The fabulous destiny of Amelie

Today is going to be a bit different, not only because I'm posting a completely different style of music, but also because the guy I'm going to talk about is already relatively famous anyway. I actually remembered I had this watching the English version of the apprentice yesterday, as it was on when Syed got fired (about bleeding time too). But the fact is, if anyone is sitting at work right now and feels like putting on some music but without disturbing their co-workers, this is the kind of music you need. Yann Tiersen makes music everyone, and I mean absolutely everyone, can enjoy. He too was at the Sziget festival. Unfortunately, the organisers in their infinite wisdom put him on the theatre stage which is next to a hill. Meaning only about 500 people were expected to come. Oh, how we laughed as thousands packed in to watch him (if you look carefully at the picture you can see people trying to watch him from the side). I myself only saw him by walking around the stage and looking through a gap in the side for while. There are now two things that make him famous: writing Original Soundtracks to films (first "le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulin", or "Amelie" for non-French speakers, and Goodbye Lenin) and now working with Shannon Wright. Haven't gotten round to listening to it yet, but I'm sure radioblog or pandora have it available in streaming, or you could of course just buy it.

Either way what I am going to be concentrating on today are two albums: "l'absente", which was one of his first pushes away from rock, and the soundtrack to Amelie. Like I said before, this is music everyone can have on. Some love it, others tolerate it, but noone I have met outright hates it. There are some beautiful piano pieces, achordeon and orchestral pieces in there. This is not only due to the fact that he knows how to play the aforementioned instruments and how to conduct an orchestra, but because of the actual music he writes. As we know, the best musician in the world will sound awful if his writing is pathetic. Not so at all with Tiersen, who seems to go back to Roma, Gypsy and old French music for inspiration. He rarely sings himself, but prefers to let others do it for him. For this track, "La Parade", I believe it is Lisa Germano singing. Good combination then - nice husky voice with him playing the piano in the background, and his band in the background, doing wierd stuff. Hooray! She worked with him on another track on the album, but I don't have he bandwidth to host it here.

Yann Tiersen & Lisa Germano - La Parade

The next track is the most famous of all - the soundtrack to the film, "la valse d'Amelie". One of the most relaxing tunes I know I think - other than the "Orchestral Version", which I'll give you too. It is, for lack of a better word, absolute genius, and if you haven't heard this, download it now! It'll get you out of a bad mood, it's a very uplifting song. My alarm is set as playing the orchestral version of this, I wake up to this. And I'm still not sick of the triangle I hear at the beginning of every morning (unlike The (International) Noise Conspiracy, my alarm's tune for a while, I don't shudder at the sound of it). It's simply beautiful. There's not much to rival it, being perfectly honest.

Yann Tiersen - La Valse d'Amelie
Yann Tiersen - La Valse d'Amelie (orchestral version)

"Comptine d'un autre ete: l'apres midi". Oh, I could listen to this all day, its almost a shame it's so short. The reasoning behind it, I presume, is that you can have too much of a good thing. As usual for the Amelie soundtrack, no singing, but it doesn't need any. It's one of my favourite tunes of all time, and was the track in the episode of "The Apprentice" yesterday. That program is the only TV I watch now, and since it's only on once a week I don't get too distracted from more important things. Anyway, I thought I'd finish on a good note, and this does the job damned well.

Yann Tiersen - Comptine D'un Autre Ete: L'Apres-midi

I seriously encourage you all the buy at least the soundtrack to the film, absolutely magnificent. A work of complete genius, and will hopefully be remembered for a long time. I'd love to hear this in 10 years somewhere, and so will you, I'd have thought.

That's all for today, tune in sometime in the near future for more!

Nuzeeland!

Well, I mean, New Zealand's music is usually heartily ignored, apart from our old friends of Crowded House a long time ago, so it can still fit into the Blog's description. To be honest, I have no clue at all of what New Zealand's music scene looks like now. But I do have a double-disc of New Zealand's classic tunes on. And so, I shall now introduce you to wonders such as the magnificent Blerta. Now, they were active in the 1970s, so my claim that it is Hugh Grant talking s actually ridiculous, and I apoligise to those who believed me. I only thought this because I was told this by the person who gave me the CD, and only Wikipedia were kind enough to correct me. Anyway, I like it. If you're wondering, Blerta stands for Bruno Lawrence Electric Revelation and Traveling Apparition - Bruno Lawrence being the most prominent member of the group. I'm still not actually sure why I like this song. It's certainly not my usual style, so I can only suppose that it's got something to do with the optimistic, hippy-like lyrics. Oh yeah.

