Vive le Vinyl

My ears pricked up as Jarvis opened his Sunday Service with Françoise Hardy's Autumn Rendezvous, and what followed fairly had me frothing at the mouth...

Mr Cocker paid a visit to the Radio France vinyl archive and was joined by the Dirty Sound System DJs who plundered the millions of discs for some rare French cuts by the likes of François de Roubaix, Pierre Cavalli, Alain Goraguer, and more.

It's available until 3:59pm next Sunday and it makes for ace listening >>> LISTEN HERE

Breathless (again)

I caught a bit of Jazz at the Movies on Radio 2 last night.

Jean-Luc Godard fans should listen just for the clips of Jazz composer Martial Solal talking about his soundtrack for À Bout De Souffle: working with Godard, his choice of character themes (strings for Seberg, brass for Belmondo), and the end result - as young Jazz-chap host Jamie Cullum notes the film action is almost cut to the "crazy, jagged be-bop" music.

Jazz at the Movies is on the iPlayer until 21.59 on Monday 6th May >> LISTEN HERE

Laetitia Sadier breaks her silence

Fans of space-age jazz-pop groop Stereolab will be pleased to hear Laetitia Sadier is releasing a new album Silencio on 23rd July. She was in talking politics, unmemorable recording sessions, epiphanies in churches, the ongoing Stereolab hiatus, and why more bands should be sticking it to the man, to Radcliffe & Maconie on their 6music show yesterday. Listen to the full interview (with abridged songs*) below.

* The new songs are sounding a lot more carefully crafted and immediate than some of her previous output - all signs point to GOOD.  You can hear them in their entirety by listening to the full radio show on the iPlayer (available until 1pm on Monday 16th July)

Moogie Wonderland

Last Sunday, the Now Playing @6Music show was dedicated Bob Moog in salute to what would have been his 78th birthday earlier in the week.  The show puts the power of selection in the hands of the listeners, who can make suggestions through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (see #Moog6Music), and dedicated Spotify playlists, which are then curated by the production team and host Tom Robinson.

[image source]

The Moog special threw up some analogue treats including an ace version of Let The Sunshine In (from the musical Hair) by Mort Garson suggested by The Horrors, an early use of Moog by The Monkees (Mickey Dolenz bought the 3rd commercially available Moog Modular off the production line), Moogie Wonderland by Stereolab, some Wendy Carlos, various 80s synth-pop classics, and even an epic Simon & Garfunkel track (on which Bob Moog apparently came to the studio to set up the Moog himself!). The one thing missing for me was something by avant-hard synth-abusers Add N To (X), or maybe some Claude Denjean Moog-madness, but I shouldn't complain when I didn't bother sending in my own suggestion, should I?

Whether every track played featured an actual Moog is up for debate, but if you enjoy the warm sound of vintage synths you should give it a listen before Sunday 3rd June.

Listen again via the BBC iPlayer >> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01j8l4d

Marc Almond goes Behind the Brel

source : rockimages.centerblog.net

I'm kicking myself for missing part 1 of this repeated Radio 2 documentary Behind the Brel: The Story of a Musical Genius, but part 2 (examining the darker side of Brel and his interest in songs about death and war) is on the iPlayer and part 3 airs this Sunday at 8pm.

Marc Almond invites you to explore the music and unconventional life of one of France's most revered singer-songwriters - Jacques Brel.

Largely unknown in the English speaking world (mainly due to him singing in French), Jacques Brel is considered one of the great songwriters of the 20th Century, whose lyrical content is poetically introspective and delivered with an honesty few could deny.

Tacking subjects such as love, death and social issues, Brel's music has been translated by artists such as David Bowie, Scott Walker, Shirley Bassey, Joan Baez, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Rod McKuen, Terry Jacks, Nirvana and Vera Lynn.

Brel songs, which became major hits in the English-speaking world, include Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away), Seasons in the Sun, Jacky and Amsterdam. And in this three part series, Marc Almond will investigate why some Brel songs translated well and others didn't.

Throughout the series, Marc Almond gives his own thoughts on Brel's songs including Jacky and Amsterdam.

La Chanson de Serge

Not sure how I missed this, but 6music repeated La Chanson de Serge: The Serge Gainsbourg story,  a radio doc narrated by Malcolm McLaren, earlier this week.

For some reason I can only find episode 2, which is available to listen again on the iPlayer until 11.59pm on Tuesday 3rd April >>>>>> LISTEN HERE

Here's the blurb from the 6music website:

"There is no equivalent of Serge Gainsbourg in the contemporary British music scene. At his traffic-stopping funeral in 1991, President Mitterrand described him as "our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire. He elevated the song to the level of art." Today, his former home in the suburbs of Paris's Left Bank is covered in graffiti and the "wall of Serge" is a bigger shrine than Jim Morrison's grave in Pere Lachaise cemetery.

