Hier, aujourd’hui, demain

helenanoWith her second album Azul, Belgian chanteuse/ actress Helena Noguerra was rivaling Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto in terms of the most easygoing bossa nova lounge style record of the last decade. Now, eleven years later, Noguerra’s back again with her fifth outing Année Zéro, realized with the help of a few prominent friends, among them actress Anna Mouglalis (the Gréco from Gainsbourg: Vie Héroique), Helena’s sister Lio and Syd Matters frontman Jonathan Morali. The true work of an artiste-auteur (Noguerra wrote and composed most of the songs herself), Année Zéro is an elegant and worthwhile, though at times a bit uneven pop exploration. It also features one of the most beautiful chansons of some years to come: Appelle moi, written in collaboration with her ex-husband Katerine, a heartbreaker of a song about yesterday, today, and forever.

Helena Noguerra – Appelle Moi

Loureb & K

On the cover, she looks like Françoise Hardy. Lou-Rebecca teamed up with K, aka Etienne Kerber of Les Shades, to record an EP called Born in the 90s featuring tracks inspired by music (Dylan) and films from the 60s (Truffaut, Rohmer, Godard). To confuse you even more, I’d like to add the compliment of compliments on this site: ‘Lio-esque’. Which means some tracks on that EP have that sweet smelling bubblegum 80s flavour. Anyhoo – watch and listen and think of your own reference.

See more of Lou-Rebecca here, more Loureb & K here and here.

Loureb & K – Nouvelle Vague

Liza Manili

Actress slash singer Liza Manili released her debut album this week. There’s a heavy Lio-influence in her songs, which is nice. Shame tho that all the five songs from her earlier EP are also on the 11-track album. ith a voice like hers, we need as much new stuff we can get! Se Revoir is my fave on her self-titled album, lots of sighs, mid-tempo beat, happy-to-be-sad atmosphere and off-key synths – all good! More on Liza here, and here. Found this trailer with Liza online. Not exactly Oscar-winning material, I’d say.

Liza Manili – Se revoir

Liza Manili

VERY charming, that clip of former model, actress and singer Liza Manili. That smile, that hairstyle, those lips, that voice – oh la la. But somehow I didn’t keep up with the news. Liza made very good EP, released more charming videos, and on June 4th her first proper album is released. The Strasbourg-born beauty, who also plays in a couple Revolver-clips and a Kyo-video, channels early Lio, via Jeanne Cherhal and Emily Loizeau. She duetted with Séverin, and was one of the singers on the Dr Tom project. Yearlist material, you people ask? Who knows. Looks good, tho.

Liza Manili – L’eclipse
Liza Manili & Séverin – Les restes
Liza Manili – Le verdict

Hanna

Best Lio-ripoff I heard in months, is Anti-Moi by Hanna. Her EP was released via MyMajorCompany, the crowdfunded label and home of Joyce Jonathan and Gregoire. Anti-moi isn’t the single, that’s Et si (clip). The EP has some promising moments, but is way to fluffy to really make a lasting impression.

Hanna – Anti-moi

Lio

Parisian dance-rockers Justice once unveiled for me the glitzy Musique, a floorfiller by France Gall, for this mix. Remixer Bottin does the same with Lio’s 1980 Sage comme une image (produced by Marc Moulin!), a remix he did last year – but nobody told me (well, FS-reader Johan did recently), so that’s why I’m posting it now. He took the long version of the song from Lio’s Suite Sixteen album, and stretched the intro. So now you can enjoy that Chic-like bass-and-guitar-groove even more!

Lio – Sage comme une image (Bottin Sage Oil remix)
Lio – Sage comme une image (original) Super sweet video here.

La Femme

La Femme is a Parisian quintet who play lo-fi surfrock with new wave touches – think Liminanas fronted by Lio. Had a hard time to find answers to some questions about this band. Like: what are the names of the bandmembers? Why are there mostly four people in band pictures? Is the hot blonde in these pictures (scroll down) an official bandmember? Why isn’t she in this picture? Are these La Femme-bandmembers having sex on video (VERY nsfw)? Some answers can be found in this interview – it seems the guys use various female singers, and there’s a Marlon and Sam in the band. The mini-album they released sports good songs. Sur la planche is the key track, this is how lo fi surf new wave baby pop should sound. Could be the start of something beautiful. The cover of their album is of course a reference to this painting. Hey, here’s a thought, how ’bout a festival featuring La Femme, Lafille and La Fiancée?

La Femme – Sur la planche

Les sucettes

Les sucettes, written in 1966 by Serge Gainsbourg for France Gall, is without a doubt the best song ever about a girl sucking on a anis-filled lollipop. You don’t need a dirty mind to get the sexual innuendo – though the underage France Gall had no clue. Nor did her minders. Or maybe they were in on the joke Gainsbourg pulled. France did not take it lightly, as this interview-clip shows (in short; she distrusted men ever since). Yesterday somebody asked me about Les sucettes covers. Were there any good ones? To be blunt; no. France’s version (and the duet-version with Serge in this video) was never topped. There are some pretty weird ones out there. I can’t decide which one is the most disturbing: this puppeteer-version, this (gay?) choir version or this Japanese rework (also posted below). This is from Japan as well, and again pretty outthere.
Below are a couple of versions I collected in the past years. I know there are more (a dull cover by Les Tres Bien Ensemble), but if you know of a really good one/odd one, please contact me!

France Gall – Les sucettes
Serge Gainsbourg – Les sucettes
Nezhnoe Eto – Les sucettes (Russian version)
FN Guns – Les sucettes (metal version)
Hanayo – Les sucettes (weird Japanese version)
Lio – Les sucettes (close-to-the-original version)
Jumpin’ Quails – Les sucettes (jumpstyle r&b version)
The Lovejoys – Les sucettes (loungepop version)
Hbsk – Les sucettes (electronic dreampop version)
Patrick Péronne – Les sucettes (cocktailjazz version)

FS Exclusive: Danou & the Midinettes

Connecting sweet, innocent lolita-popsinger Lio to The Social Network, that’s what Danou and his faithful Midinettes are doing in Amoureux Asociaux. Although I first thought he connected Lio tot Gossip’s Heavy Cross – it does sound very familiar innit? Danou insists he ‘captured’ the instrumental track, made by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the movie The Social Network. Danou & The Midinettes, the only place you read about them before was here. Not a real band, the Midinettes are ‘midi-slaves’, just a side-project from a member of this great band.

Danou & The Midinettes – Amoureux Asociaux

Hey Nineteen

Gorgeous Juliette Wathieu is Mademoiselle Nineteen, the newest member of the Freaksville Records family to help make the world a little more poptastic. But wait a minute, you say, the art lover that you are, didn’t artist Charlotte Beaudry do a project called Mademoiselle Nineteen? Not only that, Julliette posed for Beaudry. See the very nice portraits here.
On this blog you can read all about Juliette, that she’s the brother of The Mash-singer Marc, that she’s on Youtube doing a Feist-cover, that genius songwriter Jacques Duvall wrote her first single together with Freaksville-head honcho Benjamin Schoos (aka Miam Monster Miam)… which of course means that a comparison to Lio isn’t that far off. In fact, Je ne vois que vous is on par with any of the best Lio singles out there. Just saying.

Mademoiselle Nineteen – Je ne vois que vous