apologies for tardiness

So sorry to have been so tardy with this business of keeping you all in the market for sweet French fancies and electronic goodness. I have been busy with life and art/music, and it looks likely to continue that way for a while.

If I were to sit down and list all of my passions in order of preference, I fear that, at present, L'Amour Electronique would come right down towards the bottom of a rather long list. It's not that I don't enjoy finding and sharing this music any more, but more that the rewards I get from doing it don't really add up to enough to make all the work worthwhile right now.

If I think of all the things I would like to get done, the creative pursuits - such as music and art - which I scarcely have any time for anyway, are really the things I should be prioritising. Rather than faffing around trying to find a link to an image of some obscure French dollybird, or the biography of some decommissioned European synth-nerd...  (Another factor that has contributed to this general feeling is that my current file-hosting service seems to delete files faster than I can post new ones to replace them.)

So, my intention is to strip any L'Amour Electronique posts I make back to basics, and probably for the most part I will just be continuing the, curiously popular, L'Amour à la Chaîne feature.

And for the rest of my time I will be working, spending time with my wife and baby daughter, and putting my energies to good creative use with projects such as this.

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.21

Greetings Chaîne fans, for link 21 you just need to take the title of the last song 'Metal Horse' and drop the equine noun, and you get...

'Metal'.

By Gary Numan.

Metal is taken from Numan's 1979 The Pleasure Principle album, his 1st 'solo' album after two under the collective Tubeway Army guise. It sees Gazza dropping the guitars completely and embracing full electronic/synthetic instrumentation throughout. And on the cover he appears to be trying to divine 'Pleasure' from a small red pyramid.

Hmmm, nice conceptual cover Gary, wonder where you got the idea from?

According to the wikipedia entry (your only trustworthy site on the interweb kids!*), 'Metal' is sung from the "perspective of an android longing to be human". Which leads me to ponder once again: Is Numan Human?**

Gary Numan - Metal
[you can buy The Pleasure Principle from all yr usual online outlets. Or you can go to a real shop and buy it for real from a real person.]


*joke
**I used to have a badge with a rather crude Numan drawing on it and the legend "Is Numan Human?" in a hi-tech digital typeface

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L'Amour à la Chaîne: what will be the next link in the chain? Join in...
Please leave your suggestions and any 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 > Ars Post Tergum Introet - Ford Mustang > Simon Bookish - Metal Horse > Gary Numan - Metal > ?

Chocolat Chaud

Blimey! The Tindersticks have gone synth!

Anyone who came across our sister night Tonight We Fly will know that we have a great fondness for Tindersticks and their stock in late-night-music-to-drink-red-wine-in-dingy-bars-whilst-dressed-in-a-shabby-suit to.

They have occasionally put out music that has crept into the L'Amour Electronique remit - the odd French language version and a number of film soundtracks for French film director Claire Denis (Nénette et Boni is a particular favourite at L'A-E HQ).

So it is pleasing to report that they have just put up a teaser for their latest soundtrack (For Denis' Les Salauds, or Bastards to you non-Francophones).

The big surprise, as alluded to before, is that it is purely electronic and sounds like a slurred and seedy Giorgio Moroder tragi-disco comedown. It gets stranger: it is a cover of a Hot Chocolate song. Only Stuart Staples and co. could get away with this...

You can download a shorter edit of the full song for free from the Tindersticks website.

And some helpful wag has already posted it on soundcloud



The film is screening in French cinemas now (hopefully a UK release soon?), and the soundtrack album is due on 16th September (LP & CD from the Tindersticks shop), and is already available on iTunes.

L'Amour à la Chaîne pt.20

Looking at my blog stats the other day, I was heartened, yet slightly baffled, to see some of the most visited posts are those from my ongoing L'Amour à la Chaîne sequence. So with that knowledge under my hat, I s'pose it's time I added another link to the ongoing chain.

Previously on L'Amour à la Chaîne it was a Portuguese cover of Serge's 'Ford Mustang'...

The Mustang was named after the free-roaming horses descended from those brought to the Americas by the Spanish, and now regarded as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West, which continue to contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people."

Each and every Ford Mustang has a metal horse emblem affixed to the radiator grill (unless it's been half-inched), so in tribute to this iconic hunk of chrome, here is METAL HORSE!

"Glittering horse, you were sold, in a shady shop on the Edgeware Road"

[image source]

I still love this hefty slab of cutandpaste 8-bit reductivist electro pop by Simon Bookish, hope you like it too!

Simon Bookish - Metal Horse
[Metal Horse was originally released in 2005 as a limited seven-inch on Tomlab Records. You can still buy it direct from Tomlab's European and US online outlets. There was no mp3 release.]

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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 > Ars Post Tergum Introet - Ford Mustang > Simon Bookish - Metal Horse > ?

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

Tour de France, Tour de France

Huge congratulations and much awe and respect for Chris Froome, following in Sir Bradley of Mod's cleats and taking 1st place in the 2013 Tour de France yesterday. This one's for you...

Meanwhile, Kraftwerk performed at the Latitude festival on Saturday night. It was a "3-D concert" - er, aren't all concerts 3-D if you are there watching? No, apparently this was even more 3-D than real life as there were huge projections which made you feel sick unless you were wearing 3-D glasses which probably made you look like a bit of a twerp.

You can watch an impressive 35 minute show of highlights from their set on the BBC website. And you may also want to try and werk out if they are actually playing anything behind each of their neon lecterns. Sadly, no Tour de France though...

You can watch Kraftwerk at Latitude for the next 4 weeks via the BBC iPlayer

Here's the setlist for the film:
* The Robots
* Numbers
* Computer World
* Home Computer
* Computer Love
* The Man Machine
* The Model

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.