ZOMBIE ZOMBIE HALLOWE'EN HORROR

This one ticks quite a few boxes: Zombie Zombie, a French Band with synthesizers covering John Carpenter's ultra-sinister piano/synth Hallowe'en original

Zombie Zombie - Halloween Main Theme by Versatile Records


For more scary and disturbing music you could do worse than listen to today's editions of Jarvis Cocker's  Sunday Service and Stuart Maconie's Freak(ier) Zone (both available via BBC iPlayer for the next 7 days).

I had hoped to put together a synth/electronic follow-up to last year's Quelle Horreur! comp for you, but I've been working on something secret and big that has taken up all my time (I can't say what it is yet, but all will be revealed soon).

So, in case you missed it last year, here is L'Amour Electronique's Quelle Horreur! vol. 1

1. Stella - Si vous connaissez quelque-chose de pire qu'un vampire, parlez m'en toujours, ça pourra peut-être me faire sourire

2. Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll Et Monsieur Hyde

3. Christine Pilzer - Dracula

4. Les Maledictus Sound - Kriminal Theme

5. Evariste - Connais-Tu I'animal Qui Inventa Le Calcul Integral

6. France Gall - Frankenstein

7. Jany L. - Mon Joli Vampire

8. Gérard Manset - Animal on est mal

9. Les Maledictus Sound - Monster Cocktail

10. Nicole Paquin - Mon Mari C'est Frankenstein

11. Brigitte Bardot - Le Diable Est Anglais

12. Stereo Total - Film D'Horreur

You can download it via the original post

Soirée this Saturday (now with added visuals)

This Saturday sees us back in The West Hill for another L'Amour Electronique
[9pm-3am / 67 Buckingham Place, BN1 3PQ / Free Entry]

Guests can expect the (un)usual mix of 60s yé-yé, Gallic pop, synthesized sounds, freakbeat, electronics and other delights.  But this time there will be additional eye-candy in the form of some Nouvelle Vague cinema and music videos up on the TV.

We've not decide what we're screening yet, but I'm eager to give this one a showing

Love Is Amour In French

I'll be honest, I'm not the most prolific blogger on the internet, so it probably doesn't surprise any of the (6) readers of this blog that the posts have been a bit sporadic of late.

My excuse: I've been busy elsewhere, making paintings and showing them in my first solo exhibition.  Here's a painting that should appeal to L'Amour Electronique followers:

The exhibition is finished now, but there are photos and a short video tour on my other blog Confessions of a Wednesday Painter, if you are interested in seeing more...

Enough shameless plugging.  Train-spotters might like to know that the title/subject matter for that painting was borrowed from this mildly cheesy slice of late 70s Franco-English Canadian disco (dig the Jeff Wayne-style orchestration and that melody so brazenly lifted from Chopin/Jane B).

Anne Marie - Love Is Amour In French

French Radio London

Verity heard about this a couple of months ago...

Looks like good news for all London's French speakers and Francophiles. French Radio London (the capital's first French language station) has secured a DAB digital radio license and will launch towards the end of the year. Pascal Grierson, who set up the station, explains the music policy:

"French radio has a 40 per cent [French music] quota; we want to impose an 80 per cent quota here. We will not ignore English-language music but we want to give our listeners something they will remember from their childhood."

You can stream an hour long teaser podcast from the website (signs are good: the playlist includes Serge Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy, Brigitte Bardot and Juliette Greco, alongside some more modern French music).  And for those of us outside the capital, FRL will also be available online and via mobile apps.

We'll keep you posted if we hear any more...

Pas Adieu

Just got myself a copy of the new Fabienne Delsol album, and a beautiful listen it is too! Fabienne is a French chick living in London, she used to be in a band called The Bristols. Nowadays she records albums full of vintage warmth with her hubby Liam Watson at Toe Rag studios. Liam is a kind of latter-day Joe Meek, his studio decked out with all manner of analogue gear: lots of valves and big knobs, echo chambers and tape machines. The sound is rich and authentic, and could almost be mistaken for some lost R.G.M. session tapes recorded at 304 Holloway Rd in the mid-sixties.

The songs are a mixture of covers and originals, sung in English and French (could have done with more French ones in my opinion...). I'd already heard a couple on the wireless, and one in particular jumped out every time: Pas Adieu, it sounds like some of the sweetest of Chantal Goya's output between 1964 and 1967, and has a naggingly brilliant little pause that works its way into your mind and lodges itself there.

Fabienne Delsol - Pas Adieu
[buy Fabienne Delsol from Damaged Goods]

For a while, I thought it was just one of those songs that sounded familiar, because of the handful of influences it wears on its sleeve. But once I'd bought the album and checked the credits, three familiar names were listed: Régo/Rinaldi/Vogue. Of course! Luis Régo and Gérard Rinaldi from Les Problèmes (1er Groupe Authentique de Rhythm and Blues 100% Français). My detective work is done for the day!

Les Problèmes - Pas Adieu
[buy Les Problèmes from Amazon.uk]

As well as Les Problèmes, Fabienne covers Sylvie Vartan's Ce Jour La, and Strange Shadows from Françoise Hardy's 1970 English album One-Nine-Seven-Zero, Fabienne plays a rare show in London on 3rd October at The 100 Club. And I'm gutted, cos I can't go.