Ze French Touch

Some early French disco this time. Many people associate France and dance music with the French Touch of Motorbass, Etienne De Crécy, Air, Daft Punk, … but there has always been great dance music comin’ out of France. As a form of proof some early stuff from the heyday of Disco, somewhere around 1978 and early 80’s.

The opener Got To Have Loving is a major classic, a tour de force of imaginative synth textures, rhythmic variation and hypnotic girl vocals framing Don Ray's powerful voice and bitter lyrics. It’s From the only album from Don Ray (Aka Raymond Donnez and with a significant input by the famous Cerrone). His earliest known work is with Serge Gainsbourg in 1968 and Françoise Hardy in 1971 prior to the disco revolution. His jump into the disco world came with his keyboard work on friend and fellow Frenchman Cerrone's landmark Love In C Minor and Supernature albums.

Got To Have Loving – Don Ray

Next some classics from Cerrone. There’s more than enough info about this guy circulating on the world wide web so I just stick to the music.

Supernature – Cerrone
Give Me Love [original radio edit] – Cerrone
Striptease – Cerrone

* Some of the female backing vocals and lyrics on these tracks by Don Ray and Cerrone are by Lene Lovich.

Timing, Forget the Timing and Follow Me are part of a Rephlex label re-release of a classic disco record by French producers Bernard Fevre and Jackie Giordano from 1978. This EP is one of the most sought-after collector items of all time and a true disco masterpiece, a dark but rewarding piece of electro-disco that inspired both Metro Area and Luke Vibert. Even though this music is from the late 70's it still sounds fresh and new. Some people thought that the re-release was actually a joke and instead a current release of Luke Vibert. Black Devil Disco Club is for real and an all time favourite!

Timing, Forget the Timing – Black Devil Disco Club
Follow Me – Black Devil Disco Club

About the last one I hardly know anything. It’s French and from an album called L`Integrale by Five Letters and it’s from the early 80’s.

Magnifico Mambo – Five Letters

Hurray for Bollywood

It seems that after twelve years of waiting and being totally devoted to old Bollywood soundtracks the ultimate best-of-collection is released. The label Bombay-connection has released 2 volumes of Bollywood Rare Grooves & Beats and it seems that more splendid stuff is on the way. Sure, their have been great samplers of this type of music before but what sets this collection apart, apart from the fine taste of choice and extensive liner notes, is the enhanced sound quality. I’ve been listening for years now to bad audio cassettes which I bought in India and some rare CD’s back home but without exception the sound quality is pretty awful. Now, I don’t mind it a lot, because it ads to the charm of the music, but since I’ve heard some of these tracks in a far better quality I know that they’re meant and better this way.

This great collection finally sets my mind to peace because 12 years ago, on arriving back from a first trip to India, I planned to pay a visit to Munich Records in Groningen to urge them to release this stuff. Back then they were the only ones I knew who would be crazy enough to do so. I never made the trip – for many reasons – but now I no longer have to.

Caesartjalbo is sharing this music for the moment and I’ve found some movin’ images from the singer Mohammed Rafi in order to make some publicity for the music but also for a hopefully fine concert that’s taking place in the near future. On the 9th of December the great playbacksinger Asha Bhosle is payin’ a visit to Brussels for the very fist time and probably also for the last time – knowing her age and everything. So enjoy!

Herbert

The last one for today. A BBC documentary about Matthew Herbert. What can I say, I’m a fan. I got almost all his records. For me, it started with the remixes he made for others. He also produced former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy’s solo debut Ruby Blue. He has a very personal approach towards electronic music. If I remember well, he also had a kind of dogma pamphlet about the proper use of samples but I’m quit sure he’ll be the first one to sin against his own rules. I’ll leave the rest of talking to Herbert himself. Just watch how he builds up nice tune in a couple of minutes with some politically correct groceries.

Esme’s Waltz

BBC Collective interview [never mind the error announcement, just proceed…]

PS

Somethin’ wonderful just popped up in my mailbox. Since I’m a registered Bleep member –check out their site – I get updates about new releases and general news. The last version had a link to a free download of the band Grizzly Bear. They were scheduled for touring Europe this winter but because of misfortune that tour is cancelled. As a way of saying sorry, they give away a free song of their last album Yellow House.

