Oublier nos destins

pix : terry richardson - peonies

Piero Umiliani, dans La dottoressa di pianista

Piero Umiliani a composé durant sa carrière, plus de 150 bandes sons pour le cinéma, sans compter ses créations pour des documentaires, le théâtre et la télévision.

Né à Florence en 1926, il meurt à Rome en 2001. Dans ses premières compositions on trouve "L’Audace Colpo dei Soliti Ignoti" (“Fiasco in Milan”, 1959) et Smog (1962) avec Chet Baker. Suivront, entre autres, “5 bambole per la luna d'agosto” (L'Île de l'épouvante) pour Mario Bava ainsi que de nombreuses bandes sons pour divers films érotiques italiens. En 1968 une des ses œuvres, créée à l'origine pour un film "documentaire" érotique, cette fois ci suédois, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso" ("Sweden, Hell and Heaven"), fait le tour du monde : il s'agit de "Mah nà Mah nà" qui deviendra par la suite le célèbre thème du Muppet's Show, de Benny Hill, etc... "Mah nà Mah nà" sera également repris par de nombreux groupes dont Giorgio Moroder ou Cake.

Umiliani était également un grand collectionneur d'instrument du monde entier et, en 1970, Piero est un des premiers italiens a posséder un clavier Moog ainsi que plusieurs autres claviers électroniques avant gardistes, ce qui influencera durablement ses compositions futures.
Tout au long de sa carrière, ses rapports avec le cinéma sont nombreux : Pasolini lui écrit les paroles de certaines de ses chansons, Tarantino participe à son retour sur scène dans les années 2000 et Soderbergh insérera le titre “Crepuscolo sul mare” dans la bande son d'“Ocean’s Twelve” en 2004.

Découvrir notre sélection (comme d'habitude complètement partiale) des morceaux de Piero Umiliani :

Et le piano en perspective perdue sombre d’un seul bloc dans la nacre

"Dans le salon de madame des Ricochets
Les miroirs sont en grains de rosée pressés
La console est faite d’un bras dans du lierre
Et le tapis meurt comme les vagues

Dans le salon de madame des Ricochets
Le thé de lune est servi dans des œufs d’engoulevent
Les rideaux amorcent la fonte des neiges
Et le piano en perspective perdue sombre d’un seul bloc dans la nacre

Dans le salon de madame des Ricochets
Des lampes basses en dessous de feuilles de tremble
Lutinent la cheminée en écailles de pangolin
Quand madame des Ricochets sonne
Les portes se fendent pour livrer passage aux servantes en escarpolette"

André Breton - Signe Ascendant (1942)




pix : Philippe Parreno, "Anywhere, Anywhere, Out Of The World" 2013
morceau caché : Unprepared Piano par Coil

Do I Sad?

Not this moment. Hopefully neither do you.

If You Wake Up This Sunday

...you will rise to the sound of a 1970's rotoclock, then find that you have nothing to do. You will hope for a mercury perfusion, and the metal to reunite the distant sides of you. Now the fuzz has waned and you see the future clearly, toes on the carpet, the sheets wrapped around your waist.
Get Up! Split the chains. Joy, good joy.
Then let the sadness shine through. If it's grey outside the window, I am sorry for you. If it isn't, you're probably already in the street, the beach, a green field, singing to yourself under your breath that you know it all.

Mini And Dusty

I won't put any funny, weird, inappropriate symbols and punctuation in the title of this playlist - where I have put together a few tracks, some minimal, others less so (really? no I guess they are all minimal) - simply because producers of minimal music like to do that kind of thing. And now I end up with a sentence that does exactly the contrary of what I have just said. Almost.

 Ok, I am putting together more playlists, I have been back on the twitter scene - see London gigs posted. I am still thinking about that Peter Ivers post I am yet to finish/start writing.
And this is all very exciting of course. Planning on finding interviews. Building shelves. Painting face masks. Nope, not the last one.

Great, I love you too. And yes, there is a track by Dusty Springfield. Funny hey?

Uncovered by the Flaming Lips

"Devant l'étal d'une boucherie, je regarde un plat de tripes. ça ne me convient pas, je le repose et hésite entre des rognons et un petit salé, mais il parait très gras. On m'emmène ensuite dans un dédale de couloirs pour me présenter à différents "boss", que je dois "passer" comme dans un jeu vidéo. Justin Bieber sera le premier : une mise en jambe. puis suivront Lemmy, plus coriace, ainsi qu'un inconnu au regard par en dessous mais lorsqu'il chante je le reconnais immédiatement : "Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move... Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.". si l'on était dans Street Fighter, ça serait notre Vega, l'hidalgo au masque de fer...

Le dernier sera le plus difficile : je l'attends devant une porte blanche coulissante futuriste, genre Star Wars. La porte glisse et devant moi se tient Lou Reed l'acariâtre, habillé en Baron Bleu (la tenue du Baron Rouge de Street Fighter mais dans des teintes bleues). ça va castagner..."

