Hastings! Mon Amour!

This Friday I will be DJing some vintage French pop, Gallic psyche and musique electronique at >

HASTINGS MON AMOUR
Fri 20 Nov / 7pm-10.45pm / £5 entry
The Observer Building, 53 Cambridge Road, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 1DT

At 7pm prompt there will be a film screening of Truffaut’s Jules et Jim
This will be followed by dancing (possibly) to my L’Amour Electronique DJ set

TICKETS & INFO VIA THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE > https://www.facebook.com/events/1075232929153646/

spanner in the works

And so it goes: I'm convinced that most every time I decide to start blogging again, someone or something comes along that hampers progress.

The proverbial spanner is that a week ago I was asked to finish some paintings for an exhibition at the start of November - a ridiculously tight deadline, but one I couldn't pass up. If you care to know how I'm doing, there may be progress reports on my Twitter feed @neonpainter or on my website www.dominicbradnum.co.uk.

So it looks like you'll just have to make do for now with this mix that I completely forgot I had stuck up on Mixcloud 2 years ago...
 

L'Amour Electronique mix 4 (pt.2) by L'Amour Electronique on Mixcloud

[If you want to hear the first half of the mix, it's over there in the column on the right. Right?]

ghosts of halloween past

Does this look awfully lazy me re-visiting ghosts of halloween past? Sorry if it does, but I just don't have the time to find and compile anything new (and I like to think there are still people out there who haven't come across either of these mixtapes yet).

Quelle Horreur! is my original mix of ghoulish Gallic psyche, creepy freakbeat and blood-thirsty femme-pop...

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

QUELLE HORREUR! VOL. 1 (40.9mb zip file)

Quelle Horreur! vol. 2 is dripping with sinister synths, creepy claviolines, demonic drum machines, and eerie electronica...

1. Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind - The Shining (Main Title)
2. Kap Bambino - Batcaves
3. Relaxed Muscle - Beastmaster
4. Future Bible Heroes - I'm a Vampire
5. Ladytron - Miss Black
6. John Carpenter - Halloween Theme (Main Title)
7. Zombie Zombie - Walk Of The Dead
8. Broadcast - Evil Is Coming
9. Les Georges Leningrad - Cocktail Vampire
10. Suicide - Ghostrider
11. Mount Vernon Arts Lab – Hobgoblins
12. Stereo Total – Film D’Horreur
13. Lio - Bébé Vampire
14. I Monster - The Blue Wrath
15. The Moontrekkers - Return of The Vampires

QUELLE HORREUR! VOL. 2 (57.1mb zip file)

L'Amour Electronique mix 4

!!!NEWSFLASH!!! Part 2 of this mix now added below!!!

I felt I should commemorate the fact that a whole year has passed since the final L'Amour Electronique soirée on 26 May 2012, so I dug out a mix I had sitting on my hard-drive and dusted up for your listening pleasure.  This one was mixed live at one of our nights on 26 February 2011. Hopefully it'll keep y'all entertained while we wait for the mp3s to come back...

Here is some blurb that I spewed out to introduce it on mixcloud:

You want an epic prog-electroni-folk lament from Air? CHECK! You want a seriously DEVO-lved Toni Basil space-oddity? CHECK! You want to swoon as Gillian Hills makes dragging on a cigarette sound like the sexiest thing EVER? *PUFF PUFF* You want naked thighs and leather boots? CHECK! You want the Kili-watch rush of a surf-guitar instrumental? CHECK! You want early J-J Perrey Moog-pop? CHECK! You want Da Da Da en Français? CHECK! You want Christophe to leave behind his blue-eyed years and get on a grinding, motorik groove? CHECK! You want obscure pre-beat orchestral pop from Tienou; electro-pop from The Knife and Future Bible Heroes; Françoise Hardy, Liz Brady, Adèle (not that one), Polnareff and Brigitte Bardot? yé-yé! yé-yé! yé-yé! THEN HIT PLAY NOW >>

L'Amour Electronique mix 4 (pt.1) by Lamourelectronique on Mixcloud

tracklisting for mix 4 (pt.1)

