Weekend of French-ness

Anyone who's in Brighton this weekend and has even a passing interest in any kind of French music is in for some treats.

Saturday is, of course, L'Amour Electronique!

We will be joined by guest DJ Simon Bridger from legendary Brighton club Da Doo Ron Ron. Who not only knows his 60's pop, he's an early 80's synth pop afficionado too!

And there's more:

--- We will be DJing at Sebastien Tellier - which has been rescheduled to Sunday 25 January @ The Concorde 2.

--- And we may also be DJing at the free French Artist Showcase on Friday 23 January @ The Duke of Yorks (still waiting for them to confirm, but we'll be there anyway).

----- more info: Melting Vinyl -----

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VIVE LE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!

Danse dans la rue : Motown est Cinquante!

Motown celebrates its 5oth anniversary this year. I've been rooting around for some French versions of the Motown hits.

Here's what I dug up:

Two Supremes covers, and a Martha and The Vandellas hit. All of which appear on the super-hard-to-find bootleg compilation Girl Group Power- Histoires De Filles: Quebec 60's Go-Go Music

First here's Les Beatlettes with a gutsy stab at The Supremes' 'You Can't Hurry Love':

Les Beatlettes - C'est Grâce à Toi

Next, Les Coquettes with their charmingly shaky rendition of Martha Reeves and The Vandellas' 'Jimmy Mack':

Les Coquettes - Jimmy Mack

Best of all is Souers Malette, who do a pretty raucous cover of 'Back In My Arms Again' (also by The Supremes):

Souers Malette - La Première Fois

Here's a little bonus: A David Holmes re-make of a Serge Gainsbourg track ('Melody' from Histoire de Melody Nelson) - remixed by Arab Strap, with a drawled Aiden Moffat narrative about a girl he met on a teenage holiday - which samples the opening piano chords from 'More Love' by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Phew!:

David Holmes - The Holiday Girl (Don't Die Just Yet - Arab Strap remix)

If anyone knows of any more, tell us, we'd love to hear 'em...

Vive la Résolution

Overdid it at Christmas? Time to start that exercise regime.

Here’s Professeur Dutronc with a quick aerobics lesson:

Jacques Dutronc - La Leçon de Gymnastique du Professeur Dutronc
[buy Jacques Dutronc from iTunes / Amazon]

As a child, I remember being taken along to the village hall to hang out with the other toddlers whilst our mums partook in the latest exercise craze ‘Pop Mobility’.

Looking back, I can see this experience probably had more than a little influence on my musical tastes…

(image courtesy of retro trash)

Let’s start with a gentle warm-up:

Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygene (Part IV)
[buy Jean-Michel Jarre from iTunes / Amazon]

Even the penguins have over-indulged during the festive season

(image courtesy of retro trash – look! This one’s got Space on it!!)

Got those muscles all warmed-up? Time for a hi-energy workout, just keep something in reserve for when those break-beats kick in:

Hot Butter – Popcorn
[buy Hot Butter from iTunes / Amazon]

[We love Popcorn round here! Verity is particularly fond of her French Version Originale 7”. The original was written by electronic pioneer Gershon Kingsley, but we think the Hot Butter version is the best. Someone’s dedicated a whole website to the song (including an ace Russian surf-guitar version). Not even the Crazy Frog could spoil it! One day well dedicate a whole post to Popcorn.]

At the end of each Pop Mobility session they would have a warm-down to Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross. But we’ll ignore that one...