Shortly following the release of his electronic classic masterpiece for Lio, here comes another incursion in synthpop for Jay Alanski, the french man who managed to cross decades carrying his taste for minimalism from 70's enlightened psyche pop to 80's boogie funk and far beyond.
This is a B-side, and again, it's weirder and more fresh than
anything you could expect from a commercial item actually distributed,
for free, by the french shoe brand Bata.
But Malvina Melvile ? I have no idea.
"French boogie funk", it's nearly said to be a trend: expect more of Alanski's stuff to be be back into lights...
Another podcast for french magazine Tsugi, this time focusing on the rich comet tail of a certain french production blending folk elements and electronic explorations at a time when fantasy, myths and the distant were still accurate. Most of this music was made by people with beards, in France between 72 and 84. Right before reality striked back during the so-called "years of lead"... Subjective and obviously non-exhaustive, yet careful selection.
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La Manivelle - Der Grosse Derdiedas
Portes d'Orient - Bonnes nouvelles de Simbad
Jean Cohen-Solal - Intime Panique
Areski - Le Dragon
Catharsis - Christophe
François Imbert et Françoise Moreau - Belle passagère
Urbanus - Quand les zosiaux chantent dans le bois
Sonorhc - Danse des chiens
Henry Skoff-Torgue - Le labyrinthe écarlate
Jacques Thollot - Watch devil go
Dominique Laurent - Draculabyrinthe
Pierre Raph - Requiem pour un Vampire
Bernard Parmegiani - Le nœud ardent ou septième contrainte / Bataille des dragons
Tazartes transports - Les cafards
Sylvio Gualda & Jean-Pierre Drouet - Robotic
Eric Framond - Haunted House
Albert Marcoeur - Live - Nancy 1976
La Manivelle -Dimanche à la campagne (extrait)
Riga Raga - Lo Fringaire
Dive into sin, let's plug the synth: here comes an infinite subject for astonishment, one of the most outsider items dedicated to modular synths. It is beautiful. The woman is happy. The sounds are brilliant. Ravel would have been proud.
The complete identity of credited composer Fred Miller never got revealed.
Following our first podcast dedicated to the Quebecan freakwave, here comes a second made for and hosted by The Drone, enterely based on taiwanese vinyl and tape material freshly collected in Taipei: expect mandarin disco pop, children songs, easy listening, marimba orchestras or library stock music for bars and night clubs, with a certain amount of cover songs involving western or japanese melodies.
Vintage culture in general being not so offshore in the country, I'd like to especially thank for their adresses, tips and recommendations Yujun Ye, Kishino Yuichi, as well as Sataka Ritsuko and Hideki Yachi.
Detailed tracklist to follow hopefully soon,depending on our translator friend celerity, but we can already briefly mention the presence of the Pi li bu dai shi puppet show's opening theme from the 80's, J.S.Bach adaptation for marimbas by taiwan native orchestrator Wen Loong-Hsing, plus singers Wan Sha-Lang and Yao Su Rong, whose haunted voice for a sensuous beat closes the chapter.
Quite an underrated symbol of a certain parisian elegance, Frédérick Botton remains too often missing in the celebrations, as many others whose songrwiting was discreetely camouflaged by the personality of people they were writing for. Botton had a singer carreer by himself, though. His frank voice, delicate, is often praised by people who happen to know song like "Le voyage abandonné" Viens faire dodo sur mes dollars, or Le Black Botton. In case of his craziest singles (La grosse boule, Pi 12 3, 14116), arrangements by Alain Goraguer decidedly bring the incongruity to the next level of bewilderment.
H comme hippies for Dani (see below), Pêche abricot for Zizi Jeanmaire, Les hommes sont des poupées for Alice Sapritch... Botton wrote for many. A bourgeois part of me doesn't mind to fantasize about his acquointance with Françoise Sagan, his Hausmann apartment, his brands of whiskey and nights in cabarets. In case of Amarande, we have an actress who worked a lot for theater + a few movies, and sang a bunch of singles. Apart from Le Pétrole, composed by our man, you might briefly check her other single attempts A quoi bon se presser, or L'Amour et le rugby.
