Fantastica #62

Fantastica #62
Manneken Pis Experience

Johan

Fantastica signature tune
Identification sound: "Manneken Pis"
André Brasseur: "Special 230"
- info: Contains the hit "Early Bird", which showed Brasseur the path to success and money; his music unfortunately became more commercial, more cheesy, less groovy over the years.
El Chicles: "Grand Prix"
- info: Belgian moody EZ jazzy funk. El Chicles were the backing group of Nico Gomez in the 1960's. "Grand Prix" features great racing car zoundzzzz.
Unknown sound imitator + language lesson fragments: "Sam veut acheter une grosse voiture"
- home-recording "TV recording + Language record"
El Fish & Roland: "Lack Of Time (live - kazoo edit)"
- info: Modern blues band meets Belgian blues gooroo Roland. A DJ talked over the original outro of the song, so I borrowed the "Ne m'arretez pas, merde!" soundbit from a radio jingle to create a new outro ;-)
Radio Commercial for a Money Bank: "Expo '58"
- home-recording "recorded from radio"
King Boudewijn: "Expo '58 opening speech (fragment)"
- 7" promo single
Kamagurka en de Vlaamse Primitieven: "Weg met Boudewijn (Brabançonne edit)"
- info: Kamagurka is one of the most cynic cartoonists of Belgium, and his music is cynic and absurd. "Weg met Boudewijn" translates as "away with Boudewijn" (ex-king, now very dead) and promotes his wife, Fabiola, as Queen to replace him. The song ends in a wordless version of the "Brabançonne", Belgiums anthem.
Vercruusse: "Mobutu écrit une lettre"
- LP, BRT 868.505, Belgium, 1986
Golden Music Orchestra: "Tropical Song"
- info: The 3 B's: brass + bongo's + birdcalls... and apecalls too. "Tropical Song" is written by one M. Dumoulin, I wonder if it could be THE Marc Dumoulin of Placebo and Telex fame? * You can hear more by this band in episode 12.
Vercruusse: "Mobutu ecrit une lettre (2)"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
The Cousins: "Kana Kapila"
- info: Novelty R&R band, best-known for their jibberish fake African talk on the hit "Kili Watch". Not to be confused with another (American or English) group with the same name, they were also known as The Continental Cousins.
Vercruusse: "Mobutu ecrit une lettre (3)"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
Hans Otten: "Klara signature tune parody"
- info: Klara is the new name for the Flemish Radio's classical music station.
Johan Dada Vis: "Beethoven's Fifth Laugh"
- info: A quick & dirty mix (inspired by Slim Gaillard of course) I created for a radio game show years ago... and I won ;-)
François Glorieux: "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Mozart)"
- info: Glorieux plays Beatles tunes in the style of Chopin, Schumann, Gershwin, Mozart, Bach, ravel, Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Debussy and Bartok.
Opel Radio Commercial: "Blaue Donau motor concerto"
- home-recording "Recorded from radio"
Torrero Brass: "Bettelstudent Jerk"
- info: Just what the title says. A bit too light at times, but good fun. Not sure at all where this band comes from; the arranger's name, J. Dufourny, sounds Belgian or French, and the LP was also isssued in Germany. No copyright info at all... Couldn't find any info on the WWW either, so, until someone tells me the arranger or band are NOT Belgian, I assume they are ;-)
Johnny Dover And His "Happy Sound": "Sweet Carmen"
- info: Opera tunes "go go" style. The web site of "Jazz in Belgium" says that Dover is "a self-taught jazz musician, born in Brussels in 1929, who started his musical activity at age 15. From 1955 onwards, he plays clarinet and (baritone) sax in various orchestras, among them the Belgian Radio & Television orchestra lead by Francis bay. Beside his jazz activities, Johnny Dover also worked in the variété field where he accompanied singer Caterina Valente during herworld tours together with Stan Getz, Shirley Bassey, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Barry White, Barry Manilow and... Julio Iglesias. Multi-instrumentist, soloist or groups member, composer and arranger, his improvisations on flute, tenor, soprano or barytone are always pleasant to follow no matter whether it is Dixieland, mainstream or modern." No mentioning of his Happy Sound Orchestra, probably too popular for a jazz site. Anyway, Marco of "Weirdomusic" told me that this LP was recorded in producer Tony Dirne's studio in Breda, Netherlands, at the end of the 1960's (See http://home.concepts.nl/~pmouse/opsound.htm). Compared to so many other similar "go go" records of that era, this one is a good one: frivolous and light, but with inspired arrangements, and nothing a respected jazz musician/arranger should be embarrassed of!
