Laura Fygi

Remember Vanity 6? When this lingerie-clad trio shocked and excited the world, and thus raced up the charts, copycats sprang up. One of those was the Dutch trio Centerfold. Also lingerie-clad, with cheesy songs with lots of innuendo and out-of-breath-vocals. I used to have the hots for darkhaired beauty Rowan Moore (like real hard), but coffeecoloured Laura Fygi had some real vocal talent. Years after Centerfold broke up, she re-invented herself as a jazzsinger, and scored a contract with the legendary Verve-label. Although she could sing, her cocktailjazz was way to safe for me. Last month Rendez-vous was released, an album with French songs, most of them translated standards. One of them is Duke Ellington's Caravan, an instrumental older Dutch readers might remember as the theme from Wie van de Drie (although in the version of Wes Montgomery). It's classic lounge, and it stays that way in Laura's quality-cover.

Laura Fygi - Caravane

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Could be interesting: remixed versions of songs on Charlotte Gainsbourg's 5.55 album. Cousin Cole took a shot, and added a beat and a bassline to The Operation. It's not perfect, but it's a start.
My 5.55 Remix wishlist: Beck, Stereolab, Ada, David Holmes, Boozoo Bajou, Thievery Corporation, Madlib, James Holden.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - The Operation (Cousin Cole rmx)

Alfa Rococo, Melissa Mars

A hard rain's a-falling at the moment here in AMS, so the moment's right to talk about summer hits. Especially with a song called Les Jours de Pluie. It's sung by Alfa Rococo, a duo (Justine Laberge & David Bussières) ,from Montréal who debuted recently on the Canadian label Tacca Musique. Their album Lever L'Ancre consists of upbeat modern pop, with a prominent role for guitar and vintage organ-sounds. You can hear Beck, Manu Chao and even Madonna in their music, I like it that all songs are duets, although I think Justine's Ariane Moffatt-ish huskyness could florish solo too.

Also, Melissa Mars from Marseille has a new album coming out, and first single Love Machine (do not be fooled by the English title) has 'summer hit' written all ove it. As mentioned before, as soon as a girlie French song refers to Lio, I'm all ears, and this song (written with Pascal Obispo) captures the Amoureux Solitaire-vibe very, very well.

What about your suggestions for the Summer Hit of 2007 ?


Alfa Rococo - Les Jours de Pluie
Melissa Mars - Love Machine

Ariane, Catherine

Ariane Moffatt-fans (aren't we all?) get a free download now and then thanks to the OpenDisc-technique. This time Ariane made the pretty popsong Petit Animal available. Calypso-rhythm, loud guitars, that husky voice; it's what we at FS HQ call a winning combination.

Catherine Ferroyer-Blanchard was featured here before, just as Les Dessous Chics. The latter remixed the first, with a highly danceable electropopsong as a result. Yelle-fans, take note and enjoy.

Ariane Moffatt - Petit Animal
Catherine Ferroyer-Blanchard - Chanson d'Amour (DS remix)

Le Pop 4

An album I'm looking forward to very much is the first solorecord by Melanie Pain. You know her ofcourse as one of the singers from Nouvelle Vague, you might've seen her dj with NV-collegue Phoebe (for instance in Maastricht), you may remember the tracks I posted by Villeneuve, on which Melanie sings. A few tracks of Melanie's soloalbum (I hope Marc Collin's own label Perfect Kiss will release it) can be heard on Melanie's MySpace-site, but also on Le Pop 4, the new compilation by the Cologne-based Frenchthusiasts. They focus on the new French sounds, and this time they outdid themselves compiling songs by Jeanne Cherhal, Pierre Lapointe, Holden, Austine and Dominique A. Le Pop was instrumental in introducing me to the newest French artists, and still do: I'd never hard of Eddy (La)Gooyatsch, Ludo Pin or Thierry Stemler. And especially Eddy is a great find. Vive le Pop!

Melanie Pain - La Cigarette
Eddy (La)Gooyatsch - L'Amour et l'eau Fraiche

Constance Amiot

Born in (on?) the Ivory Coast, raised in Cameroon, Constance Amiot's musical upbringing took place in Maryland, USA. There she started playing piano at the age of 6, and guitar when she was 16. In Washington DC she attended open-mic shows, and made an album, Whisperwood. Now, on the verge of the big 3-0, she's signed to one of France's interesting record labels, Tôt ou Tard. Home of, among others, Jeanne Cherhal, Bastian Lallemant and Thomas Fersen. The freshly released Fairytale is an album containing French and English songs (Décrocher la lune is mix of both languages), most of them written by Constance. Three lyrics were written by Jerome Attal (among them Le Souffle d'un Matin). Constance is a fan of Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Tracy Chapman. She has a cool, understated voice that can be very sexy too. When she sings in French, that is.

Constance Amiot - Clash dans la Tempo
Constance Amiot - Le Souffle d'un Matin

Emmanuelle Seigner

Ultra Orange is a duo (Pierre and Gil) who were once dubbed 'the French Garbage', not because they were trash, but because their electronica+guitar-sound was reminiscent of the band Garbage (Shirley Manson, remember?). I'd say they were a lesser known Rinôçerôse - but then again, how big was this electronica+guitar-duo? Anyhoo, Ultra Orange teamed up with actress Emmanuelle Seigner for an album that was released earlier this year. I've posted songs by Seigner (and her sister) before - on the soundtrack to Backstage she didn't prove that her voice is her best feature. The same can be said about Ultra Orange + Emmanuelle. Sing Sing is a pretty nice popsong (with a video directed by J-B Mondino), though, and Rosemary's Lullaby a cinematic ode to Roman Polanski, Emmanuelle's hubby and director of the classic Rosemary's Baby. Maybe to please the international market, all songs by UO+E are in English, but Ultra Orange did some French songs on one of their earlier albums. Gil has a much nicer, much fillessourires-fitting voice than Emmanuelle, don't you think?

Ultra Orange + Emmanuelle - Sing Sing
Ultra Orange + Emmanuelle - Rosemary's Lullaby
Ultra Orange - La Femme Bison Blanc