Blerta - Dance All Around The World

Darcy Clay. I don't think you'll know him. This was his only real hit, and that was in New Zealand and no further. One interesting fact: he killed himself in 2002 before an anti-suicide gig. "Jesus I Was Evil" was recorded on a 4-track recorder in his bedroom, or at least all the instruments were, and I think it's easy to tell, but it's great. Not necessarily a classic, but give it a chance and after a while you'll like it. I started playing this repeatedly when I first heard it, and I think the Wikipedia description of "country-fried punk rock" seems just about right. I haven't any other of his stuff, but this seems like a good start. Oh, and by the way, he opened for Blur when they went to New Zealand.

Darcy Clay - Jesus I Was Evil

Fur Patrol, orginially from NZ, now live in Australia, but by Jesus the lead singer's got a good voice. Nice song to relax to, this was released some time in the year 2000, when the band still had all its 4 members. Which it doesn't anymore since 2004, yet they carry on regardless, which is nice since they decided not to replace the guy who left as a sign that he could come back whenever he wished. Oooo goody. The song is called Lydia, and is a call for attention more than anything, as some other girl seduces her man. I think. I really like that soft guitar that pops in everynow and again.

Fur Patrol

Now how can I mention New Zealand without mentioning Split Enz? They even made it to the UK and America in the late 70s/early 80s. Not that they were that successful, as their quirky approach wasn't much appreciated by the critics at the time, something of a shame - although they did get to a top ten spot. In some of the more remote parts of the US, they were even met with a hostile reaction to their music. Anyway, I've struggled to choose an apt song to represent them. The band had some serious trouble with members leaving, but somehow managed to pull through regardless. Anyway, I've decided that "Six Months In A Leaky Boat" is the best song to show their style. Typical of the time really, what set them apart was their live performance, which although I wasn't born to see was something of an originality, with them dressing up etc... And making it more interesting to watch than, say, a folk music artist who just stands on the stage and strums gently on his guitar.

Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat

That's all folks!

UPDATE: It turns out Split Enz are doing a reunion tour thing in Australia in June... I guess that means we won't be seeing them in Europe then.

Black Desire

Ok then, after over a week of non-postingness for various reasons, I'm back! Hooray! For my triumphant return, I introduce to you aguably the best French rock band, ever. No Joke, these guys have consistantly battered anything trying to emulate them. Although Bertrand Cantat (lead singer) is in prison for manslaughter, the other band members are still around and contractually still have to release an album, which they're thinking of doing when Cantat has finished his sentence. I was unable to find the track they are working on now, which is for a French film called "Enferme dehors", not actually out yet.

Cantat is now in prison in France, although he committed the manslaughter (and was convicted) in Lithuania. He killed his then girlfriend under the influence of cocaine during an argument.

Anyway, he certainly helped get the French rock scene going, and he famously worked with the Tetes Raides. So what's all the fuss about? Well, he's got the usual anti-globalisation, rebel approach everyone loves so much. He famously said to the director of his record label: "You and I might live on the same planet, but we are from different worlds". He might not have invented it, but it stuck and he was seen as a legend ever since. One of his most famous songs on the subject is "L'Homme Presse", in which he describes the hectic lifestyle as a star, and how others (especially the media) are constantly trying to milk as much money as they can out of him. Simple yet effective, I like it. It's raw, and it doesn't try to be clever when it doesn't need to be. Great stuff.

Noir Desir - L'Homme Presse

Noir Desir are famously anti-fascist and during the last elections refused to play in Alsace because it had the highest percentage of National Front voters. Typically, that's where I used to live, so no "Noir Dez" for me. The next song, "Un Jour en France", was written against fascism and whilst it obviously won't have had any influence on voting patterns, it is an attack on people's impression that everything is well in France. It is classic Noir Desir and therefore cannot be ignored, and although it isn't the best Noir Desir there is, it's very good nontheless.

Noir Desir - Un Jour En France

As well as being politically motivated, Noir Desir also write nice music to listen to where the lyrics aren't the most important thing. A couple of years ago they went all out and collaborated with Manu Chao, who some out there might have heard of as a classic French/Spanish/English language singer of catchy little numbers. "Le Vent Nous portera" (yes, there does seem to be a theme of wind taking things away - see Louise Attaque) was a massive hit in the charts as well as usual Noir Desir fans, and there isn't much to say apart from the fact that it is much calmer than the other tracks mentioned so far. There'll be more Manu Chao some other day, so if you like the gentle guitar strumming in the background, there's plenty more where that came from!

Noir Desir - Le Vent nous portera

Lastly, here comes "Des Armes". This song was written as a protest against firearms around the world and how they are used as a tool to kill (as they would be) people. Th lyrics talk about the people who own and love their weapons, and not about the manufacturers, and he goes into the way people derive pleasure from owning them.

Noir Desir - Des Armes

So that's all for today, but I'll become more regular in my approach soon, I promise! I've been a bit on the busy side lately!

Oh by the way, check out radioblog - type the name of pretty much any band in the world in there and you can listen to it streamed. It's great! And if you missed any artists you're interested in, they are there too.