The Legends of Magma

Well, it’s time for me now to say few things about my old friends, Magma. Who are they? It has never been easy for anybody to write about Magma since 35 years. I saw them 3 or 4 times in the early 70’s - I even promoted one of their concerts in 1973 - but still it is difficult for me to translate in words what is the music of that group. If I say Kobaian-rock, you won’t understand. Jazz-rock or rock-jazz, perhaps, with a huge John Coltrane influence mixed with an Igor Stravinsky inspiration. Some people said that Magma were the godfather of post-rock… Who knows? They start playing in 1969.

On stage, they are all dressed in black wearing a gold medal (see the picture of the DVD). In the middle of the stage, Christian Vander, the leader of Magma, stands behind his drums. He is for me one of the most important drummers of all time. When they sing, it is simple because it’s in "kobaïen", some kind of a mystique language mixing Latin, German or Russian… that nobody understand. But it’s a language from the heart, a powerful instrument for Magma.

So what about now? May 2005 Magma took over Paris venue The Triton for 4 weeks with an ambitious, over the top project – a retrospective of 35 years of Magma music showcasing some of the best known pieces from the years 1970 to the present. These 4 sell out weeks were, without any shadow of doubt, a major success which more than paid back the enormous amount of effort needed to get these 8 hours of music into full focus.

This is the first of a series of 4 DVDs which capture these unforgettable moments for posterity, where the joy of playing this outstanding music is only equalled by the rapturous response of the audience. His name: Mythes et légendes - 35 years of Music - Vol. 1 (July 2006).

Few examples of Magma’s music:
Magma - Ima Suri Dondai .mp3
Magma - Zess (stream) .mp3
Magma - Kohntarkosz .mp3
Magma - KA.1. mp3
Magma - KA.2 .mp3

Web : seventhrecords.com
Myspace : myspace.com/magmaofficial

Sibylle Baier - Hidden Secret

Here is a beautiful fairytale. Sibylle Baier is a German singer-songwriter who just turned sixty and lives in a little town somewhere in Massachusetts. Her first record Colour Green was just released this year in February. But where the story is beautiful is that the fourteen songs included in Colour Green were recorded in Germany in the early 70’s before Sibylle moved to the States. At that time Sibylle Baier kept the tapes with her and preferred to take care of her family and her friends instead of looking for fame. Only in 2004, her son Robbie transferred those old songs in a cd that slowly arrived to a producer.
Colour Green is devastatingly-beautiful folk recordings, a real gem. Sibylle Baier's soft vocals, foreboding lyrics, and cozy guitar picking create an intimate atmosphere. But, why those gorgeous songs are so dark? What happened to that young German girl? And also, why her writing is so alive 30 years later?

Sibylle Baier - The End .mp3

Buy: Orange Twin Records

Here is a "Fan site for Sibylle's hauntingly beautiful music”: myspace.com/sibyllebaier

PJ Harvey - The Peel Sessions

Not really a best of or a greatest hits, but for the first time a live recording of songs from PJ Harvey.

"News just in ….PJ Harvey - The Peel Sessions 1991 - 2004 will be released, in conjunction with the BBC, by Island Records on 23rd October 2006. A collection of PJ Harvey’s Peel Sessions will be released for the first time, during a month of commemorative events, to mark the second anniversary of the inspirational broadcaster's death. Available on CD and vinyl formats, the twelve tracks, chosen by Polly, span her career; from early versions of the songs on debut album Dry (1992) to her seventh album Uh Huh Her, released in 2004. Harvey recorded many sessions with John Peel over the years. Of the release, Lousie Kattenhorn, John’s Producer, said 'John loved the sessions and was thrilled to have Polly record so many for his show. He considered her a wonderful artist and they were great friends. It's fantastic that they're coming out on CD."

The full tracklisting is:
Peel 29.10.91
1. Oh My Lover
2. Victory
3. Sheela-Na-Gig
4. Water
Peel 2.3.93
5. Naked Cousin
6. Wang Dang Doodle
Peel 5.9.96
7. Losing Ground
8. Snake
9. That Was My Veil
Peel 10.11.00
10. This Wicked Tongue
11. Beautiful Feeling
John Peel Tribute 16.12.04
12. You Come Through

Website: pjharvey.net

PJ Harvey - Sheela-Na-Gig .mp3

PJ Harvey - Oh My Lover .mp3

PJ Harvey - Shame .mp3

Photo: Laurent Orseau (lorseau.hinah.com)

Major Deluxe Society

Last Wednesday, Bookerfatz2 and I we were invited by Sebastien Carbonnelle (picture), the lead singer of Major Deluxe, to discover his group on stage during a session held in a Parisian club called the Triptyque.

