Here are some wise words from the elusive Sasha Monett on the back of that G.i.t.G vol. 12 album I'm still raving about.
"Les Princesses is a cool French-style girl group. Perhaps they were trying to be the French Supremes. This band features Ariane, Erma and Tienou. Ariane and Tienou (born French Guyana in South America) also went on to release records on their own, some of which (especially Tienou) are very good - look for them!"Look for them is what I did... And the results of all that looking: I took a punt on a couple of Tienou vinyl 45s without even hearing any of the tracks (nothing on YouTube, no mp3s, nothing on any P-2-P sites, nowt, zero, rien).
So they appeared, wrapped in folded picture sleeves with the same picture front and back, and, behold, they were pretty damn fine - early 60s orchestral pop with clean'n'twangy guitar licks from that brief period between the tail-end of the Rock'n'Roll years and the explosion of the Beat boom. Released in 1964(?), both sides are co-written by Tienou and someone called Gil Carasso (Encyclopédisque has this listed incorrectly as Carso or Gil Carso) with orchestration by Jean Bouchéty - which is always a sure stamp of quality!
I really love the tension where the guitar goes TWAANNG-NG-NG-NGGGG and there's just a slight pause - Magic!
This one's got those deep, male backing vocals, played off against super high-pitched strings with Tienou sitting in the sweet spot right at the centre.
So you might be wondering what happened to the other seven-inch. Well, I put it in my record box and took it out to DJ a couple of times, but never got round to playing it. Then one day I took it out of its sleeve and found a large chunk of vinyl missing from the edge - GUTTED!
If anyone out there has mp3s of either of the tracks I'd be truly grateful for copies, as I really can't afford to buy another copy.
5 comments:
Really psyched about the post! (and blog in general). But these links don't seem to work...
Thanks for letting me know, must have been a problem when I uploaded them as they are both showing as 0mb. I should be able to get them replaced by tomorrow morning, so sit tight!
Okay, have uploaded the files again, and both seem to be working now - Hope it was worth the wait!
Of course it was worth it! I had never heard 'Si j'entends frapper à ma porte'. I'm always glad to hear some new french 60's! Thanks a lot!
Glad you liked it, got some more vinyl rips up my sleeve, watch this space.
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