with a full dance routine, using her backing singers as dancers and completing the full-length 8 minute song with impeccable skill. Two live filmed versions exist, both performed in Paris in 1981. Here’s one. And below:
The choreography differs between them, but both are worth watching. No one has tried to match Sylvie’s live version of ‘No more tears’ since, so these two performances should stand for ever.
3. ‘Des heures de désir’ (1984)
‘Wrap your arms around me’ was written in 1983 for Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA for her solo album by British writers Michael Chapman and Holly Knight. Agnetha’s original is good but lacks glamour.
Sylvie took the French version, ‘Des heures de désir’, and made it grander and more elegant (and in the process showed women how they could aspire to look at 40).
Sylvie also made a fine job of the English original, on Spanish TV in 1987.
4. ‘Personne’ (2010)
La Grande Sophie’s success with her 2009 album ‘Des vagues et des ruisseaux’ brought her the opportunity to write songs in 2010 for both Françoise Hardy (‘Mister’) and Sylvie (‘Personne’). LGS’s ‘Personne’ is the most performed of the songs of Sylvie’s 2010 album ‘Soleil Blue’
A finer version on ‘Champs-Elysées’ in January 2010 is [on wat.tv] here. (Advertising delays the start of this film for 30 seconds.)
5. ‘Signé Sagan’ (2009)
The song-writer Didier Bardelivien wrote ‘Signé Sagan’ to reflect and conjure up for a new century the image of Françoise Sagan, author of ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ and the enfant terrible of 1950s French literature, almost as famous for her love of fast living and fast cars. The choice of Sylvie for the song is inspired. This performance at the Olympia, Paris, is perfectly sung and filmed and deserves to be preserved for future generations who discover both Françoise Sagan and Sylvie Vartan.
A bit of practising between song-writer and singer on ‘Vivement dimanche’ is here
Guestposter Adrian Arratoon on the one Vincent Liben song that almost got away:
With so much stimulus on and offline, if you close your eyes for more than five minutes it’s easy for things that would otherwise engage you to pass you by. Such is the case with this invigorating track by Belgian artist Vincent Liben, whose track Mademoiselle Liberté, guest starring Filles favourite Berry, made waves a couple of year ago. Last year he sneaked this track, Animalé, out on Soundcloud and YouTube. I know, it’s taken me 15 months to notice it; finger on the pulse, me.
It’s such a cliché to say that some music is “cinematic” but this certainly fits the bill; ominous piano chimes, sweeping strings, shimmering guitars and so on. His music, and that of his band Mud Flow, also appears on the soundtrack for François Ozon’s latest film, Jeune et Jolie. It’s about a young girl who loses her virginity then becomes a call girl: seriously, it couldn’t be any more French if it started shouting at people in a minor traffic jam while wearing a blue and white hooped Breton fisherman’s jersey and a beret. And smoking. Gauloises.
Anyway, this song is epic. Tindersticks epic. Widescreen epic. Better late than never; you’ll love it.