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.
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 ...
First I'd especialy like to thank Eric D. Johnson, who soon after reading for the first "Boogie post" pointed me on the freshly released compilation "Brand New Wayo" as compiled by Uchenna Ikonne from "With Comb & Razor" and released on the eponym's label.
Think for some forgotten Shina Williams hypnotic disco cut recorded at Wilfilms Studios and you got what's in my opinion the compilations's highlight moment.
I know this could sounds ridiculous as I've only came accross three songs only; but actually I have to recognize I'm a huge Tony Okoroji fan! I know for two records but they might be some more. Is this "typical" boogie stuff, I'm not so sure but as the man was involved producing many boogie artists including Dizzy K. Fafola (as mentionned in the previous post) i thought i had to include one song i do love especially (I'm insisting)
Very special thanks to Naija Kendo for providing a clean mp3.
Who Kingsley Bucknor was, I have no clue & the sleevery art don't help me much. By the way, this is the only song filled with "Moroderesque" synhtie sound from the record...
Love it or hate it, African Boogie music is largely underrated... I believe few blogs around have accorded and shown interest & with most record labels exclusively focusing on Fela's contemporeans & heritage it seems there is no place for those cheesy pieces of west african pop-funk songs.
Dizzy K. (Fofola) who is generally considered as an iconic african Boogie figure cut 6 records, all of them engineered by the mighty Tony Okoroji (music producer but also "auteur" for the afro pop gem "Mama & Papa") whome I believed had a huge influence on Dizzy's electrofunk compositions due to surprising similarities between both artists.
Today Mr. Fofola (now a Londoneer resident), is making a living as a succesfull gospel interpret...
> For some more "sweet Dizzy K. music", have a visit at "With Comb & Razor" who uploaded a couple more songs.
As taken from the B side of african synthi wizard W.O.'s LP: "Good Name". A two track killer Lp (his biggest record on demand) which despite of not being considered by specialists as real Boogie musics is full of bizarre & progressive synth driven funk songs just like his latter efforts.
> The long promised Onyeabor's anthology post should come soon.
As far as I know and considering the record list on discogs "Girl" is Emma Dorgu's lattest record. Pretty different from his earlier LPs & much less sophisticated african disco-funk style songs, by far my favourite record. There is also an instrumental dub mix for the song on the B side.
> An E.D.'s song can be found on the recently released compilation "Lagos Disco Inferno" as compiled by Frank from Voodoo Funk.
Following DJ Arc de Triomphe's introduction of Erick Cosaque here, the mysterious ways of second hands' fate lead my hands to another LP by Guadeloupean legend Erick Cosaque, here in company of the mysterious "X7 nouvelle dimension" unit: a progressive electric and percussive jazz nugget, which harmony could show some similarities with Lalo Schifrin or even François de Roubaix harmonies. Note that the first theme, Cliché, is composed by another guadeloupean composer Harold Abraham, while the other one is by Cosaque himself.
I have to say that this blog could dangerously dive into various electric jazz and mondo lounge excesses, a thrill that is worth begging the haitian Leon Dimanche to come and save us. Besides, his strangeness could also be our best support in these times of Christmas celebrations: beyond the lyrics, reminding us how we should take care of poor people in these times of excesses, this is so far the best bontempi chorus and charley mix you could ever dream of. Listen & buy the FULL MASTERPIECE HERE ! Gloria in Excelcis.
Successful both as a composer and music producer, Christian Bruhn did not only score the music for films he's often known for in his long career, but also wrote 2000 nearly songs for stars such as Johnny Mathis, Roy Black, Freddy Quinn, Peter Alexander, Katja Ebstein and french singer like Mireille Mathieu, France gall etc...
In the 70 and 80, he worked primarily on televisin series for which he created various distinctive soundtracks: remember his work on the series "Wickie"(72), "Capitain Future"(74), "Sinbad"(76), "The Red Zora and his gang"(79), "Timm Thaler"(79), "Silas life"(81), "Jack Holborn"(85) or "The door Wichert next"(86). Through these works was developped a good mix of synthetic German disco and funky contemporary music.
"Play That Beat Mr. Raja" is the very first compilation dedicated to Tamil recordings in the West. It explores the wild shores of these late 80's Kollywood music productions. With an avalanche of cinematic strings, analog synths, mind-blowing vocal punchlines and drumkit earthquakes mixed with folkloric percussive elements, it reveals the audacity of composers such as Ilayaraja, Shankar Ganesh or Hamsalekha.
