Journeys through a Venice in my mind

PHOTO: TREKEARTH.COM

I have never been to Venice. It has always been a storybook place to me--canals winding in and out of the spaces between buildings, scholars reading on doorsteps, gondoliers singing laments to the stars. Even the language sounds like music.

I'm going to post two songs here which have nothing in common but that city.

The first is old. It's by Mendelssohn. The title means, appropriately enough, "Venetian Gondolier". I learned to play it two years ago and by the time I was done, I bitterly hated it. It meant nothing to me. Learning how to step back does a lot for one's perspective. A couple of years later, I can remember this song for all of the things that first hit me when my piano teacher struck those notes in the quiet of the afternoon, and all the things I wrangled out of it: the duet of bass and treble--the boat's rocking underneath the gondolier's amateur opera. The echoes of starlight on dark water as this lone man makes an ever-lonely journey through a city of lost love.

Felix Mendelssohn - Venetianisches Gondellied (mp3 by http://cubus-adsl.dk/)

The second is young. Well, sort of. It's actually one of the most brilliant examples of sampling I can think of off the top of my head, which admittedly is not saying much, but...when Rondo Venezziano made "La Serenissima" the strings would get your heart pounding and the mournful clarinet line would make it ache. When the Bloody Beetroots (who are, in fact, from Venice) got their bloody hands on it, they turned it into something for the dance floor, and a new Venice suddenly comes alive in masquerades, strings of colored paper lanterns, and lights that stream in from dance club windows along the water. This track is perfect for midnight gondola rides, dance floors and afternoon walks alike, and whenever I listen to it once I have to listen to it again and again.

The Bloody Beetroots - We Are From Venice (La Serenissima)

Could Venice ever compare with my fantasy Venice, my dream Venice? I feel like if Felix Mendelssohn and the Bloody Beetroots could produce those emotions from the real Venice, that fantasy has to have its truth somewhere. Maybe I'll go someday. I'd like that.

Get on up and dance!

PHOTO: THE COBRA SNAKE

So every once in a while I face one of those great existential dilemmas. Do I post this track that's fresh out of the factory, still smelling like new plastic and warm steaming hype? Well after some very deep* soul searching I decided yes, it was just that good.

Let me tell you about Quentin Dupieux. ("Yeah, I know Quentin, he's a real...he's a real jerk.") I don't usually understand this man's work. His most popular film (Steak, 2007) is entirely nonsensical to me. That's probably because I don't know French. But that's beside the point. I still watched it because it has Sébastian Akchoté in it and he is nice to look at. Wait. I'm getting off topic again. What I'm trying to say is that the musical oeuvre** of Mr. Oizo tends to hit me the wrong way. I'm quite fond of a few of his songs, but for the most part, I find them a bit too out there, too spacey and dissonant and creepy.

Then he came out with Lambs Anger and Gay Dentists, a crossover tune that blew my mind.

Really. I know the title is silly, and I laugh every time I look at it. I don't actually know any gay dentists, but if you are a gay dentist, or even if you aren't, and you love funky disco then maybe you'll also enjoy seeing this side of Oizo I never knew before. This track has all the elements -- diva vocals, tropical drums, huge bass -- and if I close my eyes I'm just about transported to a beach in what I imagine Ibiza looks like. It starts off loud and abrasive, but two minutes in melts into pure camp glee. So yeah. It's worth selling out for.

Mr. Oizo - Gay Dentists

*Very, very deep. It was so deep, you probably couldn't comprehend just how deep it was. It was fifteen whole seconds of the deepest soul searching anyone has ever done ever.
**Okay, so maybe I know a few French words.

Happy-Go-Lucky

I'm tired of telling people how much I love you, it's about time that I told you.


PHOTO: Clayton Hauck / everyoneisfamous

Some days there's electricity in the air, the weather is just right for whatever, and everything just feels full of possibility. Today is not one of those days. It's been windy since I woke up and it rained all afternoon, it's been the coldest day of fall so far, and it's still not Friday yet. Days like today are why songs like "Tired" exist. Because sometimes you just need two minutes and forty-one seconds of unadulterated happiness in a major key. Because sometimes you just want to forget about being self conscious and go ahead and feel good about something. Because you're in love, whether with a person or just a feeling -- because for a little under three minutes you want to feel like you're in love with everything.

Das Pop - Tired

Bananas is my business

J'ai encore deux trois trucs à maîtriser: comment parler aux gens dans une soirée (parait que je crie toujours pas assez fort) et poster regulièrement sur un blog (publique, puisque sur LJ ça passe tout seul).

