If you miss good, clever Pop songs with an extra slice of Brit humor (Scottish, in this case), just like Neil Hannon used to write back in the '90s, you could do far worse than listening to this excellent album released by Hamish Hawk in 2023. I only found out about it recently, thanks to the joys of Year's End Top Ten lists, and have been listening to this album in constant rotation ever since. Infectious melodies that capture the golden essence of Pure Pop!
Founder Georges Batard and his pressing plant
French label BORN BAD RECORDS is reknowned for their stellar and wide-ranging compilations. This 3-LP dig into Le Kiosque d'Orphée may well be their crowning achievement. For those of you who don't know the story behind Le Kiosque, let me just say that they were not a label per se, but rather a private press, pay-for-your-own-record company. In the labyrinthine landscape of '70s music, Le Kiosque produced a selection of records that were notably avant-garde, deeply eccentric, and delightfully obscure. Despite their unconventional approach, their creations lay dormant until the diligent excavations of music enthusiasts in the 1990s, long after the label ceased operations in 1991. The allure of Le Kiosque's offerings lies in their enigmatic nature, providing a window into a bygone era of musical experimentation and artistic exploration.
I'm a sucker for radical shifts in music directions. Especially when it involves two people who made one of my favorite Death Metal EPs of all time: Fatal from Detroit and their seven inch classic "A Somber Evocation Of Nihilism", released way back when on the French label that rocked my youth, Thrash Records (Hi Val!)
A few years ago, I was checking the whereabouts of their ex-members as one is wont to do, and I found out that guitar player Tony Hamera and drummer William King had done a few things together in the 2000s. The one band that stood out to these ears was Ether Aura, a great vibey Shoegaze/Dream Pop outfit. I really, really love their second album, "Before We Could Sing" and its sweet radio-friendly 4AD vibe. When I dive into the sounds of commercial 90s/00s rock bands, I love subjecting them to what I call "The Bronze Test." Basically, it's my way of figuring out if they could land a gig at Buffy the Vampire Slayer's favorite hangout. Guess what? I can totally imagine these guys (and gal) rocking the stage there!
Just checked out if they were on bandcamp, turns out they've recently remixed their debut album too! Sounds even better now. Wish they'd done more!
Wow, first time I'm hearing this with the original George Harrison sample! Not so much a sample as a whole track laid over the song. Apparently this version was uploaded on a Stereolab fanpage on Facebook or something, as the band is strictly forbidden to use it anywhere, if we may trust those liner notes on the "Transient" re-release quoted by the uploader: "It's a real shame that we were unable to use the original recorded version of this track as it featured an amazing sounding reed instrument called a Shehnai taken from a track on George Harrison's Wonderwall LP. It wasn't really sampled as such but just taken directly off the LP and laid over the track. It worked so beautifully, flowing in and out of the song, but unfortunately we were denied permission to use it from Apple, and had to re-record a similar sounding part ourselves. Sean O'Hagan did a great job in trying to emulate the feel, offering something very different but sympathetic to the original instrument's effect on the rest of the track. However a little bit of chance and serendipity was lost. I didn't hear this original version again until just recently when we took everything off the master tapes. That's 25 years since I've heard it and it still sounds great and we still can't use it, not even as a bonus track." Tim Gane. Here's the George Harrison album in question, for comparison's sake. This YouTube playlist has all the album songs on it, but I don't know the name of the actual song they lifted that sample from. Time does fly when you shouldn't be busy at all, doesn't it? I'll try to upload this blog more often in the future. In the meantime, please gasp at the beauty and merriment that was PAINTBOX from Japan. Seriously, nothing should work in this particular assemblage of different music styles and yet, they make it their own. I've been on a PAINTBOX binge recently and I wish someone'd reissue those records in Europe as the Prank re-releases are already quite expensive these days. If anyone hears me in this bottomless void?
Another soundtrack that is begging for a re-release! Not my description but I feel like quoting this anonymous entry in full as it is pretty spot on:
"Here's a striking weird yet incredibly amazing work defying categorisation with psychedelic demented electro breaks / FX studio layered spooky effects / slightly funky moves / bizarre cosmic sounds / deep hypnotic creepy beats / weird analogue electronics / abstract piano, strings, organ & flute passages and quirky sinister motifs by the Italian mastermind of electronics Gianluigi Pezzera, the producer behind the "Frrrrrigidaire" Italian prog Lp. A miraculous and balanced mixing creating eerie organ soundscapes backed by spooky choral voices on ALLUCISERGICO, freaky and dark electronics synths on AGORAPHOBIA, mellow moog passages on BAILAMME, the hallucinated abstract martial beats of METAMARCIA, the gentle cosmic moves of FANTACOPULA, the FX'd echoed percussive and delirious LA GRANDE BOCCA. This electronic madness was the soundtrack for the first (and I'd say bizarre as well) movie by Antonio D'Agostino called "La cerimonia dei sensi", which had "Out off" as working title, starring the famous Italian hermaphrodite Eva Robin's, basically a story (or a story dreamed in a coma) of a prophet who comes back to the world in order to live Christ's life again facing all the differences occurred on the political and social Italian scene (!!) during the bloody dramatic 70s."
I feel so ashamed for not posting here more often that here are a few random good things I've stumbled upon recently, which ought to be of interest to some of you.
Hailing from Cleveland, Fashion Pimps And The Glamazons must have the coolest name around. They play some kind of atonal synth driven 'angular punk' kind of a cross between The Screamers and Servotron. As someone commented, this band definitely has the early 2000s thing down par.
Speaking of the 2000s, I came quite late on the Horse The Band-wagon, quite unexpectedly at Ierperfest (2015?) on the last leg of their neverending tours. They were all drunk and had someone dressed as an 80s tennis instructor playing triangle on stage. 'Nintendo-core' is the musical genre that they were coined with but I think it does not do justice to their songs which are quite good and diverse, albeit sometimes too drenched in irony for me. I thought this band was dead and, lo and behold, here's a new EP that popped up out of nowhere and which does not even appear on their official bandcamp.
My old friend Malek quoted this as Album of the year, so it probably is, right? Haven't had time to fully listen to it yet but their brand of hi-octane street punk is something I always enjoy, when done right.
Some ex-Funerot members playing traditional metal? Sign me up immediately! Love this.
I was talking When I should have been listening I didn't hear a word that anyone said It must not have been so very important 'Cuz I was concerned about instead (With) what's going on What's going on What's going on inside my head These cats were cool before but this new song off of their upcoming II: The True Sequel album is beyond dope. Best rap instumental I've heard in a looooong time! Make sure you head over to their bandcamp and buy all their stuff. Pure gold. https://pen-pals.bandcamp.com/ I have absolutely nothing to say about current world affairs except this : this is the dopest music video I've watched all year. |
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