During the 80's, Botton seems to write more and more scores for the parisian cabaret Le Paradis Latin. You can find a few excerpts of Champagne on Youtube, and a LP was released of Le Rayon bleu that's not really worth being uploaded. An unexpected yet successful incursion in the field of synth-wave may be noticed with that song for Nathalie Reims, whose singer carreer was partly made under the alias Alix. Sister of Bettina Rheims, in a jet-set love relationship with Leo Scheer, then Claude Berri, she also commited another single, Ca tourne à l'envers.
In the field of commercial works, that good-looking 7" was used as promo gift by hairdresser Eugène, that sadly doesn't exist anymore in rue d'Athènes à Paris.
It could have been the unusual entry I was waiting for to talk about composer/songwriter Frédéric Botton. But holidays on hold: we will preserve the light spirit of this disco summer B-side excerpt from his wife's discography and keep the Big One for september. Therefore, to follow very soon: Mr Botton, the elegant husband. Slightly strange string arrangements in this one ? The track is orchestrated by Michel Bernholc.
Bernholc, the man behind Les Bronzés' soundtrack, as well as countless hits by Françoise Hardy, Michel Berger, Claude François & many more also did a noteworthy library opus in the Patchwork serie alongside Vladimir Cosma. Plus, he looked cool.
Wether it may be due to the piano or to the wah wah sound, this item is so representative of the french freakbeat wave that it instantly evocates some of Jean-Claude Vannier's production, or De Roubaix's incursions in funk for L'homme orchestre soundtrack.
It wasn't that usual for a 7inch to also include such collage elements at the time: another reason to file this among the most remarquable ones produced by Patrick Abrial's, an outsider rock singer you might remind for Le grand ordinateur, that Mr Aubrun already posted here. Credited for the "solution" side, his acolyte Claude Morgan is known for being a member of the french hitmaker combo Bimbo Jet, whose classic 7inch may be found in almost every pile of decent french material.
Another 7" in the infinite serie of obscure french grooves from the seventies, layering its twister beat on epic melodic surf elements: as the title says, quite a tribute in itself to the Space echo effect.
Michel Cenni remains quite a mystery. Was he maybe related to the Pop concerto orchestra ? His second (and only?) solo appearance consists in a great and praised space disco maxi by Optik 5, "official music for the 10th festival of fantastic and science fiction cinema".
An perfectly magical sega 7inch produced again by a mysterious singer that nobody seems to be able to portray outside of La Réunion island: if any maloya specialist can provide some sort of informations about the mysterious Moan Thermogène, his orchestra "Mento Latene", or their thrilling taste for synths and disco laser toms, he will be more than welcome.
As far as we know, one of the strangest thing recorded at Studio Issa / Saint-Denis de la Réunion.
Tracklist:
Raoûl Duguay - Alllô
Aut'chose - Le freak de Montréal
Michel Madore - Bâli
Bernard Bonnier - Métaphores pour un nouveau monde
Claude Péloquin - Mama Vagina
Le vieux show son sale - Le tango des concaves
Pollen - Vieux corps de vie d'ange
Caramel mou - Caramel mou (stéréologue)
Aut'chose - Pousse pas ta luck ok bébé
Claude Péloquin - Il y a juste assez de monde
Intended to celebrate and draw our french's audience attention on the quebecan freak wave from the 70's, this highly subjective podcast purposefully skips many of the progressive classics (Les champignons or L'infonie) as well as the earlier garage / freak / funk ones that were already reissued to focus more on songs that appear sometimes to be more suprising interludes or UFO side-dishes. Excerpts from albums that are not necessarely fantastic all way long, they often drown poetry into lsd, blending cheesy aspects with wild electroacoustic and studio experimentation.