Air – Sex Born Poison

Stereo Total – Cannibale

The Knife – Kino

Toni Basil – Space Girls

Brigitte Bardot – Le Diable est Anglais

Adèle – J’ai Peur Parfois (acoustic version)

Gillian Hills – Ma Premiere Cigarette

Françoise Hardy – Pas Gentille

Serge Gainsbourg – L’Homme à Tête du Chou

Philippe Nicaud – Cuisses Nues, Bottes de Cuir

Liz Brady – Palladium

Léo Petit et Ses Guitares et Ses Rhythmes – Kili-watch

Jean-Claude Vannier – L’Ours Parasseux

Michel Polnareff – Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta

Jean-Jacques Perrey – Porcupine Rock

Toss – Da Da Da (Est-ce qu'on s'cherche ou est ce qu'on triche?)

Christophe – Rock Monsieur

Tienou – Tu N’Peux Pas T’Empêcher de Rire

Future Bible Heroes – Love Is Blue

Jean-Michel Jarre – Equinoxe (pt.4)

Françoise Hardy – Le Premier Bonheur du Jour

And now for PART 2! 

Allez-Allez! The mix continues >> obscure indie-poppers do Serge > pure synth-pop > moody French disco > sugary & soulful femme pop > In/Out > lo-fi electro-pop > analogue synth abuse > filthy dirty freakbeat > a hefty dose of road rash > proto-electronica > sounds of summer > psyche-noir. And all for your listening pleasure.

L'Amour Electronique mix 4 (pt.2) by L'Amour Electronique on Mixcloud

tracklisting for mix 4 (pt.2)
Addictive Larsen – Bonnie & Clyde
The Human League – Open Your Heart
Kraftwerk – Airwaves
Michel Polnareff – La Mouche
Mareva Galanter – Les Filles C’est Faites Pour Faire L’Amour
Bébé Suong – Mine De Rien
Elizabeth – Madame Superman
Les Roche Martin – Les Mains Dans Les Poches
Serge Gainsbourg – Qui est ‘In’, Qui est ‘Out’?
Sue Wilkinson – You’ve Got To Be a Hustler
Stereo Total – Baby Ouh
Add N To (X) – Ann’s Eveready Equestrian
Jesus – L’Electrocuté
Christophe – Macadam
The Normal – T.V.O.D.
Mathématiques Moderne – Disco Rough
Bertrand Burgalat & Robert Wyatt – This Summer Night
Johnny Hallyday – Noir C’est Noir

TRES CHIC!

First there was C'est Chic! Now there is Très Chic! The new Ace Records compilation of 'more French girl singers of the 1960s'.

It's a tough job putting together a comp like this: trying to make it a captivating, immediate listen for the newcomer, as well as aiming to create a strong overview of the French yé-yé scene; meanwhile there's probably the nagging thought at the back of your mind that there are people like me out there who have got all the more populist stuff and want some new treasures unearthed and plonked on their stereo. And that's before you get to the tooth-pulling task of trying to get licensing permission for the material you WANT to put on it.

I say: give me anything with some 60s French music on it and I am a happy bunny!


The 24 track CD version has Gillian Hills on the cover, and I had a nice surprise (and a little flush of pride) whilst scanning through the inlay booklet: the L'Amour Electronique blog gets a mention under 'other reference sources'!

There's an abridged (blue!) vinyl version too, with a very un-sixties Anna Karina photo on the front.

If I can find the time, I'll write a little review of it...

You can buy both direct from Ace Records: CD version | Vinyl version.

Nothing but the truth

This is my new favourite Clothilde song.

It was the 4th track on her 2nd (and final) ep, and it has all the hallmarks of this quintessential Swinging Mademoiselle: The disaffected vocal; a hyperactive bubblegum groove; some ridiculously strangulated fuzz-guitar; ding-dong bells; all manner of plinky-plonky percussion; horns a-plenty; a bit at the start of the chorus where she goes "Heh!"; not to mention the kitchen sink... All thrown into the mixing console and stirred up by French pop svengali Germinal Tenas.

