And finally...Today would have been François Truffaut 's 80th birthday. There's a nice tribute on the Guardian site in salute to the great Nouvelle Vague film-maker. The one and only fitting song I could think of to post was this curio discovered via the blowupdoll mixtape exchange last year... " Antoine Doinel , Antoine Doinel , Antoine Doinel , Antoine Doinel , Antoine Doinel [...]
*FANFARE* This is the landmark 200th post on the L'Amour Electronique blog! Of course, L'Amour Electronique was in existence for a few years before the blog began, but I still couldn't let it pass without flagging it up. But how to commemorate this double-century? At first I thought I could post a song or artist with "two-hundred" in the name or title - but a quick search through my hard-drive put paid to that idea. So thinking laterally I give you a song that is 200 seconds long, or 3 minutes 33 seconds in old money. [...]
News reaches us that Charlotte Gainsbourg 's new album Stage Whisper as released in the US before Christmas. Hopefully it'll be out in the UK before too long (should have been out on Monday according to Amazon uk ). The good news is she's apparently been working with Beck again, and also Connor J. O'Brien from Villagers . The bad news is that she has also worked with privileged-folk muppets Noah & The Whale. Watch a video of Charlotte perfomring 'Out of Touch' with Connan Mockasin HERE .
Depending on which DJ you believe this week/month/weekend is " Kraftwerk week/month/weekend" on that there BBC 6Music . They keep playing a trailer, which is of course in schoolboy German (it is on as I type!), that seems to suggest it begins on Thursday. The programme schedule on the website lists a 30-minute documentary titled "Kraftwerk: The Men Who Invented Pop" (Celebrating the influential German band Kraftwerk, Alex Kapranos tells their story.) to be aired at midnight tonight/tomorrow. Though the information page hasn't been updated and gives details of a Lenny Kravtiz narrated [...]
I rather fell for Mesparrow last night, with her Mary Quant hair and her set of loop pedals. Mesparrow (Yes: Piaf/sparrow - They are both small in stature and big in voice, that is where the comparisons end.) was supporting Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains on the first night of Vive La France 2012. She begins with a basic accapella loop, and sings over the top, taking breaks to add in vocalised orchestrations and harmonies, some twee beat-boxing, sound effects, and on one occasion some gutsy heaving and puking sounds. Each song builds up [...]
Brighton's annual French music festival Vive La France begins tomorrow. L'Amour Electronique will be taking part this year DJing on Friday at The Hope alongside Turzi and Concrete Knives, and then bringing the festival to a close on Saturday night at the after-show party at Plateau [ full info about both shows here ].
A bumper week of French-ness on BBC 6Music this week: On Monday, Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains ' new LP E Volo Love was album of the day. They also played a live session on Marc Riley's show [ listen again here ].Here is F&TAM's video for their lovely new single on Domino Recording Co . FRÀNÇOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS "Les Plus Beaux" by domino On Tuesday, Radcliffe [...]
This little batch of beauties arrived a couple of weeks ago all the way from Canada! 5 original compilation LPs of the finest Québécois des années 60s : hommes, femmes and groupes. I'm still listening my way through them, but was super pleased to have this French version of Johnny Rivers' 'Secret Agent Man' on vinyl at last. Gilles Brown - Agent Secret [buy Gilles Brown from amazon.co.uk ] Devo [...]
If I was the controller at BBC, I'd just go ahead and give Jonathan Meades his own channel to programme as his whim took him. Alas, I am not the controller of the BBC or any other TV channel, but I can console myself that at least Meades has got a 3-part documentary about France that I can watch on BBC4 over the next couple of weeks. Part 1 " Fragments of an Arbitrary Encyclopaedia " was on last Wednesday (and is available on the iPlayer until 9:59PM Wed, 8 Feb 2012: [...]