I couldn't resist in including the classic Mama Vagina that quite started it all since the canadian label Mucho Gusto digitally reissued it. Second track by Claude Peloquin comes from the less celebrated l'Ouverture du Paradis, while the one by Michel Madore (taken from le Komuso à cordes) is actually also a product from Jean Sauvageau's studio.
On the more classic chanson side, le Tango des concaves is taken from the cult Le vieux show son sale, written and sang by Plume Latraverse, while the two track by the band Aut'chose (leaded by the poet Lucien Francoeur playing with various session musicians) are from Prends une chance avec moé.
And last but not least, take a bit of your time to visit the reference blog Psyquebelique, from whom I borrowed the fantastic track of Bernard Bonnier.
As this post wouldn't be complete without putting a face on these voices, here comes a selection of the national treasures at their best. Specialists will notice that Raoûl Duguay's glorious appearance at la Nuit de la Poésie was part of an edit in french tv program l'Oeil du cyclone ("Poésie mon amie"): one of the many reasons why I allow myself to conclude on a warm tribute to Claude Gauvreau.
There was a high range of probability for obscure composer Dominique Laurent to be somewhere responsible for some kind of unheeded masterpiece. Following our first detailed post dedicated to this vein of french records "for the physical expression", here comes the missing item, yet the most striking and diversified: blending electronics, organ, bossa or collage elements, it is rich enough so you can even hear a drumtrick that would be popularised 10 years after by something named ... "jungle" ?
Initially created as a soundtrack for the show Abracadabracula by french
Mimes Pinok & Matho, this release from 1983 strangely echoes the recent wave of
interest for some of the Jean Rollin's most psychedelic soundtracks: playing with old-time fantasy clichés, it remains sometimes in a very close way genuinely mentally disturbed.
Partly mellowed with time passing by, Dominique Laurent is still active as a composer and interpreter for various theater, ballet and commercial works. Apart
from the Plume d'Elan 80's TV anthem previously mentionned (also check on your way Les Viratatoums), a few extra infos that appeared online recently lead us to discover how he actually also
composed children song for the holy Garcimore.
Bocquet isn't exactly what you would call hidden treasure now that he already resurfaced on several blogs, mainly with his double Robot bleu / Robot rose. But I already noticed how much some of our followers occasionally don't mind a subsequent post overviewing or summarizing one of their heroes' course. And the comeback of the mighty Henriette Coulouvrat on stage, thanks to the blatant monastical efforts of Musikmekanikcircus, gives me a good opportunity to talk a bit about the one she describes as her favorite composer.
Starting as a decisive member of the french prog band Catharsis, Bocquet's career firstly follows the band's impressive discography. Keyboardist, he brings a highly specific Farfisa touch that made the band's sound distinctive, as you can notice on that b-side packed under a delicate artwork. Following the Catharsis' cessation of activity, he released the Paradia solo LP, followed by Robot rose (including songs from Paradia) and the brand new Robot bleu on the library label RCA media. His perreyesque Marche des canards as well as songs Le flipper amoureux and Le repondeur automatique rightly titillated the label enough to give him a 7" exposure outside of the library field.
Across the 80's, he cumulated commercial works, layering his arpegiators on a massive amount of highly dispensable french tv anthems (X-or, Mask, les Petites canailles) or soundtracks (La Balance). Even a single for Marie Dauphin (Y'en a qui).
Now get ready and spread the word: the syldavesque madame Henriette, for whom Bocquet composed killer hits, is back. And her last month's live appearance in Paris announces more events to come. We all know how much this kind of comeback on stage is risky and rarely works for people with such a fabled profile: this is why we got struck to almost surprisingly shiver and dance on a performance that brilliantly honoured all together the sound (no shitty remixes but pure vintage backing tracks), the voice and the crazyness. We clapped, she laughed. Ha ha ha hi hi.