I really can't understand why it hasn't already been on any of the umpteen Swinging Mademoiselle/Ultra Chicks/Femmes De Paris/Pop A Paris comps to date... But it's now available to us all on the Born Bad Records released French Swinging Mademoiselle 1967 album, and the CD and LP versions include a full transcript of a candid interview with Élisabeth Beauvais (Clothilde's real name), plus interjections from the aforementioned Mr. Tenas.

Clothilde - La Vérité Toute La Vérité [buy Clothilde - French Swinging Mademoiselle 1967 on CD, LP or all manner of digital formats from Born Bad Records]

I got the blues for Françoise

'Scuse me for possibly being a little bit fashionably late for the party, but I got violently ill at the weekend and, well, some things (like being violently ill*) are more important than blogging.

I've been rather enamoured of late by the new Ace Records Françoise Hardy compilation. which brings together her English language output between 1968 and 1972, a period when she worked a lot with Tommy Brown and Micky Jones (who also worked with Sylvie; and then as Johnny's backing band The Blackburds; and who have had honourable mention before here and here), and a time when rumours that she might work with Nick Drake, sadly never came to fruition.

You get 2 almost complete albums of post-psychedelic folk rock and Françoise charming your ears with her delicate, slightly hesitant English. Some fine sleevenotes from Mr Bob Stanley too!

You can (and should!) buy the CD direct from Ace Records for £11.50 inc. free delivery in the UK via the following link >> Francoise Hardy - Midnight Blues Paris London 1968-1972 (Ace Records)

Now, if only my mp3 files were accessible, I would post a song... but they ain't so I'm currently looking round for a more reliable host body. Watch this space.


*such things are not necessarily as much fun as, though they are often a lot more work than, blogging... Both can certainly be draining though.

French pop a la BBC (repeat)

Attention French pop fans! A bit of Gallic eye candy to feast yr mincers on...

I blogged about these before, but I shall give them a mention again, as both shows were repeated last night on good ol' BBC4.

Exotic Pop at the BBC has a sultry Juliette Greco and a painfully awkward Françoise on it; plus Monsieur Aznavour in a terrible jacket, Plastic Bertrand after one too many fizzy pops, and jail-bait era Vanessa Paradis.
It is available on the iPlayer until 12:29AM Mon, 29 Apr 2013 >> WATCH IT HERE

Anyone For Demis? How The World Invaded The Pop Charts, meanwhile has "the French Cliff Richard" Johnny Halliday, Françoise on Eurovision and The Piccadilly Show, Serge &  Jane, and Mademoiselle Paradis again.
Available on t'iPlayer until 1:29AM Mon, 29 Apr 2013 >> WATCH IT HERE

Here's a full run down of the unmissable bits (from the point of view of yr humble, but obviously superlatively taste-driven, scribe): Wot I said last time about them two programmes wot were shown on the BBC

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.18

A fine choice from Kitty for our next stage in the slowly growing Chaîne: After the Andre Popp-penned, Eurovision '67 cover by Future Bible Heroes, she suggested Sandie Shaw en Français. Why? Because Sandie skipped barefoot to the number 1 spot in the very same Eurovision contest with 'Puppet On A String', bien sur!

On this 1966 ep track, Sandie, with a bit of help from Ken Woodman and his orchestra, summons up the stormy sound of all those early 60s death-disc melodramas...

Thunder rumbles overhead, the wind howls, and there's a palpable sense of panic in Sandie's voice.

The English language version of this song has her running from the arms of an over-bearing monster of an ex-lover. Run, Sandie, Run!

Sandie Shaw - L'Orage

[Pretty much all of Sandie Shaw's essential French output is collected together on the CD Chante en Français: Pourvu Que ça Dure - available from yr usual mp3 shopping boutique; or, for a sizeable sum, 2nd hand, on certain tax-shy online retail outlets]


...................................................................
L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain?
Leave your suggestions and reasons in the comments.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Amour à la Chaîne > Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis > Les 5 Gentlemen – Cara-Lin > Add N To (X) – Monster Bobby > Serge Gainsbourg – Le Poinçonneur des Lilas > Les Shades – Orage Mécanique > Gillian Hills - Rentre Sans Moi > Zombie Zombie - Psychic Harmonia > Michel Polnareff - Qui a Tué Grand'Maman? > Christine Pilzer - L'Horloge De Grand-Père > Violaine - J'ai Des Problèmes Décidement > Dutronc - Dodecaphonie > Fabienne Delsol - Ce Jour La > Johnny Hallyday - Son Amour Pour Un Jeu > Miss Kittin & The Hacker - L'Homme Dans L'Ombre > Andre Popp - L'Homme Invisible > Future Bible Heroes - Love Is Blue > Sandie Shaw - L'Orage > ?

