I adore this man. A-D-O-R-E. But i seem to be quite alone in doing this outside france. And i can´t figure out why. For my money he (pardon my language)pisses all over katerine, benjamin biolay, divine comedy and louis phillipe etc. In fact the closest description of his music would be if The Divine Comedy came from france. Perhaps Arnaud is the kind of artist that you either go totally nuts about or you don´t get it all. A bit like Prefab Sprout. So, to pick any track is virtually impossible since i love nearly everything he has done but i go for "En vieillisant peut-etre" from his towering masterpiece "Portrait du jeune homme en artiste".
from Portrait du jeune, available on CD
22 Nov 05 ·delicado: hi there... well, you converted me to this guy pretty much immediately after playing it to me as well. I was then amazed to find no one really talking about him. where did you hear about him first of all? Did he do a follow up LP yet? 22 Nov 05 ·moondog: Hi,
glad you liked it, well i first heard of him on the site www.poppolar, a sympathetic canadian indiemailorder site which distrubutes his records. I think i crammed in the best of what he has done for you, both the Notre Dame album "Chansons Francaises" which preceeded the portrait de jeune cd and some other tracks. He has done one cd with singer ema Derton called "Comment de l`amour" under Notre Dame as well but it�s not up to the standard of the other ones i mentioned since her voice is quite weak.
At www.frenchtouche.com you can see about all his projects and other french artists.
24 Oct 07 ·texjernigan: I'm with you guys on the love. I started talking with Arnaud Fleurent Didier because his record label, french touche, seems to be run by him. I find it really hard to get this music by ANY means (rapidshare, slsk, etc). The label has been hit or miss (I've lost $20) Where have the two of you gotten a hold of it? 25 Oct 07 ·texjernigan: I take it back nevermind, french touche records has awesome service. 02 Nov 07 ·moondog: good to see another afd fan. Well, texjernigan i got my first afd records from poppolar.com but after that french touche has worked well. I still scratch my head on why arnaud seems to be so completely unknow outside france. But perhaps that explains the lack of slsk, radpidshare on his behalf. From what i have heard there is a new longplayer in the works called "la reproduction". i have mailed arnaud but gotten no answer, do you know more tex jernigan perhaps ? 15 Jan 09 ·moondog: And his new record is on its way now, sounds unsurprisingly amazing ; arnaudfleurentdidier.com/lareproduction/ 04 Jan 10 ·moondog: and now the new album finally is here, Listen here and swoon ;
publikart.net/album-de-la-semaine-la-reproduction-d%E2%80%99arnaud-fleurent-didier-en-libre-ecoute
One of the best classics of the Foreigner back catalogue which I know has so many adherents here at musical taste. A superbly emotional track with a great chord sequence and a mainly synth-based backing.
from Agent Provocateur
05 Dec 05 ·delicado: amazing - I knew this recommendation was from you even before I saw your name! So, no 'cold as ice'? 05 Dec 05 ·Mike: "Cold as Ice" is a great number, too, of course, you're quite right. Watch out for more recommendations soon!
It makes me want to dance. The instrumentation is pretty simple, but it works.
from Confessions on a dance floor
03 Jan 06 ·delicado: the instrumentation is by abba! I have nothing against madonna, but I was surprised when I found out this track was by her. 04 Jan 06 ·metrino: i know it's from abba, but overall it's fairly repetitive. 05 Jan 06 ·nighteye: I wonder how much they had to pay to clear that sample. It's from "Gimme Gimme Gimme" by Abba, a classic hit from the late 70s. And yeah, I'm from Sweden so I 'oughta know. 15 Nov 06 ·delicado: I guess all I was saying here is that it seems bizarre to me that someone who has produced as many great songs as Madonna should feel the need to take a riff from a really famous song and do a kind of 'la la la ' over the top of it. To anyone who is familiar with 'Gimme gimme gimme', the song surely sounds a bit ridiculous? I have absolutely nothing against sampling, but when it's sampling from SUCH a famous song I just find it a bit distracting. A few years ago Danni Minogue did a song that was just like this except the song it sampled was Madonna's 'Into the Groove'. I thought that was pretty ridiculous as well! But like you say Metrino, it makes you wanna dance, which is totally cool and I guess answers my question about why she did it. 17 Nov 06 ·Mike: I actually don't mind what Madonna and her producers have done with this song, which is to take the most interesting elements from the Abba song, repeat them, and overlay them with a catchy melody of (I presume) her/their own. The long opening with the filtering-in works, too. I think I find it less than bizarre as to my mind, most of Madonna's better records rely particularly heavily on writing input from people other than herself...Mirwais, Orbit, and Rogers come to mind.
Japanese recluse Ip rarely leaves the confines of his room-cum-studio - and it's usually to attend a naff 1980s-stylee disco. The shy, clumsy student takes on the persona of a mentalist when news of a party spreads.
To celebrate his love of all things crazee, Ip recorded a series of bizarre poptastic tracks in the early 1990s. The songs suffer from dreadful production values and annoying lyrics, much of which is spoken in broken Engrish. But hey, that only adds to the fun.
Ip's debut album 'Floor 15: Room 17' is his best. Two stand out tracks include: 'Knocking on door while Mr Room Mate is away now', and 'Why are all new friends arrive for special event not on?'.
But his best song is 'Have you got ticket to the Dome?', a slice of Human League-esque rom-pop, bolted on to a 130 bpm, glam rock rhythm.
I used to know his acquaintance, this bloke that used to wear a plastic suit and fake glasses. He would hang around with a can of cheap lager. But I haven't seen him in months. I think he lost his mobile phone, or something. He'd probably say: 'Oh yeah, Gonza, Genzo. I remember. The good old days. Hanging out in the Lounge.'
Whatever. But Ip. Far out.
from Floor 15: Room 17, available on CD
09 Feb 06 ·delicado: I don't remember Ip's music. Wasn't there a related thing called 'DJ Bakesey'? I remember that being really good. 10 Feb 06 ·Genza: Don't remember Ip? What on earth...? If I remember rightly, you used to hang around with him and those two mates of his that used to jump up and down on bed and squeal in a high-pitched way. Very, very odd.
As for 'DJ Bakesey', he wag good - and some of his mates in the JCR Squad were pretty hot. Their sound - looking back - was pretty ground-breaking. 'MC Lem' was amazing and I loved his booming anthem 'Fish Pie':
'All I want for tea is Fish Pie
All I want for tea is Fish Pie
If I get it, I won't swear like a bad boy
If I get it, I won't play Duncan no more...'
Who was Duncan? And what did it all mean? Am I scared? Can I sleep here?
This is one of those songs that really sounds nothing like any of the artists' other songs. This is off Lani's first solo album "Sundown Lady" and was produced by her husband and label executive Herb Alpert. The song is the first song on the album and sets the tone with a nice easy bass line accented by the tinkling of an electric piano. The real money is the combination of Lani's impassioned vocals with whoever (maybe Herb?) singing a simple male vocal complement during the chorus. The song is effortlessly funky, understated and oh-so-deep. I haven't played this song for someone who hasn't loved it.
26 Apr 06 ·delicado: By coincidence I picked up a compilation CD of Lani's work (a 25 year A and M anniversary disc that came out in 1987!) just yesterday, and this track and 'we could be flying' were the ones that really stood out. I'm a big Brasil 66 fan but had never picked up her albums. Strange that you happened to recommend this track today! 02 May 06 ·scrubbles: You're right -- this is a lovely, understated yet passionate song. That male singer might possibly be Burt Bacharach, since the tune was included on a Bacharach collection.