Amongst the shelves of the praised Nakano bookstore Taco che, there was no way to miss such a striking artwork, blending the best of karaoke computer graphics with a unique Friday 13th aesthetics applied to kayokyoku. But it took time to put a name on the enthusiasming music, and to decode the various infos provided by the garrulous yet obscure liner notes: something that was made possible thanks to the help of Tadao Takeuchi, from the band Tartine, who actually attended a Kawanishi Kyô concert during an Oz disc festival in 1993, and taught me most of what I know now about the man.
As written on the cover, here comes "the first work sang in the language of the universe": a statement that perfectly explains the highly specific use of onomatopoeia in the two excerpts provided here. In the booklet of his self-produced item, this japanese citizen, whose lyrics are for some reasons often historically obsessed by the situation of Korean people, is credited with more than 1000 songs written between 1988 and 2007. Something partly confirmed both by the "Volume 1" label, and by a few promo videos lost somewhere deep down youtube.
It would be hard to render the unique syntax by translating song titles such as "spaceship of the maruberu break". With an opening song directly refering to the Andromeda galaxy, it is almost impossible not to think he might have a astral match with another highly specific character, the lovely andromeda hime Aoki Ai. Direcly connected to the universe, he's also a bashful perfectionnist, who couldn't help apologising in his booklet for the recording quality. God knows how many other jewels are still somewhere on the shelves ...
Comparing to the big names who got recently rediscovered by westerners interested in japanese new wave titillating archives (think Uchôten, P-model, Plastics, or Hikashu), Jinseiremains so far outrageously confidential outside of its own country.
Also spelled Zin-say or 人生, this former project involving future members of techno unit Denki Groove started circa 1985 while its protagonists were still young male students. Thanks to its wild homemade first recordings, it quickly caught the attention of Uchôten leader Kera and his label Nagomu. A catalytic connexion, propeling the band who managed to build a substential aura with its blend of sonic insanity, cracked up electronics, gross stage costumes and occasionally poetical lyrics like "there is something rotten in the asshole".
Each one of these fellow bands from the 80's experienced a different destiny: some like Uchôten ended up signing on major labels, others like, Picky Picnic, managed to release some of their records in Europe ... Despite a reissue as part of the Nagomu collection, a decent thread on Mutant Sounds, and the efforts of a few hardcore fans like femaletrouble, Zin-say's mutation into Denki Groove might partly explain why its cult got less maintained outside of Japan than others. Like Karate Bakabon, its irrecoverable amount of oddness maybe did hold off the most conservative listeners. Scared pussies ...
This is the kind of item that can't even be considered rare. Easy to find, it simply remains under the collector's radar because of its vague junk aura. But it's way more than another collection of these bawdy songs french people excell into: well-composed and written, this anonymous bunch of sexually explicit songs save themselves from the expected vulgarity with an original piano / organ drum machine combo layered on classy lyrics. Classy, well, as much as can be.
No label, few credits, ... At most three aliases, "Mac Fornick" being the most notable. A surprising graphomania seems to be the only clue we have regarding the man, acccording to the unusual amount of "signed copies" avalaible online. Even less infos regarding the mysterious"G.Crisland", and we will also never know if this J.dupont credited has anything to do with the one who commited La danse des pompiers ... Men fade away, talent remains.
While this opus by polish director Andrzej Zulawski is still in the memories (wether to acclaim Kaprisky's naked dances and borderline actor's performances or to bitch on the overall general hysteria), its soundtrack didn't draw the appropriate attention, if you consider the killer qualities of some of its synthetic elements.
As a fundamental disco producer, Wisniak is especially known as Cerrone's sidekick (a collaboration that would later become seriously conflictual due to alleged Cerrone's wish to exclude him from credits). But he's also representative of those ghost producers responsible for countless interesting productions, in his case from Chi-Chi Favelas and the black & white band to Régine's incursions in the genre. His works for soundtracks include l'Année des méduses, the second major success Kaprisky got recognized for. Possibly could we also mention his work on the score of "Joy" (sounding sometimes so much like Quincy Jones is both embarassing and impressive at the same time).