Françoise, Nicolas, Jean-Benoît et Jeanne

Let's toddle back to 1998 when Air released their, oft-copied/seldom matched, sci-fi lounge masterpiece Moon Safari. Tucked away on the b-side of simian-disco smash 'Sexy Boy' was a gem that saw them calling on the voice of a certain first lady of the French yé-yé scene.

This passed me by completely at the time, and though I loved the song 'Sexy Boy', I could only afford to buy the album and not the single too, and so I missed out on those bonus b-sides.  Instead I discovered something magical when my now wife and I did a tape swap, where we both compiled some Gallic-flavoured numbers for our first holiday together in Paris.

Back then, neither of us had much of a French record collection, so we had to be imaginative: anything with even a hint of the old ooh la la about it was recorded and sequenced, and a certain track on her C90 shone through. It was taped off an Elefant Records compilation Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics (1999) - a tasty little album if you can still find a copy: it has French language covers and originals including that Heavenly/France Gall one I posted recently; and Chaîne 17 contenders-by-proxy The Magnetic Fields doing a creaky version of 'Le Tourbillon' from Jules et Jim, that sounds like a busted old merry-go-round.

But I digress. The song by Air with a guest vocal by Françoise Hardy is entitled 'Jeanne' - a beautiful, breathy wisp of pastoral synth-pop with possibly the most melancholy oscillator solo I have ever heard. Make sure you have a handkerchief nearby before you listen...

Air feat. Françoise Hardy - Jeanne

[as mentioned above, this was issued as a b-side to Air's 'Sexy Boy' single, and also on Pop Romantique (Elefant Records/Emperor Norton). There are cheap used CD copies of both on the usual 2nd hand sites, and a couple of reasonably-priced vinyl copies of Pop Romantique on discogs.com]

Swing when you're winning

On my jaunts around the interweb, I also heard the pitter-patter of Clothilde's mischievous chansons, which have been collected together, in all their Germinal Tenas-produced, intricate glory, for a long-overdue retrospective, French Swinging Mademoiselle 1967, to be released on Born Bad Records (on vinyl and CD if rumours are to be believed) in February or March this year. If you can't wait for the physical release, you can download it in all manner of digital formats from the Born Bad Recs BandCamp page, or you can preview it and buy it via the handy little player below...

Swing Mademoiselle, Swing!

Passing by the always impeccable Filles Sourires site, I was oh so grateful to Monsieur Guuzbourg for heralding the arrival of Swinging Mademoiselle Volume 3.   I've been out of touch with most of the outside world (as the present dearth of blog posts testifies) - one of the side effects of having a small person to look after - so the news gave me a tiny flutter of excitement at the prospect of some hitherto unheard yé-yé delights to please my ears and my itchy, dancing feet.

Some of you may remember how I got in a bit of a lather about that Girls In The Garage Vol 12, regarding it as the 3rd part of the Swinging Mademoiselle series (not to be confused with the pale imitation Swinging Mademoiselles - note the pluralisation and beware - CDs), being that it was compiled by the same person: an elusive monsieur by the name of Sasha Monett.

Here's what he says of this latest edition:

"The world has changed a lot in the 10 years since the release of volume 2, and I can say (in all modesty) that the term Swinging Mademoiselle has basically become a genre in itself, designating the instantly recognizable sound of French pop with female vocals, recorded from 1965 to 1968.  

This is the third and -- I emphasize -- the final volume, because there will not be any more. Sorry, friends, but three is enough (or four, because you can include Girls in the Garage volume 12 in this series). This time, I’ll present artists who are much more obscure than those in previous volumes. It’s a difficult task, because in today’s ultra-connected world where everything is three clicks away, nothing remains truly « obscure ». It’s a daunting task, but I’ll try anyway."