On a Neck, on a Spit

Grizzly Bear - The knife

Harper's Bizarre

Just some random stuff this time. I wondered whether the weather is still better, for this time of year because of the soundtrack I’m playin’. I’ve been listening all week now to the new CD Ys [pronounced Lies] of Joanna Newsom, and it’s still growin’ on me. I think it’s pretty timeless stuff. Critics call this New Weird Freakfolk; it’s not something you’d play an awful lot but I know I’ll still be to listening to it 10 years from now.
I liked her music before but I like it even more so now. Her voice matured and gained more flexibility over the years but the bonus of this album is the collaboration with other great musicians like Van Dyke Parks, Jim O'Rourke and Steve Albini.
Van Dyke delivered some great symphonic arrangements which ad a kind of old school musical fairytale appeal to it. O’Rourke and Albini both trembled the knobs and delivered the right at your face production. The arrangements really soften things, because the lyrics are heavy stuff - medieval imagery ad old English vocabulary are not exactly my expertise [but with a little help from an online dictionary I can pretty well master it].
The melodies are still typically home-made and one of a kind. The songs are really long for a pop song – an average 10 minutes – but are like little symphonies with a great flow and still hummable as I discovered to my own surprise.

Cosmia – Joanne Newsom [Ys 2006]

when you ate I saw your eyelashes
saw them shake like wind on rushes
in the corn field when she called me
moths surround me - thought they'd drown me

and I miss your precious heart

dried rose petal, redbrown circles
framed your eyes and stained your knuckles

and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in

and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in

why've you gone away?
gone away again?
I'll sleep through the rest of my days
if you've gone away again

sleep through the rest of my days

why've you gone away, away
seven suns, seven suns
away, away, away, away

can you hear me? will you listen?
don't come near me, don't go missing
in the lissome light of evening:
help me, Cosmia; I'm grieving

and all those lonely nights down by the river
brought me bread and water (water, in)
but though I tried so hard my little darling
I couldn't keep the night from coming in

and all those lonely nights down by the river
I was brought my bread and water by the kith and the kin
now in the quiet hour when I am sleepin'
I cannot keep the night from comin' in

beneath the porch light we've all been circling
beat our dust hearts, singe our flour wings
but in the corner, something is happening!
wild Cosmia, what have you seen?

water were your limbs, and the fire was her hair
and then the moonlight caught your eye, and you rose through the air
well, if you've seen true light, then this is my prayer:
will you call me when you get there?

and I miss your precious heart;
and miss, and miss, and miss,
& miss, & miss, & miss, & miss, & miss your heart
but release your precious heart
to its feast, for precious hearts

Video – Sprout and the Bean – Joanne Newsom [The Milk-Eyed Mender 2004]

What’s more?! As an antidote for all this delicate softness. The Albini link brings me to Fugazi. This band really saved Indie music for me in those dreadful grunge years when everybody listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I never saw the fun of it. While surfing on the net this afternoon and posting this message, I found some live material from Fugazi on some other weblogs, namely http://detectiefvanzwam.blogspot.com/ and Zen and the Art of Face Punching. As ever on Youtube, this punch in yer face is great stuff. I wish I was there, because I only saw the live once. Enjoy.

Fugazi - Shut the door

Some other image footage from another band, Broken Social Scene. I got acquainted with this band when I heard this song on the radio. At first I thought, what a really nice new song from Dinosaur Jr. but then I remembered that they split-up. I learned that they’re a Canadian collective of musicians and that this song, Cause=Time is from a second album called You Forgot It In People. It was out of print but about a year or two ago it was re-released. I bought it and it’s really great. An all time classic. The other older albums are rather obscure and noisy. This makes me think that I should check whether they’ve got a new one out.

King Kong

On the 4th of December it will be 13 years since Frank Zappa past away after a long period of fighting cancer. I still remember what day it was when someone at school brought me the news. I was doing a final exam at the moment just before the winter break at college. It didn’t got trough to me right away. I knew he was ill but dead was the last of my thoughts.

Anyway, here's some advanced romance since it still being November and all…

King Kong Itself (As Played By The Mothers In A Studio)
King Kong II (Its Magnificence As Interpreted By Dom Dewild)
King Kong III (As Motorhead Explains It)
King Kong IV (Gardner Varieties)
King Kong V
King Kong VI (Live at Miami Pop Festival)

for the rest… Anything, Anytime For Absolutely No Reason At All

Mike Nesmith and Frank Zappa on ‘The Monkees’ show

This is probably my favourite version of the band doing Florentine Pogen

The same, doing Approximate (1974) – I only wish music classes were like that in my days

Rollo

The Ensemble Modern playin’ A Pound for a Brown at the Frankfurt Opera

And of course… King Kong again

The return of Pop that smells funny

............................[Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses]

A while ago I posted a bunch of vocal popsongs in an electronic era. There's plenty more where those came from. So, here are some oldies and some brand new ones.

In A Manner Of Speaking – Tuxedomoon
Dreiklangs Dimensionen – Rheingold
Some Guys Have All The Luck – Robert Palmer

Git – Skeletons and the Girl-Faced Boys
In The Morning – Junior Boys
Girl And The Sea – The Presets