Aujourd'hui les champions de notre Street Fighter musical heroes edition, seront les Flaming Lips. Pour eux aussi le combat ne sera pas de tout repos : du Jésus en plastique des Goldcoast Singers, ils affronteront ensuite les demi vivants Deep Purple, puis Freddy la bohémienne du désert, Kylie revenue de l'enfer, Louis les gros bras au souffle déclencheur de tornade, les Sublunaires Roses, les jumeaux pervers Vega/Rev, pour finir pour affronter enfin la boss : Madonna, l'ultime Madone omnisports. En sortiront ils vainqueurs ?

Round 1. FIGHT!

Tangled Humidity

This evening the roads are still busy because of some cycling event. Trying to drive a friend to the station and getting stuck in traffic. Yes, football was on and the same crowd of match drunks was spilling onto the streets, just outside pubs. Sunday freaks and fashion-whatever wandering around Brick lane, but really today was worse than the usual.
What's happening to the east? or what has not already happened. Too much weirdness, can't really describe it but it was wild. Dangerous. Anyway I was most pleased to return home and research this playlist.

Different strokes, the pleasure's mine.
Position Normal, Bush Tetras, Family Fodder, Francis Bebey, Ike Yard, Meridian Brothers and The Ravens.

PS: The title of the playlist was lifted from a song by Testbid!. I wanted to include it but it didn't work so find it yourself, it's on Spotify. I'll also need to talk about Peter Ivers. Soon.

The Stepney Sling

Easing ourselves down the last rays of the summer, marginally pleased with the prospect of the return of the snow in patches, in flakes, let’s take a venture into the sound of marimba, and disco, and beach side rock’n’roll, one more time.
We’ll reconcile the earth with eastern and western promises, say goodbye to misery, have a good tidy before Jean-Pierre presents himself with his offal.
Dear dear, the slate is clean. One last thing: the Stepney Sling, the cocktail's on us, 1 oz bourbon, 1 oz vin d’orange (recipe* see picture), and a drop of fennel seed sugar syrup. Add soda water if you’re feeling faint.



*I'd go with half the amount of sugar

Look Homeward

Yippe!! WHERE ARE THE GAZELLES?!
What gazelles, the shoes? NO. The animal that looks like a horse? NO, THAT'S A ZEBRA! What then? WELL, THE GAZELLES!! Don't know...

God I hated world music then, in the mid-80s, and I guess I only started to appreciate it when it became simply Music. I didn't want an exotic landscape, what I was really craving was a gut-stinking city. To this day I still can't listen to Paul Simon. Paul 'shitty' Simon. I'm only swearing because you can't say you don't care much about Graceland to an english folk without having them staring at you as if you'd just told them you had a fling with Postman Pat. And their dad. It's like snatching their Hovis moment.

 Anyway, back to Lizzy. Little French new wave girl goes to New York and hangs out with Patti Smith and Richard Hell. Her and her partner (Michel Esteban, later from ZE Records) form Rosa Yemen. They sound pretty much like early Sonic Youth, same time tho. They disband and her first solo album Press Color is out in 1979. For her second album she flies to the Bahamas and gets a taste for African sonorities. Ensues a trip round Africa, and a return to France where she has a hit with her single Où Sont Passées les Gazelles? in 1984. Then on to London, recording her last album with Mark Cunningham, member of the New York band Mars.

She died from cancer in Corsica, aged 47. It was in 2004.


Bonus track, Mars - 11,000 Volts


picture, Lizzy Mercier Descloux with Chet Baker when they recorded One for the Soul in Brazil in 1986

A heartbeat inside Hell, a mixtape by TheOfflinePeople

Il y la scène où une jeune femme aux cheveux longs va attacher un doberman à une très longue chaîne qui soulève de la poussière quand le chien se précipite à gauche ou à droite à toute vitesse. A sa droite justement, il y a une grange en bois - celle de la pochette du Hex de Earth - le chien grogne, sa maîtresse lui demande de se taire. Sur le visage des infectés tapis dans l'ombre, s'ouvre un méchant rictus...

Go Sweating

 Melt Yourself Down, Melt Yourself Down. Let’s see. It’s got a triangle in it, a woman falling from somewhere, a pink emboss effect on some powder, a palm tree! Sorry about the exclamation mark. Well, that’s it for the cover. I remember going to see Acoustic Ladyland at the Spitz in Spitalfields market almost ten years ago. They were pretty good in my memory, avoiding the Madness youpla-feel and the long jackets with gold dust on the lapels.

 Now I am listening to Iggy on Spotify and I am slightly sickened by the messy night of funk this saxophone is promising me. Om Konz is nearly finished, rewind to the beginning and you can hear James Chance (lazy from my part, there are about a hundred jazz punk bands and I should have picked another one I guess, but maybe not). The old Chance who, by the way, has really screwed up with his latest Incorrigible! from 2013. Don’t be fooled into nostalgia, or any sense of gratitude, by the first two songs. Nor by the fact he has a French backing band, Les Contortions, mais oui!