I'm waiting patiently for my vinyl copy to arrive from France, but he very kindly forwarded me the mp3 files, and they're keeping me warm in this snowy weather. The first few listens suggest he's certainly delivered on his promise: a quick cross-reference of my own mp3 and vinyl library brings up only 2 duplicates (Valéry - 'Vous Dansez Mademoiselle'; and Dorine - 'Pêches à la crème'; which were both on Ultra Chicks 6, I think). The rest is pure, uncharted vintage Femme-pop joy: from the slightly sleazey doo-wop naiveté of Michelle's 'Viens petite fille', to the psyched-out baroquerie of Christine Moncenis' Serge Franklin-penned 'Sensation'.

In the absence of any time to write a gushing review, Sasha Monett, I doff my cap to you!

WANT TO BUY IT?
The vinyl pressing is limited to only 1000 copies, and there's no digital or CD release on the cards as far as I know, so you should order your copy now - my tip is to get it direct from source if you're in Europe, or from Dionysus Recs in the US.

ATTENTION! XMAS AVALANCHE!

Already had enough of Christmas? Then why not enjoy seeing Jacques Dutronc being buried under a symbolic avalanche of captiatlist Christmas-ness?


If only he'd been dressed up as Père Noël too.

Oh dear, sounds like poor Christophe is aching again this yuletide season, but at least he still believes in Father Christmas...



I posted this a few years ago, but in case you've never seen it, this is the Dim Dam Dom 1966 Christmas nativity, with Serge as Joseph, Chantal Goya as Mary, Sylvie Vartan narrating and Jacques Dutronc being... odd.

Let's be honest the whole thing is quite odd, very French, and very of-its-time.
l
Noël à Vaugirard (1966) avec Serge Gainsbourg... by rikiai  


I had hoped to post a couple of festive mp3s, but there's a problem with the site that hosts my files and I can't upload or access any files at all.  Snowballs!

Joyeux Noël readers, I'll be off for a while ("so what's new?" you all cry),  enjoying a 1st familial christmas and scoffing my body-weight in stollen.

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.16

NEWSFLASH! That man in the shadows (Chaîne pt.15) was not The Hacker, it was The Invisible Man...

[image source]

L'Homme Invisible lurks in the bushes, late at night, outside the flats of unsuspecting batchelorettes:

*knock-knock-knock-knock*

----eerie voices whistle and wail and a stalking, slow-jazz rhythm strikes up----

femme: "Who is there?"

----silence----

*takes the latch off the door*

femme: "Who is there?"

*opens the door and looks outside*

femme: "Who is there?"

homme: "L'homme invisible"

----the sinister, brassy orchestration swells----

femme: "What do you want?"

homme: "You... YOU"

femme:  *gasps*

----eerie wailing and whistling continues----

femme: "No... NO!"

----invisible man ravishes woman soundtracked by a saucy, rasping trumpet----

femme: *gasps* *moans* *groans*

----invisible man leaves - a deathly silence hanging in the air----



So ladies, if it's getting late and you hear a faint knock-knock-knocking at your door, and you're not expecting visitors, turn the Dansette up, keep the lights on and just pretend you didn't hear...

[image source]

Andre Popp - L'Homme Invisible
[this was re-issued in 2001 on the Andre Popp collection Popp Musique on Tricatel. It's out of print but you may be able to pick up a 2nd hand copy from the usual haunts around the interweb]

...................................................................
L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain?
Leave your suggestions and reasons in the comments.
Jacques Dutronc - L'Amour à la Chaîne > Françoise Hardy - Je Changerais D'Avis > Les 5 Gentlemen – Cara-Lin > Add N To (X) – Monster Bobby > Serge Gainsbourg – Le Poinçonneur des Lilas > Les Shades – Orage Mécanique > Gillian Hills - Rentre Sans Moi > Zombie Zombie - Psychic Harmonia > Michel Polnareff - Qui a Tué Grand'Maman? > Christine Pilzer - L'Horloge De Grand-Père > Violaine - J'ai Des Problèmes Décidement > Dutronc - Dodecaphonie > Fabienne Delsol - Ce Jour La > Johnny Hallyday - Son Amour Pour Un Jeu > Miss Kittin & The Hacker - L'Homme Dans L'Ombre > Andre Popp - L'Homme Invisible > ?