Rest in piece, Rosy Varte, who just passed away while this post was about to be written. None of us will ever be able to get out of his head this Wisniak opening theme for your TV show that grandma used to love so much.
Nothing is better than a little jingle to break an embarassing silence and get off on the right foot.
Would you mention the recent lack of activity obeserved here that we would incriminate various elements: not only that the next Cartilage records release is on its way, but also that we've been asked for a few huge time-eaters written contributions by some french magazines, among various other things. Meanwhile, a few of our guest contributors moved to more specialised realms, but our root team is back on the tracks, with enough fuel in the tank to gently warm up those january days of domestic hibernation.
Although Albatros' discography is full of mellow disco-funk nuggets such as Ha-Ri-Ha or Gran Premio, here comes an especially surprising morodeiconnesque acid disco classic from that italian band involving the million seller Toto Cutugno. Probably one of their most unusual and titilating compositions, alongside the slightly more classic bassline of Santamaria de Portugal...
Singer of L'Italiano, Cutugno is also the kind of man who allowed so many french artists to make a hit by covering one of his melodies that you would barely believe it: from l'Eté indien to Laissez-moi danser, he also composed with Albatros the best thing Ringo probably ever sang, Les oiseaux de Thaïlande (aka Vuelo AZ 504) and its grandiosa synthetic orchestral arrangement.
Mystery remains: as all of these tunes seem to be avalaible only as second hand 7 inches, someone will have to explain to me why the hell is the only "Il meglio" cd fairly avalaible made of awfully sounding cover versions ...
Another french synthpop one shot from the band Journal Intime, which drum machine and mono bassline reminds us of other typical tunes such as Bisou's one. One of the band members, Dominique Rousseau, can be tracked down as a producer of either Michel Legrand's Disco Magic Concorde or the furry hit single Kiki Spatial. Moreover, he was also the one in charge of the 1979 disco-funk soundtrack of Les Givrés, one of these comedies that cement our national pride, challenger of the other classic reference in the field of winter sports' gag released exactly the same year: Les Bronzés font du ski.
Pure product from the 80s in France, the ambitiousness that you can feel in the few words spread across press reviews by these five french boys from Lyon attests that they had moving dreams, huge ones. Just born and already overtaken by some tragic circumstances (death of one of its members), Banann Panthair had enough time to prove to Paris that they were worth it (live at Gibus), but despite all their efforts didn't manage to give a little brother to their only 7" and its typically misty hit: a sour item that now belongs to the archives of french coldwave.
Another example of mink-lined 7inch: frustrated by the chamber orchestra main theme ? Turn it to get a surprisingly synthetic B-side that will cuddle your ears. From polish director Walerian Borowczyk, these Immoral Women belong to the list of now classic erotic french oddities.
A few names from the casting might sound more or less familiar to you: on the woman's side Gaëlle Legrand and Pascale Christophe, on the men's one Jean-Claude "What a flash" Dreyfus or the institutionnal Henri Piegay (a name we met a few days ago here regarding another 7")
Real life being sometimes more crazily creative and unexpectable than fiction, you'll find as co-composer the now right-wing deputee, air pilot, photograph and musician Olivier Dassault: a surrealistic profile that makes him the most unexpectable member of a Dassault lineage I will let to your appreciation ... You might also note that he's actually responsible for a countless amount of sonic signatures he composed across the years for clients such as Le Futuroscope, Institut du Monde Arabe, Tati or Vulcania, among many others ...
Besides, the movie also involves some people related to Jean Rollin, like actress Marina Pierro (La Morte Vivante) and soundtrack composer Philippe D'Aram, in charge of the score for Les deux orphelines vampires, Fascination, La Morte Vivante and Perdues dans New York, all recently reissued by Crippled Dick Hot Wax and Lucertola media.
Back to our movie director, Borowczyk in his early years also acquired recognition with his experimental animation movies: here an interesting example alongside Chris Marker, which soundtrack by polish contemporary composer Andrzej Markowski challenges many experiments of the french GRM at the time.