Major Deluxe is a Belgium band of five members. The musics that influenced Major Deluxe are too many to be listed here – Sebastien told us that one of his passions is to collect vinyls. If I have to choose, what I heard is something like a Michael Franks revival quintet - maybe because of the trumpet of Ludovic Bouteligier during some jazzy-pop tunes - together with a little touch of (Smog) because Sebastien’s behavior on stage reminded me Bill Callahan. What is sure is that the fans who gathered in front of the stage looked very happy to hear on live songs from Skyline Society (Tricatel, April 2006) the first record from Major Deluxe that you can find here.

Web: majordeluxe.com
MySpace: myspace.com/majordeluxe

Major Deluxe - She's A Hero .mp3
Major Deluxe - Meanwhile .mp3

Before Major Deluxe, Koacha, another quintet (ala Franz Ferdinand), this one from the French town of Montpellier, opened the evening at the Triptyque. Following is what Bookerfatz2 thought about Koacha.

My first impression of these guys was not good. Three of them dressed in suitable rock and roll attire- pants, shirts and ties, all black- but the bassist looked like he just rolled in from Roland Garros- all white tennis clothes from top to bottom including wrist sweat bands. Imagine my surprise that they turned out to be a tough little English pop band (although they are French) with a definite late 70's feel. Excellent arrangements including three vocalists, all good musicians and a wonderfully powerful toe tapping presentation. Hey guys, loose the gimmicky clothes trick. Definitely not needed!

Web: koacha.com
MySpace: myspace.com/koacha

Few seconds of: Koacha - Revolution .mp3

Arab Strap Farewell Tour

Well, everything that starts must have an end; it’s a universal law and it can be applied in music too. “Yes, it’s the end of Arab Strap… It is midnight on the 8th of September 2006 and I have just opened a beer. Cheers.” That’s what you can read on the Arab Strap’s website.

I really loved that band. Don’t have all of their records, few cds like the wonderful Elephant Shoe and some EPs. Saw them live a couple of time. At all times, I enjoyed the music of those Scottish musicians. So thanks to you Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton! Sure I will be there late November for one of your last show.

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of there first release, The First Big Weekend in September 1996, Arab Strap will be releasing an "Audio Rockumentary" on October the 23rd called Ten Years Of Tears. And will Tour Europe for the last time (Arab Strap Farewell Tour Dates).

· Arab Strap - Hello Daylight .mp3 from Elephant Shoe.

· Arab Strap - Stink .mp3

· Arab Strap - Cherubs (video) via Spleendid.hautetfort.com

Photo: Robert Gil (photosconcerts.com)

This Is The Kit @ Paris

Don’t try to understand under which name Kate Stables played last Tuesday as the support band of Vetiver in Paris. Was it Kate Stables solo, or banjo Kate and juke-box Jesse aka 2 Wooden Spoons or Kate Stables and Jesse d Vernon from Morningstar Project? Or was it just This Is the Kit as she introduced herself to me? Can’t say exactly, so let’s consider that we heard This Is the Kit.
Anyway, that was a very pleasant surprise last Tuesday to hear This Is The Kit before Vetiver started to play. Kate Stables, born in Winchester, England, currently lives in Paris. She plays guitar, banjo, has a nice voice and writes pretty songs like Two Wooden Spoons. The audience gave a very warm response to her music so she had to come back for an encore that she didn’t expect. Kate Stables also likes to draw or paint as well as taking pictures of birds… She is now working on releasing an album with Microbe Records sometime in 2007. Go to This Is The Kit Websites to find tour dates and more information.

Web Site: thisisthekit.co.uk
MySpace: myspace.com/thisisthekit

I found this live session of This is the Kit on Magz Hall’s You Are Hear Show on Resonance 104.4 FM on Jan 9th 2006:
This Is The Kit - Live Session .mp3

Another live performance:
This Is The Kit - Wednesday .mp3

And here are some early recordings:
Kate Stables - Shared Out .mp3
Kate Stables - She Does .mp3

Photo: Katy

Vetiver @ Paris

I think this place is blessed, I mean La Maroquinerie. This is an alternative place. In the same location you have the concert hall (500 places standing), the literary café, a small inner courtyard, a pleasant place to relax in the summer, and the restaurant. When you come for a show, not at the last moment of course, you will have the chance to see the musicians around a table just having a bite to eat. You may have the opportunity to talk to them or just say hello. Take a drink while you watch the last photo exhibition before slowly going downstairs to join the audience listening to the support band. A cool place like I said, because the vibes are great, whatever is the band, it must be Low, Richard Hawley, Sophia, The Black Heart Procession or Vetiver like last Tuesday.