Sweet tooth

Back in August when I reviewed the FG compilation Made In France I was bemoaning the fact it was missing the France/Serge duet Dents De Lait, Dents De Loup, and how it would make a lot of people (i.e. me and my many personalities) woop with joy to have a well-mastered audio clip of that theme from the one-off Gallic 60s TV music show directed by Pierre Koralnik and Jean-Pierre Spiero in early 1967.

Well reader, I finally stopped my griping and done it myself.

And so I gift it to all of you out there on the interweb, ripped in high-quality from my very own collection.

France Gall et Serge Gainsbourg - Dents De Lait, Dents De Loup

Whilst I was about it, I figured I may as well kill 2 mp3s with one, er, audio-rip, and did this one too.

Just watch that knowing old rascal Serge smirking to himself as naive miss Gall sings about sweet little Annie and her love of aniseed lollipops...

Just in case you are completely in the dark, some bright spark has altruistically pasted together a load of archive clips to explain the story behind the song.

And here it is, it's not available in the shops (or anywhere else as far as I know), c'est Serge and France duetting together on  l'émmission Dents De Lait, Dents De Loup circa 1967, as seen in that there video above.

France Gall et Serge Gainsbourg - Les Sucettes
 
If you enjoyed these two vintage French pop rarities, please leave a comment to let me know. Merci x

France Grrrl

As promised here is the first of 2 posts of France Gall-related tuneage.

Here, for all you obscurists out there, are a couple of indie pop cover versions that have been sat on the shelves of my mp3 library gathering digital dust...

Free Kitten is about as close to a Riot Grrrl supergroup as you're likely to get - a duo formed by Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Julie Cafritz (Pussy Galore), later joined by Yoshimi P-We (The Boredoms) on drums, and Mark Ibold (Pavement), as token man-on-bass.

[image source]

The kitten promptly escaped onto the US underground music scene and coughed up a rugs-worth of discordant pop furballs, including this cover-version of Serge's ode to a teenie-bopper's mis-adventures on LySergic acid Diethylamide...

Free Kitten - Teenie Weenie Boppie
[taken from the album Sentimental Education - you can buy it on LP or CD from Kill Rock Stars, or as various Download formats from the KRS bandcamp page]

In a pleasing moment of serendipity, I've just read that Kim Gordon launched a clothing line Mirror/Dash, in 2009, inspired by the wardrobe of one of our other French faves Françoise Hardy.


Now for some 90s twee-pop from post-C86 dream-poppers Heavenly - a sugar-spangled jangly guitar cover of another Serge-penned hit from France Gall's unbeatable mid-60s period

[image source]

Heavenly - Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges
[originally released on their final album Operation Heavenly, which you can still buy direct from K Records]



Stay tuned for some unreleased France/Serge interplay coming very soon...

French music on 6music

Lauren Laverne's 6music show is currently putting together their 'People's Playlist' feature for tomorrow. This week's theme is titled 'The Ooh La La list', and will be half an hour of listener selected music from French artistes. I've posted my 2 Francs-worth on the 6music facebook page, and you can also make suggestions on Twitter.

The People's Playlist will be broadcast tomorrow (Thursday 08 November) sometime between 10am and 1pm on BBC 6music. You can also listen again for 7 days via the iPlayer.

You may be wondering the reason for all of this sudden French-ness? It's in honour of French nouvelle-shoegaze lovelies Melody's Echo Chamber who were in session yesterday.

Here is a shimmering and woozy video of M.E.C for your delectation

------------------------------------------------
D’you know after all that talking it up, I was out when the show was on, and I’ve only just had a chance to listen to it.

Now it wasn’t all my, er, tasse de thé, but any radio station that plays Superman-Supercool by Jacky Chalard just after 10am on a Thursday morning will always always get the thumbs up from my little corner of the interweb.