Last time on la Chaîne we gave you the delectable Gillian Hills performing a swoonsome rendition of a song by The Zombies , and so the logical next step is... More Zombies... Two Zombies... [ image source ] Zombie Zombie - the French motorik-electronik duo who were possibly named after a ZX Spectrum game , and, according to [...]
Today is dame David Bowie's 65th birthday. Here is a Gainsbourg penned tribute by Isabelle Adjani (you can enjoy the English lyric translation here ) (for an actress, she's not very good at miming, is she?) And now, how about some Dave en Français ? HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, MISTER THIN WHITE DUKE!
Today is dame David Bowie's 65th birthday. Here is a Gainsbourg penned tribute by Isabelle Adjani (you can enjoy the English lyric translation here ) (for an actress, she's not very good at miming, is she?) And now, how about some Dave en Français ? HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, MISTER THIN WHITE DUKE!
Me neither. Maybe this will get us in the mood: big production Christmas-ness from Séverine * Séverine - Les Enfants Qui Attendent Noël * *I have a feeling I picked this up a couple of years ago from the seasonal Christmas a Go-Go blog *
In January our L'Amour Electronique soirée will be a special one-off as part of Vive La France 2012 . We will be providing musical entertainment at the end-of-festival party: Saturday 28th January 2012 L'Amour Electronique @ Vive La France 12am - 2am Free Entry VENUE: Plateau , 1 Bartholomews, Brighton, BN1 1HG We will also be playing interlude records between bands at one of the gigs: Friday 27th January 2012 Turzi + Concrete Knives + Halfway [...]
At the last L'Amour Electronique I gave this by ace Jocelyne track an airing: A driving beat, some ringing telecaster guitar licks, tenor sax, horns and a pocket of backing vox - it's a soulful little number alright, and not even the dubious muted trumpet solo can take the wind out of its sails. "et la la la la la" Jocelyne - La La La La La [this Jocelyne track was [...]
NME.com is previewing a track from Air's forthcoming album Le Voyage Dans Le Lune (released 6th Feb 2012). From the Air website : The album takes its inspiration from the classic 1902 silent film "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" (A Trip To The Moon)" by Georges Méliès, which has been fully restored and is currently being shown at film festivals around the world to great acclaim. For this new version of the film, AIR were asked to compose an original score, which in turn grew into a full scale album project.
Following kitty's suggestion we give you the lovely Miss Hills and her achingly beautiful rendition of The Zombies ' exquisite baroque-pop lament Leave Me Be . The link from part 6 > Our Gillian had a small, but racy, part in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: when that naughty Droog Alex picks her and her ice-lolly sucking friend up in the local record emporium , inviting them back to his pad to listen to some of his " angel trumpets and devil trombones ". [...]
The Melody Nelson 40th Anniversary box-set *DROOLS* Yep, Finders Keepers have got me salivating again. This limited edition box-set will be available from 21st November for the princely sum of seventy-five pounds and forty-seven pence, and includes: The original album on CD A CD of alternative versions of the tracks The original vinyl album A vinyl album of bonus sessions from the time of recording An exclusive 30-minute DVD [...]
Apparently he was once awarded Le Prix de l'Humour Noir (only in France would they have an award for "black humour"). Read the full interview at The Quietus .
The wonderful Finders Keepers Records has just released 2 new Jean-Claude Vannier albums. Yes two! The first, Electro Rapide , is a collection of rarities and curios from the Vannier tape vaults, taken from the period before and during his time working with a certain Monsieur Gainsbourg. It's a bizarre and brief (only 25 minutes long) mix of the epic, comic, strange, and sometimes disturbing mind of the composer-arranger. More info and soundclips [...]
L'Amour Electronique
Lana Del Rey - Without You (Kill Paris Remix) [Dubstep]
Download: James Blake Live Album (Unofficial)
Miike Snow - “Paddling Out” Jacques Lu Cont Remix (MP3 Stream)
Iron & Wine and Patty Griffin
New single from Gemini Club