I deliberately choose the words cool and good vibes especially for Vetiver and their Friends because they filled the venue before the show with so much peacefulness and smiles that after that your hard day of work is just forget. Same on stage, Andy Cabic and the other members of Vetiver delivered low-key folk-rock having a lot of fun playing music together. They played delicate renditions of song from Vetiver's first and second albums plus two unreleased songs called Dirty Work and Be Kind to Me. And, talking about friends, Devendra Banhart joined the band at the end of the show during Down at El Rio and the encore.

Oh, by the way, on September 14th, 1974 - yes 1974 - I saw The Band on stage in London, and let me tell you when I heard Vetiver playing Busted last night I really thought that Robbie Robertson and the members of The Band were all together in front of me just like 32 years ago. No, don’t worry; I just had one beer, that’s all!

Vetiver – La Maroquinerie, Paris – September 12, 2006

1. Oh Papa
2. On A Nerve
3. Double
4. Dirty Work
5. Angel’s Share
6. I Know No Pardon
7. You May Be Blue
8. Luna Sea
9. Busted
10. Maureen
11. Been So Long
12. Down At El Rio
13. Be Kind To Me
14. Farther On
15. Amour Fou
16. Wont Be Me

Web:

vetiverse.com
MySpace: myspace.com/vetiverse

• Vetiver - Maureen .mp3
• Vetiver - On A Nerve .mp3
• Vetiver - Been So Long .mp3
  

The Vetiver’s second album To Find Me Gone (Dicristina Stair, June 23, 2006) can be found here at Midheaven.com

Photo: Katy

Peter Mulvey @ Paris

Oh yes, I promised a short revue of Peter Mulvey’s show held last week in Paris (Thursday, September 7 at La Pomme d’Eve (Eve’s Apple)), so, here it is.
Before touring Ireland and Netherlands - and latter, the States -, Peter Mulvey, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stopped by Paris to open the new season of acoustic nights organised by Acoustic in Paris.
It was the first time that I saw him and, honestly, the first time that I listened to him too. Peter Mulvey is one of those talents whose reputation as a country singer-songwriter hardly crossed the oceans even after an extensive career (nine solo releases). He is a brilliant guitar player - I was amazed by his ability to combine high and low notes at the same time with his Martin - and feels really comfortable on stage with his instrument. As an old time bars & clubs traveller, he is very relax in front of an audience, he likes to do comments and jokes between songs (even if part of the French audience didn't understand… maybe next time, Peter, you should talk a little bit slower) and jump right after laughs and applauses on the next song. Just like a real professional performer, like I said.
The music of Peter Mulvey is a collection of quite brilliantly crafted acoustic compositions, mainly taken from his last record The Knuckleball Suite (Signature Sounds, April 2006), ranging from melancholic songs to hard-core country tales together with the usual cover songs like For No-One from The Beatles. And that was fair enough for me to spend again a pleasing acoustic evening at La Pomme d’Eve.

Peter Mulvey – Paris, September 7. Set list here.

For the next months, Acoustic in Paris presents:
- Kris Delmhorst (October 12)
- Michael Weston King and Terry Clarke (October 24)
- Tim Easton (November 9)
- Terry Lee Hale (December 7)

WebSite: Peter Mulvey

MySpace: myspace.com/petermulvey

• Peter Mulvey - Old Simon Stimson .mp3

Photo: Hervé Oudet

Al DeLoner in a Midnight Choir

Remember when rock and roll was edgy, made you think, gave you goose bumps, caused you to blink or was politically incorrect (but in a good way)?
This, the second solo effort from Al DeLoner, the mastermind of the great Norwegian (and now defunct) band Midnight Choir, is that kind of record. A rock and roll classic with a mélange of drums, bass, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonicas, keyboards, subtle looping and Al DeLoner's stark and emotive voice, Flora in the Darkroom will put the boner back in your world. I'm sick to death of homogenized, sterile, plastic and music lite. This record gives me hope for the future of the world and is well worth the effort you'll have to take to find it. Not for the faint of heart. 11 songs and 47 minutes, Flora in the Darkroom also features one of the coolest CD covers I've seen in a long time.
Side note- also features the last recorded song (co-written with Al) and work of the late great Nikki Sudden.
Also worth checking out is Al DeLoner's first solo record The Mess Age Is Joy. A strictly solo affair that is a needed lesson in honesty and emotion for every friggin' folk musician of the world. Should be required listening! 2 brilliant records from the Norwegian Grammy wining, mucho talented Viking. Take a chance and rock your world! Admit it, you probably need it.