He became famous the world over for a heavy breathing hit; propositioned Whitney Houston on live TV; and caused outrage with his reggae version of Le Marseillaise. Over here Gainsbourg is known chiefly for his steamy duet with Jane Birkin, Je T'aime, a worldwide hit in 1969 which was banned by the Beeb and condemned by the Vatican.

The song was originally recorded by Gainsbourg and his then girlfriend Brigitte Bardot. When the subsequent Birkin version was released, some assumed the couple had simply placed a tape recorder under their bed during a night of passion. In fact, they were standing in two separate booths in a studio in Marble Arch.

Gainsbourg knew no musical barriers, recording jazz, reggae, pop, disco, psychedelia and rock 'n' roll. But although the French regard Serge as their very own John Lennon or Bob Dylan, his work was not so highly regarded outside his native country.

In a programme first broadcast in 2009, the late Malcolm McLaren, who lived in Paris for many years, visited the people and places central to Serge's story. These include Saint-Germain des Pres, where Gainsbourg first performed in the rive gauche cafes and bars; his former home in the Rue de Verneuil; his grave at Montparnasse cemetery; and contributors include Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Petula Clark, David Holmes and biographer Sylvie Simmons."

Is Numan Human?

The answer to the question, it seems, is YES.  Unless, that is, he sent one of his androids to talk to Steve Lamacq today.

And the event?  Tubeway Army's Replicas is the 6music 'ClassicalbumoftheDay'. This means that tracks from the record have been peppered throughout today's schedule, and that Lammo got to grill the Numan all about the making of the album.  He was quite candid for an android: talking about getting used sexually by older women and banging out prototype versions of his tunes on an out-of-tune pub piano, plus, his rather ham-fisted first forays into analogue synthesis.

You can listen again via the BBC iPlayer until around 3.59pm next Wednesday 4th April >>>
LISTEN HERE.

Liberty, Fraternity, Anarchy: Le Punk Français

Broadcast at the very un-punk time of 11.30am tomorrow morning (Thu 3 Mar), on the even less-punk Radio 4, Liberty, Fraternity, Anarchy: Le Punk Français is a 30 minute documentary uncovering the French contribution to the punk movement.

Synopsis from the Radio 4 website:

The recorded histories of punk concentrate on two places - the USA and England - and while it's true that much of the scene's most important activity took place there, one other key territory has been largely written out of the story - France. Andrew Hussey argues that without the French, punk would simply have been pub rock with shorter hair.

Many of the ideas, he shows, and much of the look of punk came from the French: Malcolm McLaren and Tony Wilson were hugely influenced by the Situationist movement in particular, and deliberately and explicitly trawled it for images and lyrics that were to become iconic punk expressions (the Sex Pistols record covers, lyrics such as 'Cheap holidays in other people's misery'...); the first festival of punk music took place at Mont de Marsan in 1976; the first Rough Trade release was from the Parisian band 'Metal Urbain'; the punk 'look' first embodied by Richard Hell was drawn straight from fin de siecle French poets, and the graffiti strewn clothing of The Clash comes straight from the 50s group les Lettrists.

As Hussey will show, not only did the French influence the international scene, it also contributed bands such as Stinky Toys, Marie et les Garcons and Starshooter, bands that often explored the potential of electronic music within the punk sound (an avenue unexplored by their US and UK equivalents) - anticipating the popularity of electronics over the course of the following years.

Hussey speaks with some of the key players in the French scene in the streets le punk francais took place to bring this forgotten moment in Gallic culture vividly to life.

There is also a preview of the programme on The Guardian website.

Liberty, Fraternity, Anarchy: Le Punk Français airs at 11.30am, Thursday 3rd March on BBC Radio 4
It will be available to listen again for one week after this on the iPlayer.

French Radio London launches this Wednesday

This Wednesday 17th November sees the launch of French Radio London.  Tune in at midday on DAB digital radio* or online at www.frenchradiolondon.com.


* You may need to do a re-scan on your digital radio to find it.

[see previous post for more info on FRL]

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...

homework

In preparation for this weeks L'Amour Electronique, you should all be listening to La Chanson de Serge: The Serge Gainsbourg Story which was aired on BBC Radio 2 last Wednesday. It will be on the iPlayer until 20th October (so there's a few days if you missed the first broadcast).

Malcolm Mclaren is your guide, and thankfully he leaves the self-aggrandisation for the last 15 minutes, where he assimilates various personal exploits/happenings-he's-taken-claim-for into the last few years of Serge's life (though on the whole I have to say I was quite impressed with Mclaren's French accent, save for a few clangers).

There are many, more insightful, anecdotes from people who worked with Serge, or have been influenced by his vast output, including Petula Clark, Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Alan Hawkshaw, David Holmes, Mick Harvey, and Gainsbourg-biographer Sylvie Simmons.

So go and listen to it, before it's too late.