A few good times in my life
Last year French producer and DJ Antoine Harispuru aka Golden Bug released his last album Piscolabis II, a weird mixture of disco-dub, electronica and psychedelic. During this year he released step by step remixes of the songs from this album.
The last one is the rework by Froid and it makes the song darker and a bit more flutes and spaced out than the original without leaving the guitar work by Lionel Limiñanas and the distorted grooves too far behind.
The Limiñanas, a neo-psychedelic band from the south of France, are back with a new album, which is due to be released in a fortnight. As usual, they manage to span the musical spectrum from Velvet Underground to Serge Gainsbourg to Jesus and Mary Jane.
In addition to Jon Spencer, Bobbie Gillespie was also invited as a guest this time, whose voice fits perfectly with the sound underpinned by distorted guitars.
Their homage to the YéYé sound of the sixties is also very beautiful, as they cover a song by Francoise Hardy and transform its sound perfectly into the here and now.
Golden Bug is the stage name of Antoine Harispuru, a French music producer and DJ. I like his music, which is a unique mix of electronica, disco dub and psychedelia. During the week he released his latest album Piscolabis II.
The new tracks are wilder and the rhythms are heavier than on the previous album. The guitars of Lionel from The Limiñanas are sharp and the distorted grooves of the drum machines convey strange electronic impulses.
The best example is L'Effet Domino, on which Ennio Morricone meets echoing beats, spherical synths and the voice of Anna Jean.
A few days ago French guitar duo The Limiñanas released released their latest collaboration with French DJ and producer Golden Bug. It seems like they found the time after several works together for a complete album. This song makes me curious for the whole album. It is a an example of great guitar works joining electronic beats. Sometimes it sounds like desert music on an electronic floor. Perfect for a ride in a cabriolet on a summer day.
During the last week I read the news that French/German cultural channel released a documentary about the iron lady. I don't know exactly who needs this after 10 years she passed away. Otherwise I think it is necessary for those who didn't live in times when she ruled England as the last prime minister leading Britain into a fucking war. Margaret Thatcher was the embodiment of the nightmare of a world, the new-liberal Western world, which was just beginning to change, determined to rid itself of the cumbersome legacy of post-war Keynesianism. I was surprised when I read that Lionel Limiñana wrote the soundtrack to this documentary together with Cologne based composer David Menke once again after the OST to The Devil Inside Me from 2021. This song sounds like Sleaford Mods jamming with The Limiñanas.
Part two of this little retrospective bring us a band that now after The Fall has gone are the last survivors of 80's indie-rock. Nigel Blackwell and HMHB are too long in business to make any worse album an so is The Voltarol Years another example how indie-rock should sound today. Powerful guitars and intelligent lyrics.
I featured the other days albums that impressed me much and was played often at my place and I thought it was the time to write down the best songs of this year. Many of them you can find on the long posts and I have to admit that I am not the one that is able to finish the list because there were so many songs I heard the first time this year that made me happy once or several times. Other songs crossed my attention weeks later when I listened to them on my yearly playlist on Spotify where I collect new songs year by year. Looking at this playlist I find more than 200 songs and the more I think about it I can't decide which one would reach a top ten. So here are some songs, subjective of course and not showing the full range of music I listened too but still worth to be named when you look back on this year.
Liminanas / Laurent Garnier - Le Pelicula
The Vendetta Suite - The Kempe Stone Portal
Richard Norris - Hypnotic Response
Next week The Limiñanas, probably the best new psychedelic band from Perpignan, France will release their newest album De Pelicula a collaboration with Laurent Garnier. I featured them a few month ago and can't wait until the postman will hand out my copy. Until then I have to listen to what I can find on bandcamp.
On the last day of April Laurent Garnier, the French electronic music producer and DJ announced the release of an album in September. For this only it is not remarkable but it will be a collaboration with France's best neo-psychedelia rockers The Limiñanas. I never expected that Garnier who began his career in Manchester in the late 80's in the orbit of the Hacienda to explore later house music and working together with Frankie Knuckles in NYC. The result is neither a Limiñanas techno record nor a Laurent Garnier rock album. It is more like a road trip through American desert with Lionel's typical guitar as a soundtrack to a 60's film noir. For me it sounds like Garnier's contribution goes beyond the mere production of beats and samples - he might inspired them on their way moving westwards. Looking forward if the rest of this album will be as fascinating as this song.
It is April and a quarter of the year lies behind us. And also days that are ruled by the pandemic that last now more than one year. Since a long time I knew that only vaccine will relief our life. Not that it will be like it was before but in a way that might come close to it. The most that worried me during the last months was not the social distance we should have - it was the new about corrupt politicians making their own profit on delivering vaccine to the health organisations (that our government isn't able to make a strategic plan for a people's vaccination is a thing I sadly accepted since a longer time). The good thing is that I found more time to listen to music - especially the ones I didn't played much during the last months.
One of those is Diabolique, the 2019 release by L Èpée, a collaboration between The Liminanas and Anton Newcombe from Brian Jonestown Massacre. You can name their sound underground psychedelic pop and it is true when you listen to the beautiful and soft voices of Emmanuelle Seigner and Marie Liminina that switches from French to English and back. The sound is psychedelic and heavy influenced of late 60's American psychedelic bands with their echoing guitars and trippy phasing keyboards. What this record makes outstanding is that L Épée found their very own sound and wrote and arranged a lot of songs that will stand the test of time.
L Épée - Dreams
L Épée - Ghost Rider
L Épée - La Brigade des maléfices
s and beautifully balanced instrumental arrangements which seem to grow and evolve as the songs play out. The tones are retro, french vintage tones with a variety of well played and arranged instruments. The songs build and change, sometimes guitars drenched in reverb raw and exposed with super cool attitude take the front melody while at other times layers of arranged instruments create an textured and beautiful sound.