Bookerfatz2

Al Deloner's CD Flora in the Darkroom was released 29.05.06 on

Playground Music Scandinavia

The song Frankie and Lou from Flora in the Darkroom can be found and downloaded at Al DeLoner’s myspace site.

Also you can watch some video (.mov) here.

Good News Beat

Intriguing news on Amazon.com, there is a Neil Young release slated for October 24, 2006 entitled Live at the Fillmore East. It can be pre-ordered now. The label is Reprise/WEA. As far as I know, he only played in that venue in 1970. Wait and see!

Interesting concert revue and beautiful pictures of Cat Power @ Lee’s Palace, Toronto, Canada, here on: Chromewaves.net. Also you should check on Matador Records.com/Cat Power/ new tour dates and current releases. Great, she will be in Europe in November.

Tonight, Peter Mulvey will play in Paris. You may see Leaky Sparrow and friends there tonight and you will have a short revue next week, this is a promise! More information here: Acoustic In Paris.com/.

Forthcoming September purchases, Taormina from Jean-Louis Murat (V2), The Letting Go from Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Domino Records) and Laylow from Cirkus featuring Neneh Cherry (Ten Music).

Below you’ll find an mp3 performed by The Isles, an American group doing English new-wave. Sounds like The Smith circa The Queen Is Dead. Isn’t it?

• The Isles - Major Arcana .mp3

Photo: F. Yang Chromewaves.net/concert Cat Power

Nina Nastasia - On Leaving

Nina Nastasia an accomplished musician, songwriter and performer based in New York, moved from Touch and Go Records to FatCat Records this year for her fourth album called On Leaving (release date september 11th, except for US and Canada, September 19th).
If you like haunting and delicate voices like Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) or Jennifer Charles (Elysian Fields) you will not enter a foreign land on buying On Leaving. Dark country folk or bucolic blues, she brings you in her dreamy territory with the help of engineer Steve Albini and musical organizer Kennan Gudjonsson.
On Leaving is realised by veteran members of Nina Nastasia's band, Dylan Willemsa (viola), Jay Bellerose (drums), Steven Beck (piano) and Jim White from Dirty Three (drums).
A special mention for the cover artwork who is far better than her previous cd Run To Ruin – it was not so difficult after all…

• MySpace: ninanastasia
• Nina Nastasia - Bird Of Cuzco .mp3
• Nina Nastasia - Superstar .mp3 from Run To Ruin (Touch & Go - 2003)
• Nina Nastasia - Stormy Weather .mp3 from Dog (Touch & Go - 2000)
  

Lou Reed - Berlin @ Brooklyn next December

It becomes now a tradition for artists to play on stage the totality of one of their masterpiece. It’s a new habit, and I don’t know what it means, lack of inspiration maybe... I don’t know. For example, we hade Arthur Lee & Love playing for years Forever Changes live, The Cure were very accustomed with the inclusion of 3 full LPs on there setlist (the Trilogy Shows 2002) and one of the most “well known” live performance of a LP this year was of course Dark Side Of The Moon performed by Roger Waters in France last summer (rogerwaters2006)…

Same approach, you have the Don’t Look Back events in London organised this year by atpfestival.com where several artists played there own classics in full. In September, John Martyn will be performing the LP Solid Air, the 11th, and Tindersticks will play the entire LP Tindersticks II the week after (September 17). This is to mention here only few examples.

Well before The Rolling Stones will be playing live Sticky Fingers in totality, and Bob Dylan will be revisiting entirely on stage Highway 61, we have Lou Reed who has scheduled to perform his masterpiece Berlin for the first time ever on stage next December.

At St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY, Berlin will be performed by Lou Reed, Antony (from Anthony & The Johnsons), Rupert Christie, Steve Hunter, Fernando Saunders, Rob Wasserman, Tony Smith, and more. Dec 14-17 / Thursday to Sunday. Information and tickets: stannswarehouse.org

• Lou Reed - Caroline Says II .mp3