Bonjour, c'est Carmesim, celle qui poste le moins et qui fait honte à Alexa, la moitié studieuse du duo. J'ai toujours autant de mal à écrire, surtout quand j'ai passé la nuit au Bataclan et que j'ai Machines Don't Care dans les oreilles depuis bientôt deux heures.

Allons-y.

Comme si parler français n'était pas déja une nouveauté, j'admets aussi que je ne suis même pas française, voilà. J'ai grandi à Rio, et les vinyles de mes parents avaient des femmes à poil et des animaux plus vrais que nature dans de forêts aux couleurs psychédéliques. Je les aime beaucoup plus ces jours-ci qu'à l'époque, puisque j'ai enfin percuté que ces sons funky et ensoleillés, mais dis donc, c'est pas un peu disco tout ça?!

Jorge Ben Jor - Taj Mahal/Fio Maravilha/Pais Tropical


Heureusement que je ne suis pas la seule de ma génération a faire le même constat. D'où ce remix plus gros que le Pain-de-Sucre de la part des gars de Database. C'est magnifique, nos nouveaux dj brésiliens à nous peuvent puiser dans un fonds de musique tropicale qui comprend, en plus des fabuleux Mutantes, de morceaux faits par notre ancien Ministre de la Culture, tels que celui ci.

Gilberto Gil - Realce (Database remix)

J'aime bien Database, même s'ils sont des sales paulistas, ils portent des superbes t-shirts. Tiens, je parie qu'il a eu celui là lors de la soirée d'anniv de Surface to Air l'année dernière à São Paulo; Mehdi, auteur du morceau suivant, est passé faire une petite performance. Vu la qualité du remix qu'ils lui ont fourni, je veux bien dire qu'ils l'ont merité, ce t-shirt.

Scenario Rock - Both gotta move on (Database remix)

Et puis j'ai quand même droit de me faire plaisir, en cet après midi où j'ai été trop fatiguée de la veille pour aller sautiller derrière la Techno Parade, pour la première fois de ma vie. Il y a assez de cowbells et cuivres dans ce morceau pour qu'il reste dans notre jolie ligne disco-paillettes.

Machines Don't Care - Afro Jacker

For those of you going WTF, this post was all bout coming out with my crazy french even though I'm actually brazilian, an old disco track by Jorge Ben Jor, a new old disco track by Gilberto Gil and a delicious rework of a Scenario Rock tune, both by the brilliant paulistas known as Database. Oh and some Machines Don't Care, in honour of the parisian Techno Parade I did not attend.

YEAH!

PHOTO BY KK+

So it's a quiet Saturday morning and I've just heard a familiar tune on the radio. Things are about to get a bit louder.

The Spencer Davis Group were at their peak with "I'm A Man" in 1967, proving even back then folks knew how to make music sound filthy. This song comes in with an intro that sounds like a bad omen -- deep ominous bass, organ repeating a blues chord -- and fills out with an "ooh" background chorus that mimicks the sound of howling wolves and lyrics that are downright nasty, filled with all the kind of manly posturing that every girl hates ("I ain't got no time for lovin'/ Cause my time is all used up/ Just to sit around creatin'/ All that groovy kind of stuff"). In the context of this song, though, I love it. (I want more of it...)

Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man

Chicago covered this song in 1969 under their original name, the Chicago Transit Authority. (Apparently, the real Chicago Transit Authority sued. I would think it's impossible to confuse a band and a bus, but it was the 60's and things were crazy, you know.) This version gets a little bit more disco with cleaner bass and cowbell. Though the singer's definitely got soul, it isn't quite as raw as the original but it does boast a nearly 5-minute long instrumental break that sends you into a heat haze!

Chicago Transit Authority - I'm A Man

Girl Genius

Hello world & apologies for the recent lack in posts, we've both been busy as can be and I doubt it will let up any time soon.

In any case I'd like to introduce you all to my newest musical discovery. She's called Little Boots, she's based in London, and she makes excellent catchy trip-hop/house/rock/I don't even know what to call it. (Carmesim is better with genres than I am.) The tracks up on her MySpace are great (and you can even obtain a free download of her "Magical Tropical Mixtape" for joining her mailing list), but I think her true star ability shines in her YouTube videos, described on the 'space as "FUNTIMES and bad covers", which is 75% accurate as the covers are indeed quite good.

little boots MEDDLE bedroom version - acoustic on piano, tenorion and stylophone oo la la

Boots, having recently obtained a shiny new Yamaha Tenori-On, covers her own massive "Meddle" on three different instruments, sings with a voice like most girls need Auto-Tune to imitate, all while looking extremely cute! Talk about multitasking.

little boots READY FOR THE FUN!!! hot chip tenorion cover

Continuing the Tenori-On madness, here's a cover of Hot Chip's "Ready for the Floor", responsible for me discovering: a) Little Boots, b) that they actually are singing "you're my number one guy", not "girl".

