Today we have a rare and tasty treat from April March: a 10" clear vinyl ep Dans les yeux d'April March, with Bertrand Burgalat on production duties, released in 1999 on French label Tricatel (the first release from their 'Tricatel Club' series).
Track 1 is a sparkling synth/lounge pop re-working of Chantal Goya’s delectable Mon Ange Gardien. This is a slightly different mix to the version you may have heard on All's Fair In Love and Chick Factor, with cleaner production and a little lighter on the reverb and effects.
Glucide is a purely instrumental mix of the song Sugar (the opener on her Chrominance Decoder album). Removing April’s (occasionally too cloyingly) sweet vocal has allowed Monsieur Burgalat’s retro-futurist production sensibilities to shine. The result: a sinister 70s synth-funk workout.
And first on Face B is Magic Ass: A raw'n'gutsy freakbeat-y number, with a cool sitar breakdown and a chorus which seems to go “Cos Johnny’s is a magic… I can tell by the way she walks”. I like to think it’s a reference to Jane Birkin’s character in the taboo Gainsbourg-directed film Je T’aime, Moi Non Plus. Magic Ass indeed!
Whoever Johnny is, the song is ace and I defy you not to get up and get down to it!
The final track is another instrumental (this time a version of Mignonette, also from Chrominance Decoder), and it would seem Burgalat’s intention here was to give April her very own Brigitte Bardot Show-style dance workout. Dance, April, dance!
[Dans Les Yeux d'April March has long been deleted, but there are 2nd hand copies out there if you are willing to pay good money, see Discogs.com or CDandLP.com.]