Covering an impressive range of styles, it features Kamal Hassan's vocoded rap "Vikram Vikram", Shankar Ganesh's disco stomper "Coca Cola", and the irresistible bontempi instrumental "Love Theme", among many other hits. Straddling boundaries between traditional southern indian identity and digested western influences, these selected oddities remain a lesson of creativity and freedom in the world of soundtracks, with their stunning incorporation of the most typical of 80s tools in a classical context, and a constant love for daring structures and demented arrangements.
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"A well-assembled foray into the often hilarious landscape and cheap tweakery of 80's and 90's Tamil film music anomalies. Hyper-charged, and ready for the dance-floor or the headphones..." (Mark Gergis - Sublime Frequencies)
"This album contains so many supreme micro-compositions that it would be a re-editors dream, were it not for the fact that each track is so enjoyable under its own terms of accordant miscellany." (20 Jazz Funk Greats)
"Both iconoclastic and coherent, all the tracks will astound you, so you’d better get ready for it. And that’s how you recognize a great compilation, innit?" (Etienne Jaumet)
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> Available now !! > Distribution via HONEST JON'S.
Believe me when I'm telling you that joining up the Consortium team is not an easy task - I've battled up for three weeks to come out with something that could fit in the "oddball" policy of the house (the fear over at the Bureau was that I would try and subvert their exacting, psyched-out editorial policy with deep house tracks or early IDM nuggets - something which I must confess I otherwise crave for) But I'm not of the terrorist type, rather of the compliant one, and I do want to fit in (I'm a social creature). And when the people at the Bureau asked me to focus on all things Brazilian as a way to start up our cooperation, I'm telling you, nothing could make me happier.
Now, one obvious understatement in their demand was that I couldn't bore you all with super classic misknown Bossa Nova or 1930s Nordeste Frevo shit (but trust me, I will when I'm more integrated). In the meantime, I've sifted through the swampiest territories of the Brazilian music part of my discotheque in search for something valid enough that wouldn't play the "you're not expecting this from Brazil" game in a too much obvious way (but super weird gems by industrial pop unit Harry and electroacoustic composer Jorge Antunes are piling up). So here are a few exploitation tinted tracks that could make Quincy go nuts like he's just had too many shots of cachaça (and I promise I'll keep the shut up next time).
First and foremost, Iet's take a fusion ride. I'm pretty sure all you prog-rock, electric jazz heads already know the super famous band Azymüth. Even their name was (still is, actually) terrible and a lot of their tracks could end up on a very ugly German lounge hip-hop compilations (for that matter, I just found out the international version of their first album was reissued by Far Out in 2007 with the unavoidable remix bonus cd). But they had grandiose moments, on their own or collaborating with Ana Mazzotti or ex-Bossa nova sweet-heart, later reborn as a bearded purveyor of funky, moog-y pop tunes Marcos Valle; and honestly, who cares about good taste when you can hear cuica playing the ominous part over trippy Moog escalations and Arp Solina pads in a gritty electric jazz tune?
Hidden deep down inside the fabric of their all-too-listenable first eponymous album, you can also find a funky, poppy tune sung in Marcos Valle style by a guy called Marcio Lott (a regular presence in the legendary Radio MEC studios in Rio, where the supergenius Edu Lobo - scroll further down for details - crafted some of his craziest pieces). It's called "Esperando Minha Vez" and don't tell me you wouldn't go crazy for it if it came from a super obscure library music LP.
Then, a true curiosity by a true pop genius, the super famous but largely misunderstood Chico Buarque (we Frenchies have to blame a soda commercial with sepia images of mulatto kids playing football on a beach for the confusion), from his "I'm a serious composer with a big moustache and I'm more politically involved than you are" period. I could have chosen any song from his amazing, amazingly challenging Construção of 1971 but they're probably too serious for the purpose of this post (you should just go and buy the whole LP asap anyway). Apart from the sublime nocturne ballad "Barbara", few people know his Chico Canta album, or rather most people stay away from it, because of its typical 70s fusion arrangements. It's a shame. Despite the fact that most songs were co-written with Brazilian Nouvelle Vague enfant terrible Ruy Barra, it's really the arrangements by Edu Lobo which make it unmissable. The instrumental tracks are cinematique, pure blackspoitation dope:
Chico Buarque "Ana de Amsterdam" And to end on an ominous, grandiose note, I give you the opening track of Edu Lobo's most ambitious work, the christic Missa Breve. Born in 1943, Lobo had the most interesting of careers: a sophisticatingly smudgy singer, a revered composer of the second wave of Bossa-Nova (he composed classic tunes like "Candeias" or "Corrida De Jangada", famously sung by Nara Leão - we'll come back to her - and MPB postergirl Elis Regina) and author of some of the most gorgeous MPB albums of the end of the 60s, he took things to another level after studying orchestral arrangements in Los Angeles (while sleeping on a mattress at the house of his friend Sergio Mendes). Many parts of Missa Breve are instrumental, some of them verging on modern classical, Xenakis-sian moments, but I really needed to stick to the crossover, exploitation thematic of this post and have you hear his voice, too.