Actually I’m fouling myself right now. I am listening to the album and it’s perfectly acceptable – I am talking about Incorrigible!, not Melt Yourself Down, nor Last Chance Disco. Not sure why I thought it was shit the first time. Anyway, if you’re wondering what I’m blabbering about, James Chance recently collaborated with Acoustic Ladyland. And Melt Yourself Down, who are part of Acoustic Ladyland, is the title of a Chance limited Japanese release from 1986. So there.

Ok, what do I think about the Melt Yourself Down album? I don’t think you care. But I have found a great place in Stepney. Yes it’s exciting. It’s a reconverted sweet factory turned into Art studios. There’s also a mosque, a 24h mini cab, and a fetish club. But more importantly there is a great venue. It’s small, it’s not a speakeasy, it hasn’t got a terrace with a tipi and a floor covered in sawdust, it doesn’t rip you off, it doesn’t ask you to book and not to tell your friends where to find it. It had Jamie Cullum recording a video for his latest single on Monday night but we’ll forget about that because it sells Dubonnet for £3.50 a pop and… actually, no, that’s it. DUBONNET!

 Last Friday, a glamorous (and I don’t mean fat or tarty) lady, Florence Joelle, was playing there with her band. Great rendition of Fever, half in French. Ah yeah, while I’m at it, it’s not Cabaret or Burlesque or sniff-my-panties either. Last time a group of Romani were celebrating their friends' birthday and we all did a bit of line dancing on some great Congolese rumba. Burkina Faso Mboka Liya was on the guitar, playing with Grupo Lokita.

 Now you may think I’m a filthy liar but I’m not. I don’t know what this place is, and it might just disappear, or I’ll wake up and realise it cannot be that perfect, or Shoreditch (which I still love in a way, just being caustic as one should) will find it and pimp it and crush its fresh and kindly heart.
Maaannn, just seen three seagulls chasing a blackbird down the road. Couldn’t see if the bugger managed to escape.

Right, ok, get on with the programme. The place is called Jamboree, it’s on Cable St. Whatever, I don’t care if you’ve already been. I like it. And yes, it’s in Shadwell but I prefer to say Stepney. Just go and see for yourself. And bring your sweat.




PS: p french is pissed off with me because I haven’t written a review of the Allah-Las’ gig in London last month. And now alainfinkielkrautrock are all over them. Well the gig was good, just got in a mood because I spent ages trying to get served. But I got one of their t-shirts for my birthday. Wahey!!

pix: Grupo Lokito, Burkina Faso Mboka Liya in red shades

New Radiations

Ok it might not be avant-garde but who doesn't like a fresh pair of dirty underwear?
This one's for you Flo.

Unheard Stones, a mixtape by theofflinepeople

"Je discute avec Mick Jaegger qui pose comme sur une couverture de magazine. Avec Keith, ils cherchent à remplacer Charlie Watts et j'assiste à l'audition. Devant moi un homme d'une quarantaine d'années, élégant et maniéré est en train de scratcher un vieux tube de rock'n'roll. J'aperçois un autocollant Kid Koala sur sa platine.

Je me retourne et regarde la TV qui est allumée, suspendue en hauteur dans le coin gauche de la pièce. Les murs de la pièce sont jaunes comme celui des WC de la pochette de Beggars Banquet. D'ailleurs un épisode de l'Escargot Mange Caca vient de commencer. C'est une animation en pâte à modeler. Il est tout marron avec une coquille plus claire et fonce sur l'écran en dévorant tout sur son passage. MIAM. MIAM. MIAM. On le voit de loin, il mange goulûment un plat de caca, méthodiquement, rangées par rangées, comme Garfield avale un plat de lasagne."




Ecouter aussi l'excellente compilation de reprises des Rolling Stones: Satisfaction: Covers & Cookies of the Stones

Fried With A Light Touch

The perfect mixtape for a Monday Aperitif. Be adventurous.

Refined Lard - A Trunk Records Sampler

Mr Twin's Electrovacation

I remember reading somewhere that Richard D James only likes listening to his own music. As much as I would like to believe that I also know he revels in talking a lot of shit. Still, if there's any truth in it, he may appreciate this.

No Shandy

A little mid-week treat if you're stuck indoors for the evening and your shoes need drying. As long as you have supplies...

Synthetic Journey, a mixtape by TheOfflinePeople

Synthetic Journey, a mixtape by TheOfflinePeople

01 Mark Isham & Art Lande - The melancholy of departure
02 Tirez Tirez - Razorblade
03 Drinking Electricity - News peak
04 Ilous & Decuyper - Berceuse
05 Fever Ray - If i had a heart
06 Nico Fidenco - From the beyond
07 Arabian Prince - Strange life
08 Coh - Sidereal as if not (part_1.2_andante_facile)
09 Spectrum - All night long
10 Telex - On the road again (Telex remix)
11 Tim Exile - Dont think were one
12 Spiritualized - Harmony 3

pix : C.F. møller

Pilooski est triste

Tristesseshowdown mix by PILOOSKI

pix : Christophe Bourguedieu

Vous reprendrez bien un peu d'eau fraiche?

Cold Water Sign Language - A Kelpe Megamix by Buddy Peace by Kelpe

Lire notre interview de Kelpe, et voir ses dernières infos: kelpe.co.uk