The full tracklisting for an oh-so brief 30+ minutes of air time was
Jacky Chalard – Superman-Supercool
Sebastién Tellier - La Ritournelle (Mr Dans Magic Wand Remix)
MC Solaar – Nouveau Western
Stereolab – French Disko
Serge Gainsbourg – En Melody
Amadou & Mariam – Masiteladi
Daft Punk – Da Funk

Wot no yé-yé? Yeah I know. And they didn't play any of my suggestions either. *sulks*. I was just happy to hear some French music on le radio really, especially one of the Serge songs I nearly always DJ (mentions Sunderland, Lauren Laverne's home town, you know... Apparently Serge liked the romantic connotations of phonetic sound of it: "Son-de-lon". Let's presume he never actually went to Sunderland).

You can listen again until this Thursday morning on the iPlayer.

C'est Halloween, moi j'ai peur

Time to dust off those Halloween mixtapes again.

If you like ghoulish Gallic psyche, creepy freakbeat and freaky femme-pop, look no further...

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

>>DOWNLOAD QUELLE HORREUR VOL. 1 (40.9mb zip file)>>
[previously posted here >>]

This one is chock-full of sinister synths, creepy claviolines, demonic drum machines, and eerie electronica...

1. Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind - The Shining (Main Title)
2. Kap Bambino - Batcaves
3. Relaxed Muscle - Beastmaster
4. Future Bible Heroes - I'm a Vampire
5. Ladytron - Miss Black
6. John Carpenter - Halloween Theme (Main Title)
7. Zombie Zombie - Walk Of The Dead
8. Broadcast - Evil Is Coming
9. Les Georges Leningrad - Cocktail Vampire
10. Suicide - Ghostrider
11. Mount Vernon Arts Lab – Hobgoblins
12. Stereo Total – Film D’Horreur
13. Lio - Bébé Vampire
14. I Monster - The Blue Wrath
15. The Moontrekkers - Return of The Vampires

>>DOWNLOAD QUELLE HORREUR VOL. 2 (57.1mb zip file)>>

[originally posted here >>]



***BONUS PIECE OF DISTURBING SCREAMO FREAKBEAT NASTINESS POUR VOUS***

Jacques Filh - Wraaaach!!!

[you can buy this Jacques Filh track on the new Beginner's Guide To French Pop compilation]

Beginner's Guide To French Pop

Well looky here, a new compilation of 60s Frenchness has come my way  - the Beginner’s Guide To French Pop is touted as a “Triple CD set of the most thrilling 1960s French pop from the vaults of EMI full of classic yé- yé, Beatles-esque** hits & psych-pop all with a Gallic twist & compiled by Kid Loco”

What this means, is that there is a copy writer out there who really needs to work on breaking up their sentence structures; and, more enticingly, that French DJ and homme de l'électronique Kid Loco has been let loose in the French EMI archives, given free reign to plunder long deceased labels such as Odeon, Pathé Marconi, Trianon, Ducretet-Thomson, Columbia, and La Voix De Son Maître (His Master’s Voice, to you and me).

Now, the artwork/design really doesn't do it for me (it looks like the kind of thing you can only buy in petrol stations) and the sleeve notes are minimal, no detailed artist biographies here, instead Kid Loco provides us with a pithy one-liner about each track. What really hooked me was when I saw the tracklisting and only recognised 14 of the 45 artists, and even then not all of those individual tracks. Oh yeah and the fact that it was cheapcheapcheap - Here's my money, send me the CDs!

I wasn't expecting much of Disc One (1962-64). I was wrong. Mmmm, it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling with its jazzy Hammond grooves, finger-poppin strut-alongs, Beatnik rhythm'n'blues, galloping surf guitars, exotic percussion, and big band orchestral pop. Thems were more innocent times, but I'm still getting that thrill of dropping the needle onto a crisp vinyl biscuit, hearing the pop and crackle, and then the full-on rush of those naïvely produced sounds all crammed together into a couple of minutes of treble-y hysteria. 