Temping Agency Radio Commercial: "Whistling exercise"
- home-recording "Recorded from radio"
El Fish & Geert Waegeman: "Boomse Daisies"
- info: Uncommon combination of blues band El Fish and electronic musician Geert Waegeman. Soundtrack to a movie about Belgium's ugliest road, the A12 between Antwerp and Brussels.
Toots Thielemans: "Dirty Old Man"
- info: One of the better Toots comps, with 3 funky tracks and a nice groove in several others.
Jan De Smet: "Brabançonne Hawaiiene"
- info: Multi-instrumentalist, collector of Ukeleles & accordions, and of novelty & exotica records. The "Brabançonne" is Belgiums anthem, here played on a 70 years old uke, sung in Hawaiian.
Raf Coppens: "Keep On Fucking In The Third World"
- info: From a politically uncorrect satirical radio show.
Cliff Richard Imitator: "Living Doll"
- home-recording "unknown TV show"
Luc De Vos: "Rain"
- home-recording "French Quiz - radio show"
Group of Boy & Girl Scouts: "Rain And Tears"
- info: A satirical Flemish TV series
Mac Freeman: "Abandonado"
- info: Mostly cheesy Hammond EZ, but Abandonado (written by one J. Vanhoren) stands out as a classic bossa nova tune... though it resembles another bossa tune, but I can't think of the name.
Sandra Kimtergarten: "J'aime La Vie"
- info: Parodie of the only (I think) Belgian song to ever win the Eurovision Song Contest
Jos Mommen: "Da Doo Ron Ron"
- info: Farmer/Accordion player. A couple of fun & sort-of-groovy covers, lots of schlager crap
Eddy Wally: "Baobei (edit)"
- info: Flemish "schlager" singer #1. He performed in Las Vegas, and in China too. For that occasion, he learned to singa song phonetically in Chinese, but the audience didn't understand a word.
Onzin: "La La La (edit)"
- info: Typical single issued for one of the many carnival festivities. The band's name "Onzin" means NONSENSE.
Tone De Plecker: "BRT2 Omroep Brabant signature tune"
- info: This is how the real (almost extinct) Brussels dialect sounds like.
Magnificent Mortier: "Sabre Dance"
- info: Mortier was one of several famous Belgian "fairground organ" manufacturers. This 92-key organ was built in 1923. Musical arrangements by Arthur Prinsen, owner of the organ at the time of this recording.
R. Danneels: "In The Year 2525"
- info: French record, but R. Danneels could be is a Belgian artist. One good tune only: "2525"
Johnny Gwendy: "Quando Quando"
- info: Sometimes, his Hammond sounds a bit like a Moog. Includes a heavy wailing version of "Ebb Tide", better than Al Anthony's. Great covers of Mambo Jambo, Quando Quando, Tico Tico; and also a couple of funny originals: Dancing cats, Happy Synthesizer... Unfortunately, also some very cheesy stuff. * You can hear more by this band in episode 2 & 12.
SMS Service Radio Commercial: "Amor! Caramba, una SMS!"
- home-recording "Recorded from radio"
El Tattoo del Tigre: "Consternacion"
- info: Mambo from Flanders. There's not much originality to be found on the CD, but they're a great party when playing live. They do no less than 4 Pérez Prado covers, all precise imitations of Prado's arrangements; they also do "Bumble Bee", exactly the same way Prado did it on his "Prez" LP. The only difference is the sound quality, which is as brilliant as a recording these days can sound. They also try to imitate Yma Sumac's "Malambo"; it ain't bad, but no voice can match Yma's! Their version of Marcos Valle's "Crickets sing for Ana maria" again doesn't add anything new, so one wonders why they recorded it. It's a good thing they also choose some less obvoious songs, like "Consternacion". On 2 tracks ("Peanut vendor" and "Arrivederci Roma") they do show some arrangement adventure.
Vercruusse: "Mobutu ecrit une lettre (4)"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
Big Band with Louis Fiers at the Organ: "Du bist OK"
- info: Brass plus Hammond again, and it rocks its nervous jazz rhythms all the way to a big finish!
Fantastica closing tune -- following are BONUS TRACKS:
El Chicles: "Free Exit"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
Mac Freeman: "Let Me Hold You"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
Johnny Gwendy: "Tico Tico"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
The Cousins: "Kili Watch"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
Golden Music Orchestra: "Caravan"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
El Tattoo del Tigre: "Beerebee Cum Bee"
- see above mention of this record for more details.
El Fish & Geert Waegeman: "Boenke Boenke Bam Bam"
- see above mention of this record for more details.

ratings: +++++outstanding, ++++very good, +++good, ++not bad, +so-so, -yuk