EXTRA CREDIT!

Never Gonna Give You Up

Another YouTube "girl genius", amixia allows me to stay on topic while simultaneously fulfilling my geek obligation to RickRoll you all in a post of YouTube videos.

Hot Chip's Felix Martin: The New Gay Interview: If you were as curious as I am as to why it's "number one guy". No, they're not gay, but some of the real stories shared are interesting enough anyway.

In Search of Filter House

PHOTO: ALLPOSTERS.COM

I actually remember the exact day when I fell in love with the funky, filtered sound of classic French house. I had a six hour plane flight from the west coast to the east coast and a brewing Daft Punk obsession, and my brother had a 'house' playlist on his iPod (which bizarrely included such acts as Squarepusher and Aphex Twin - newly armed as I was with the ability to tell genres of electronic music apart, I could tell when I was listening to house and when I wasn't). The sound I kept hearing, with filtered samples, heavy bass, and that constant 4/4 beat that makes house music so irresistible, made me want to get out of my cramped seat and dance.

The 'second French touch' of today is a different sound entirely -- though the disco influence remains, the big sparkly danceclub sound of before is being cut up and fed through layers of distortion by the likes of Justice and SebastiAn, and while I appreciate it for 'making the rock kids dance' as they say, I still longed for a comeback of the old sound. With a little bit of guidance from a forum post, I began my internet scavenger hunt in search of buried treasure....

¤The Phantom's Revenge is a little dirtier and darker than the classic sound, but should still keep you supplied with filtered noise and the samples will occasionally give classic French house fans a flash of recognition, playing tribute to The Phantom's French predecessors.
Recommended tracks: Absolute Ego Riot (the beginning may sound a bit weak, but stay your course and it gets down into some messy filter loveliness) and Late

¤Louis La Roche was a familiar name to me after all the Thomas Bangalter controversy, but I think it's best to put the past in the past and just enjoy the music. La Roche (alter ego for British producer Night Facilities) has gone for more of a classic sound, as the specific effort made here was to 'bring back French house'. Motown and funk samples along with clean drum sounds dominate La Roche's tracks.
Recommended tracks: I like the Phantom's Revenge remix on the myspace page and I would also suggest downloading the Peach EP and checking out Do You Remember?.

¤Moulinex comes from Germany, bearing a slightly 80s twist on the filter house phenomenon, complete with retro-futuristic synths and a profile image of an aerobics babe holding what looks like a Rubik's Cube. Regardless, Moulinex is in no short order with cheesy samples and heart-pounding beats, and some of these tracks wouldn't sound the slightest bit out of place on a Roulé record.
Recommended tracks: Lover in Me (made me shout "Yes, this is it!" out loud -- dork, me?), Break Chops (for crying out loud, it samples the Pacman theme tune!)

¤The Disco Starz are The Phantom's Revenge's labelmates on the aptly named French House Club record label. And what can I say? This is the classic sound exemplified, not the sometimes dirty noise of Thomas Bangalter but more the walking-on-air cheerful vibes of Eric Prydz. But I'd be disappointed in anything else from a group(?) calling themselves "The Disco Starz" -- I can practically see the afros and mirror balls from here.
Recommended tracks: Augh, all of them! Unlike the previous three artists who tend to deviate a bit, The Disco Starz are all filter house, all the time. If I have to pick two, it's Paris By Night and Silverstar Part One.

¤Ice Cream completes the French House Club trinity (he's actually the label manager, so I could make a terrible joke here about the holy trinity and The Phantom being "the holy spirit" -- but I won't, that would be tasteless!) and brings enough filters for you and your entire family to enjoy. Yes, perhaps all the tracks sound the same, but that's the magic of the whole thing! Never before has one artist simultaneously made me want to indulge in the chair dancing described in our first post and made me crave ice cream.
Recommended tracks: On My Mind (La Roche couldn't have done it better), R0ck3rz

¤Les Chic Commodores (side project of two DJs I've never heard of, Nockx and Royal Flash) may explode your head a little more than you're used to, because their sound is a little more cut-up and experimental and a little less formulaic than the classics. But from the moment you hit the play button and their massive bass starts shaking your speakers, you'll know Les Chic Commodores are carrying the banner for the French Touch!
Recommended tracks: The Furious Five and Moondancer are the only two on their Myspace. For once, my work is cut out for me!

So there you have it -- if your Roulé and Crydamoure records are all worn so thin you can see through them, if you've listened to WDPK 83.7 FM more than any actual radio station, if you have actually made repeat visits to ilovecallonme.com, if you need something new yet familiar in your life, (My)Space is the place, and each of these fantastic artists has linked to myriad others. French filterhouse lives!