Out to Lunch

no need for a name

I’m almost trough with this chain of concerts. The Gossip and Chromeo are still on schedule.
The last gig on Wednesday was really great as I knew it would be. Les Rita Mitsouko gave 3 concerts in a row at a small venue to promote their new album Varieté. Cathérine Ringer is still pretty and wild and custom made for a live on stage. She has a very unique body language, which is totally her own. The way she moves, dances, gesticulates and makes faces at people or to underline the content of the lyrics. She’s a true original.

Because the Orangerie in La Botanique is so small, I got the chance of seeing them from up close. It’s was really… frappant… to see, as they get older, that Cathérine Ringer and Frederic Chichin start to look more and more as characters from Jacques Tardi, auteur of graphic novels [Tardi wouldn’t like this label though, but there just isn’t a other English equivalent for the French and Dutch terms apart from comics]. I'll give proof later on.
it's pretty funny. They still look great and more important sound great.

Another welcome surprise was the preset Sebmartel. I had never heard of Sébastien Martel but apparently he’s still one of France best kept secrets.

Now that things are slowing down a bit I can spend more time relaxing, reading books and checking out what I’ve been missing all those years from not having a TV set. I bought the DVD box of The BBC series The Office, including the Xmas specials. I’m turning into a real couch potatoo for the moment because Green Wing, another fine example of British comedy is scheduled for the next rainy evenings.

88 The Temptations – Don’t Let the Joneses Get you Down

Other worries or more accurate items of interest and concern, are the upcoming holidays. I’m planning to join a bicycle trip from Bangkok to Saigon. I’m really looking forward to this. The trip runs along Cambodia and the ruins of Angkor Vath. Hopefully I’m finally going to make it this time and see the sites.

I’m also still waiting for the first African in outer space. There have been some Afro-American men and women on the various space shuttles but no native African has had a blast off from Lagos or Cape town so far.

In the meantime some more spaced out tracks.

89 Dexter Wansel - Life on Mars 1976
This has nothing to do with the David Bowie track. Dexter Wansel is a Philly keyboard player with some moderate success in the 70’s but his lasting legacy will be his contributions to the Gamble and Huff Philly Sound.

90 Rodney Trotter - Space Nigga' mid 70’s
This track pops up on a number of compilation albums these days. It’s a nice bit of proto-Newcleus electro in which Rodney Trooter [no, not the Only Fools and Horses character] talks of his band landing from the cosmos to wipe out use of that still troublesome ‘N’ word.

You might have noticed some changes on this site over the past few weeks. I’ve run an update on the looks and content. It became a bit more custom made. It’s not that difficult if you take the time and effort to get into all the features Blogspot has to offer.
About the content. I’ve added some extra pages to give some sense of direction to the various styles of music. This main page will stay the central topic but some items will get some sort of regathering on one of the following specific pages.

Black Gold Radio is, as the name already gives away, dedicated to everything Black. No written content here. Its basically just a place where I can leave a widget from Box to publicly stream all the Rare Grooves that I’ve been posting or that I’ve been planning to post because by now there’s already more in the Box map to which the widget links than what I’ve been able to write about and post.

Willie Hutch – Brothers Gonna Work It Out (The Mack 1973)

If you want to download a track, choose the option share (by right clicking the track) and there you can find a link to a shared folder from Box with the same name.

The Latin Section is dedicated to Everything Latin. I’ve had this one for quite a while now but finally got around to do something with it. Again no written content here but a roundup of various posted items on Out to Lunch and home made compilations like the one which I posted recently. Part 2 and 3 are on their way.

Joe Bataan – The Bottle

brasíl is dedicated to the brazilian way. Again this page will feature a roundup of various posted items on Out to Lunch and home made compilations like the ongoing alphabet of MPB / Musica Popular Brasileira. Ongoing because this alphabet is still being written today. Currently I’ve been posting C and D.

Bonde do Rolê – James Bonde

Time Goes By / Con Bolly is inspired by a trip to Barcelona and La Terremoto’s cult hit Time goes by Con Loli but in fact this page is dedicated to everything Bolly [Bollywood or Bombay], Kolly [Kollywood or Kodambakkam Madras] and yes… even Lolly [Lollywood or Lahore]. Not much written content over here but as always a roundup of various posted items on Out to Lunch and home made compilations.

Lover’s Paradise

Um Flash Electricó de alleman is dedicated to electronic music in various forms. No limits, German style, French style, Detroit or Scandinavian style … anything goes if I like it. It’s getting boring I know, but again not much written content over here but a roundup of various posted items on Out to Lunch and home made compilations like the one I posted before: Pop Is Not Dead but Just Smells Funny and String Delay.

Booka Shade – Vertigo (Henrik Schwarz remix)
Faze Action – Keep it Coming (Beats)
Olivier Giacomotto – Gail In The O (John Acquaviva & Damon Jee remix)

The Houston Helpdesk. I had a Myspace account for years but lost track of it until friends of mine got into it too and as result, I revamped the whole thing. I made a fansite out of it in order to keep track of all the bands and artist (dead or alive) that I like. It pretty handy if you want to stay up to date of current and upcoming concerts, clubgigs and record releases and the occasional chat. What the name is concerned, it just popped up somewhere on these pages. Some people though that it was a band name. Maybe I should give up my daytime job and become a fulltime inventor of band names.

And finally, last but not least Last Bongo in Belgium. I didn't make the name of this one up myself. It's an actual song title from the Incredible Bongo Band, yes the one from 'Apache' fame. Why they called it Last Bongo in Belgium? Beats me, how should I know. Maybe they we're thinking about Last Tango in Paris but for all I know, they could just as well have called it Last Bongo in Bulgaria or... in the Balkan or even better Last Bongo in the Congo. Maybe that's how they finally got to Belgium. Isn't that how we all eventually wind up in Belgium?
This page is dedicated to everything marked BEL and worthwhile even for people who are not from around these parts. This small spot on the globe has produced some fine and lasting contributions to mankind which have universal value, relevance and beauty. Being caught here, shouting all of this from the top, seemed the most atypical thing to do, since we are known to be rather unpatriotic about it. That’s why I tend do this.
What better native to start with than Tintin. It was only recently that we celebrated the 100th anniversary of Hergé. I like to draw a bit myself every once in while, that’s why I’m interested in cartoons, comics and graphic novels.
Most of the content on this page though, consists of music, mainly danceable stuff. I know that we‘re getting a kind of reputation in terms of music these days but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything worthwhile going on in the past.

In terms of dance music I guess it all started with Marc Moulin and his alter ego Placebo way back in the 70’s. He kept playing music over the years and stayed an seminal figure in the Belgian music scene up until now as producer, radio DJ and musician. He received worldwide recognition for his early blend of jazz and funk which predated trip hop and his band Telex which inspired early electro and techno. Other classics that will pop up are Front 242, the R&S label output,…