a little hush please...

This has finally exorcised the horrid memories of K*la Sh*ker (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're a very lucky reader)

the production line

An evening in with the watercolour paints, chez L'Amour Electronique...

Samedi Soir: Synthesized sounds, French Pop and Electronic Delights

This Saturday, 9pm - 3am at The West Hill, Brighton. F R E E E N T R Y.

we will be ensconced in the homely surrounds of The West Hill, in our very own tricolore-swathed corner.

There will be music:
French boys and French girls doing freakbeat, ye-ye and bubblegum POP!
synthesized sounds from the glacial to the disco to the dirty synthcore.
electronic pioneers and bleeps and noises...
(basically anything that is French or electronic or both!)

There will also be fine wines, ales and spirits, bar snacks and parlour games to while away the evening. And you can dance if you can find a space. yeah!

Porno a GO-GO

Currently receiving repeat rotation at L'Amour Electronique HQ is this amazing French-Canadian porn soundtrack from 1969.

I discovered Valérie recently over at Psyquébélique. It seems it is one of those "lost" soundtracks, and has never been officially released. Together with Otis Fodder and S.Ébastien at Patrimoine PQ, Simon Psyquébélique has ripped the soundtrack direct from the DVD, complete with sound-effects and snippets of dialogue, and with some sleek artwork based on the original movie poster.

Michel Paje and Joe Gracy's compositions are surely up there with such heavyweight Frenchies as Jean-Claude Vannier and Serge's music for Pierre Koralnik's Anna. The dialogue snippets and sound-effects on Valérie serve to make it all the more evocative, with some tasty motorcycle action, answer-phone messages, and what appears to be a struggle with the most archetypal French porn villain imaginable (check the "Ah! NO, NO, No-No-No-No!" during Le Premier Client). Meanwhile the music veers from hypnotic, spy-flick piano to kitsch go-go, via sitar exotica, hammond funk, and some of the most maudlin tunes I've heard since those badly-dubbed foreign-serials they used to show when I was a kid, during school holidays.

You can download this unofficial version of Valérie for free from Psyquébélique, go there now and tell him L'Amour Electronique tipped you off.

The Autumnal Equinox

At around 3.09am tomorrow morning the autumnal equinox will occur. It sounds a little foreboding, but it's just the signal of the end of the summer months and the beginning of winter. Pagans will be celebrating and the rest of us in the northern hemisphere can just use it as a reminder to dig our scarves out and prepare for the cold months ahead. It would be depressing if it wasn't such a glorious sunny day outside today.

Here's Jean-Michel Jarre getting all autumnal:

covered and appropriated

Stereo Total have recorded the Brigitte Fontaine/Jean-Claude Vannier track Barbe à Papa for their latest album. For the video, they've appropriated a fictional advert directed by Serge Gainsbourg's character in the film Slogan...