Before becoming the beloved friend of families and children, the ultimate studio nerd François Feldman had a youth, truly infused with soul, glittery funk and the decisive influence of figures such as Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder.
These were years before he manages to enter the charts, although this 1980 You want every night is now considered as a collector's scarce classic. Then, he embraced a typical 1984 sound (Wally Boule Noire, omg this vocoder break, but check also Obsession), allowing him to appear in the french Sidney's H.I.P. H.O.P. tv program with such unforgettable punchlines:
"I do the synthesizers, arrangements [...], There are lots of black people who strongly rule in studio, you know, the funk."
Then, he went to Vienna. Black people who strongly rule, you know, the funk, vanished. Oh, maturity.
Although he's already a king for some of you, our wise readers, I'd like to take the opportunity of this outsider related bunch of posts to introduce Stephano di Mariano on the Cartilage Consortium. Besides, as his website remains mysteriously blank since a few months now, some of the most striking tracks - according to me - are not avalaible anymore, and I'm sure a few foreigners will be happy to discover such a french hero.
First time I got introduced to him was thanks to a friends' daughter who managed to caught a mysterious tape copy of the Petit Bikini. It took me time to discover the man was also a quite famous public street character in his city of Angers, although many people here didn't know he had such a practice. I spread the tape through various ways, mixes and other friends. A few years after, a website and myspace page were open, and a part of the mystery was solved, without spoiling the songs in any way though: a face, a world. And a unique technique consisting in overdubbing his fragile voice on various instrumentals with a rough tape recorder.
But while he is mainly famous for funk-based covers, whose lyrics in french quote De Funès and quickly turn to sexy allusions, I personnaly have a crush on this magistral masterpiece, insane heartbreaking overdub exercise on classical music. And, as a last word, let's escape in dreamy fields and put again the track which started it all.
Ok, enough of this summer slow-motion: it's time to get back to stressfull and regular updates, but the most popular and beloved french weather-man might gently let a taste of été indien resonate in our hearts.
It was a surprise do discover that the fresh and upbeat funny man mysteriously managed to release it on Celluloïd records (Elli et Jacno, Mathématiques modernes ...). Everything from the synths to the bass slaps sounds designed for small cars on highways.
It all starts with an unreal flea market cheap curiosity: following Mister Aubrun's previous attempts to dig unprobable achievements of some famous french figures, here comes a titillating 1977 incursion from the emperor among all our traditionnal singers Guy Béart into the land of science-fiction and futurism. Under cover artwork by Moebius, we have to face a real collision between Beart's ultra emphatic lyricism and fender rhodes, wah-wah or synth pad backgrounds: there, he manages to pack his so often mocked chevaleresque poetry in a rocketship on the way to new moons, however still remaining faithful to his personality.
It is not a surprise to find the name of Roland Romanelli credited on that project: completing his 20 years' role alongside Barbara, he is also famous for being one of the space-synth all-time king, both with a solo carreer and a belonging to the extremely popular and futuristic band Space.
You can also note that Romanelli happened to be responsible of Nicolas Peyrac's Les sept jours de janvier OST that Mister Aubrun already highlighted in our pages, but deserves a second synthy extract here:
In their liner notes for Béart's L'Avenir, the legendary Bogdanoff Brothers insist on the fact that through his lyrics, he was one of the first to write science fiction songs. Béart was indeed an early science-fiction reader and this record is often a musical adaptation of previous visionnary texts he wrote: a statement confirmed by these two 1968 7' containing earlier acoustic versions of the same songs (artwork on the left being realised by Guy Pellaert)
I wouldn't miss the pleasure of quoting the Bogdanoff twice for the metaphysicaly appropriate conclusion this posts requires:
"Fiction of Being: the Man of Béart, this man whom shape gets more precise all along these evelen songs, is affected by an identity discomfort: "What pushes me to these competitions , while the grass is so green ?"
