Justice vs. France Gall

Men of the moment are Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, better known as Justice. Heirs to the glitzy throne Daft Punk left vacant a couple of years ago. Their album † (dagger) is a big hit among dancers and bloggers, single D.A.N.C.E. (an ode to Michael Jackson, apparently) should become the soundtrack of this summer. Gaspard and Xavier recently made a 2 hour Essential Mix for BBC Radio. And yes, that mix features a famous fille: France Gall. They put her infectious eighties-pophit Musique in the melange, see tracklist here, download a radiorip of that mix here (megaupload).
Back in the 80s Michel Berger wrote another disco-y song for France with 'musique' in the title: Tout Pour La Musique. See the video for that one here.
The Justice-guys also worked with a beautiful girl on their own album, Anna-Catherine Hartley, better known as foul-mouthed Uffie.

France Gall - Musique
France Gall - Tout Pour La Musique
Justice & Uffie - The Party

Serge sampled

Serge has been covered a lot (see this incredibly long, but not complete list), and his songs have been sampled as well. Especially the Melody Nelson album proved and proves to be a fine source for big name-artists like Massive Attack, David Holmes and Beck. Recently I read that even De La Soul sampled Serge. For their brilliant De La Soul Is Dead album, two short songs nick from Serge-chansons, En Melody and Les Oubliettes.
I also bumped into this interesting site, filing the sample-art by a fella called Chenard Walcker (something tells me this is not his real name). Chenard used Serge's music for two projects, one ep (under the Nelson moniker, see picture) with songs constructed totally from his music, and a mash-up featuring the voice of jazz singer Oscar Brown jr. See here and here.

En Melody-sample:
De La Soul - Not Over Til The Fat Lady Plays The Demo
Nelson - Le Poinconneur
Serge Gainsbourg - En Melody

Cargo Culte-sample:
Mirwais - VI (The Last Words She Said Before Leaving)
David Holmes - Don't Die Just Yet
Massive Attack - Karmcoma (Portishead remix)
Beck - Paper Tiger
Serge Gainsbourg - Cargo Culte

Jim Murple Memorial

If it rains, it pours here in AMS. So the sunny sounds of Jim Murple Memorial are greatly appreciated! This all-white band from Montreuil make rhythm 'n blues and bluebeat like they did in the late fifties/early sixties on Jamaice. Their female singer is called Nanou. They sound very convincing, like they're the bastard children of The Skatalites. Real R&B was, as you might know, the basis for reggae, rocksteady and ska - back in the fifties and sixties the first soundsystems played this music, and radio's picked up the stronger southern Louisiana radiostations. So far, JMM made six albums, Put Things Right was released in May. They do covers (mostly sixties soul) and play their own song, some in French. Music like JMM's can't be heard on Jamaica nowadays (at least, that's what people tell me), the best rootsreggaebands are European, and mostly Caucasian. Funny, eh. But hey, I'm not complaining, I just turn up the volume. Oh, and just who is this Jim Murple that's being memorialized via this band, you ask? Story goes he was a musician from New Orleans who moved to Paris, met some local musicians who he taught everything he knows. And for that he will forever be remembered.

Jim Murple Memorial - Du bout dès levres
Jim Murple Memorial - Pour Être Heureux

Jil Caplan

Guess who's back? Jil Caplan, that's who. An icon from the eighties, as you can read in an earlier post about the darkhaired beauty. After three years of silence and finally reteaming with her former musical buddy Jay Alanski (he who brought us Lio, and for that alone he deserves eternal gratitude and praise), this month new album Derrière La Porte was released. A great album, featuring gentle electronics, bossanova-influences (like in first single Des Toutes Petites Choses ) and sad-but-sultry-lyrics. In my opinion, she looks better than when she became famous, more feminin.

Jil Caplan - Des Toutes Petites Choses
Jil Caplan - A La Fenêtre

Axelle Red

I got a request from a German reader who saw the movie Le Cousin (directed by Alain Corneau), that features the beautiful song A Quoi Ca Sert by Axelle Red. He was so enchanted by this chanson, that he wanted to hear it over and over again. If I could help. But ofcourse.

Axelle Red - A Quoi Ca Sert

Vive La Fête

Jour de Chance is the new album by Belgian electrorock-duo Vive La Fête, who were featured here before because of their Lio- and Gainsbourg-covers. This time they chose to cover Michel Polnareff's Love Me Please Love Me (from 1966). Don't be fooled by the title, it is a French song. Jour de Chance is more rock than electro, but the lyrics sung by the gorgeous blonde Els Pynoo are as stupid as ever. Heck, one song is even called Stupid Femme. But in VLF-land, stupid means fun.

Vive La Fête - Je Suis Fâchée Avec Toi
Vive La Fête - Love Me Please Love Me (version 1)
Vive La Fête - Love Me Please Love Me (bonus version)
Michel Polnareff - Love Me Please Love Me

Oshen

Don't confuse Oshen with O-shen, for they differ enormously. The Oshen I like to introduce worked with Vincent Segal who, as you might know, also worked with FS-fave Jeanne Cherhal. Oshen's music is in the same vein as Cherhal's: folksy, jazzy, laidback, sunny, with some electronic dots and loops. Singer Océane Michel (what a great name) has a more mature voice than Jeanne, but both like to add some humour in their song. Oceane was born in Paris, but made a name for herself in Marseille. She's friends with Anaïs, who gueststars on Oshen's second album Je ne suis pas celle (2007). Debut Don Juan was released in 2005 and features the minor hit Chanson Fantôme. Oceane loves Cocorosie, Stina Nordenstamm and Cat Power, voted for Segolène, reads books by Brautigan and Roth and considers herself to be a young lion. Hear her roar.

Oshen - Chanson Fantôme
Oshen & Anaïs - Baratineur

Clip: Oshen & Anaïs - Faith (George Michael-cover)