My faves? Les Chats Sauvages & Dick River's racey rock'n'roll surfer C'est Joli Comme; Curt Martin's Hammond instrumental re-working of Alice Dona's C'est Pas Prudent; Hector's Hong Kong, an as-unhinged-as-the-original, cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You; a sappy, pure pop with harpsichords ditty by Gérard Brent (who later played guitar for Jean-Pierre Massiera and Jacky Chalard!); and this moody, cinematic, comme John Barry, epic from Ken Lean. 

Ken Lean - La Nuit



Onto Disc Two (1965-66), and now we're swinging into more yé- yé territory: skipping past the lush orchestrations of Serge et Michele Arnaud's Les Papillons Noirs, Dani's pneumatic Ta Machine, and Christie Laume's just-on-the-right-side-of-out-of-tune L'Adorable Femme Des Neiges, you'll find some swoonsome orchestral pop and soulful big band belters, a dose of dark, sitar drenched psyché-rock, a couple of Northern Soul-style floor fillers, and even some Lee Hazlewood-esque baroque pop.

I got a bit foamy at the mouth over Les Ambitieux (who later became Les 5 Gentlemen) - an ultra-urgent beat-group calling everyone to DANSE! DANSE! DANSE! DANSE!; Ken Lean (again!) with some space-age easy-listening from WAYYY OUT; Dick Rivers (on his own this time) and coming over all dark and exotic with a bombastic sitar-psych dirge; Jennifer's John Barry-style spy-flick torch song; Regis Barly's Monsieur Qui Sait Tout - which sounds like it came from an amphetamine-fuelled Lee Hazlewood studio session; and best of all, this brassy Northern Soul femme-pop smasher, with those archetypal Gallic cascading bass runs and fuzz guitar licks all over it:

Nicole Legendre - Tu Veux Tout Changer




We've made it to Disc Three (1967-70). Phew! And we're heading into murkier, more prog-infested waters. One or two of the later tracks tend to drift off into endless, self-indulgent stoner jams, but there's still plenty of sinister, slow-burning psychedelia, trippy freakouts and popsike delights to keep you listening.

My picks are the terrifying screamo freakbeat that is Wraaaach!!! by Jacques Filh; Les Roche Martin's mysterious pop; a Jacqueline Taïeb song that was somehow overlooked  on the Complete Masterworks... comp; a delectable Donovan cover that's all cascading, minor key piano cords by Véronique Sanson; and two tracks from Charlotte Walters, including this punchy, cinematic popsike gem.

Charlotte Walters - Angel Of Sin




So, what did we learn? 'Beginner's Guide...' is maybe a bit of a misnomer. The budget price is sure to attract a few newcomers to the genre, but much of the music probably isn't immediate enough to hook a casual ear and make them want to dig deeper into the realm of vintage French Pop. 'Intermediate' or 'advanced level' are undoubtedly less catchy, but perhaps more accurate

Novices looking to dabble in the wonderful world of yé- yé would get a much better start with the 'best of' double CD Pop à Paris: Psyché Rock et Mini-Jupes or the more Femme-centric C'est Chic: French Girl Singers of the 1960s.


[You can get yr mitts on the Beginner's Guide To French Pop here >>]


** Fact checking types and eagle-eyed readers will notice that aside from the first paragraph I haven't once mentioned a certain ubiquitous band beginning with B. Nothing across the three discs owes very much to The Beatles at all, I can only think the term "Beatles-esque" was thrown in to the tagline as a shameless catch-all term to get a few extra sales. Either that or the Fab Four are now solely responsible for spawning any and all music that features guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

I found this, lurking in the shadows...

Darby left a comment requesting a song in relation to the last two L'Amour à la Chaîne posts...

As mentioned in those posts, Françoise Hardy recorded a version of the song Son Amour Pour Un Jeu in English under the title Strange Shadows (and this was more recently covered in a dreamy, mellotron-tinged version by Fabienne Delsol). Françoise also recorded her own French language version, L'Ombre. And this is what Darby has requested.

The recording has the same arrangement as Strange Shadows, and I'd be willing to bet the same instrumental backing was used for both, however the French version has just a little more yearning in the vocal, which just clinches it for me.

Françoise Hardy - L'Ombre

[this is taken from her 1970 album Soleil]