Both tracks are taken from the "GI's Funk" compilation (Payback record label) which, despite its super "retarded" & "full of of clichés" liner notes, contains interesting material. But unlike what is said, songs were not only recorded in Vietnam by US bands (during the war), as it contains Malaysian, Singapourian and South Vietnamese music too.
I believe that Tali Bong & Fuka Vincente never existed, but that these names are an alias for the one & only personn behind those two tracks. Also, koto instrument is a traditionnal japanese one, but vietnamese classical music files it under the specific name of: Đàn Tranh. Anyway, maybe I'm just mistaking... It is could also be taken from any japanese exploitation flick, or spy movie.(????) Mystery remains intact for me.
The most thrilling thing regarding Hong Kong's mighty Xper Xr, could be to discover along interviews how much his intensive practice of musical dumbness may actually challenge all the Deuleuze, Derrida, and Heidegger quotations he's sprinkling on a crust of Prince's Purple Rain.
Let's consider his own instructive post-situ views for the classy french magazine Revue et corrigée in 2001:
"Once upon a time, in an obscure county of this obscure world, there was a kid playing obscure guitar to become a rockstar. It happend that after four years practicing electric guitar, and a little bit of drums, something was reveald to him: what he was calling music then could actually be summarized in few words: basic melodies, sterling virtuosity and pretty face (and maybe our hero actually didn't have any of this in his possession. But nevermind)."
"Nowadays artists don't have the mind configuration to criticize the commercial system's holy trinity: Music - Lifestyle - Image, and these mechanics working nights and days to produce what we don't want, but always end up buying." (...) I wasn't conscious that my music could contain any irony, but if it is the case, it's only to justify and appropriate the critic I'm criticizing, the copies I'm copying."
"The ultimate goal of our civilisation is to turn everything into something popular. Everything that can be named must be labelised under the banner of fashion: fashion doesn't follow any principle, fashion is what is to become something else. We can then hear techno music, or indie pop that incorporated noise without being disturbed at all. Is it sonic pollution, or the ultimate form of fascim in times of peace?"
Aside from these fascinating considerations set aside the glamorous skills of a guy able to cover such thing as Maximum Overdrive, Xper Xr is also mythically known for another very specific activity: driving dragsters. Wow.
The well titled " ... .. . .... .." in entirely made of billboard hits transcriptions for a chinese traditionnal orchestra. However, it strongly looks like people were recorded separatly, unable to hear each other, and almost discovering the scores for the first time, everything being afterwards edited alltogether to get the expected result.
Indeed, record finally contains some of the all-time best versions of songs such as Right on Time, S'Express, and other fundamental classics.
Lün Hsiao Shuai, earlier piece in his discography, is a more solo, pleasantly junk and stimulatingly chaotic album also containing live elements recorded on radio Aligre.
While some connexions might occasionally be found with Negativland, V/Vm, or some of the things produced by Yoshihide Otomo / Yamantaka Eye, the result remains hugely haunted by personal obsessions, as proven by this Santana guitar karaoke unique overdub.
West coast "Techno Hop" influential collective which included notorious members in its line up (Joe Cooley, The Unknown DJ, Ice T etc). Check the band's bio at West Coast Pionneer. It looks like rapping about zodiac signs was somehow quite common in the early 80's. U.J.A's track is maybe the best exemple around, but i can remember for other early hip hop mc's having delirious rap with astrology elements (Vericheri's "Cancer Sign" for exemple).
A gear freaks' favourite, Marcello Giombini is quite unknown to italian ost diggers. An entire post will come soon dedicated to the man. Ahead of his time, Cinecitta's composer anticipates the Detroit techno sound, long before its birth (think Carl Craig's Landcruising LP).
Weird record from Belgian astrologue Paul Cardinal. Reminds me in some ways for Dominique Webb's "Hypnose" 7 inch... I believe more singles were recorded (Jupiter Collection), but wasn't able to found some more concrete infos. Anybody ?
At last comes the hit ! Exhumed last year on the "Chansons De Films", this one was supposed to be on the "Astralement Vôtre" single, but due to some complications finally never saw a propper release until Stephane Lerouge (Playtime's label owner and the man behind many fantastic compilations around french movie composers) refixed both vocals and the instrumental.
