It is time once more for a little snippet of the newer music that has caught my ear...
Let's open with the first single release from the widely-anticipated (not least by me - I adore the woman!) new EP Mi Senti by Róisín Murphy, a collection of innovative cover versions of standards by Italian singers - icons of ours including Mina and Patti Pravo, as well as Gino Paoli and Lucio Battisti. This is her version of a classic by the latter, it's Ancora Tu:
An utterly beautiful track I heard recently on BBC Radio 3's fantabulosa Late Junction show, here's the Thievery Corporation featuring Lou Lou Ghelichkhani and Décollage. Cocktails, anyone?
From the sublime to... How about something gayer than Elton John and Freddie Mercury in the back of a pink mini? Balancing queeniness with sleaze, here's Naked Highway and their cover of the late, great Laura Branigan's gay anthem for the poppers era, Self Control - it's camp-tastic!
Much more classy is the New Order-tinged sound of Client, with a rather mysterious video for their new single - Refuge:
Miss Neneh Cherry is back (having recently celebrated her 50th birthday), complete with a critically-acclaimed new "left-field artistic project" (that's music-journo-speak for "new album") Blank Project, which promises a departure from the familiar "Buffalo Stance" type pop for which she is remembered. Here is her new single, a collaboration with the equally nuts fellow Swede Robyn and Out Of The Black, complete with its odd "home video". The song is quite good, actually, if your eyes can stop watching the sub-Reynolds Girls action:
As exciting is the return - with her first ever solo album Stockholm [and she, alongside Miss Cherry, is one of the artists appearing at this year's Meltdown Festival] - of the legendary Miss Chrissie Hynde! She's wearing Dark Sunglasses:
"Lost" tracks by ground-breaking artists always make the news (and of course boost sales), but when it's Grace Jones covering Gary Numan's dystopian anthem Me I Disconnect From You [released as part of the newly-remastered re-released version of her seminal 1981 Nightclubbing album], then it is very special indeed:
Speaking of "comebacks", it seems like ages since we heard anything from the pioneering Brighton dance music combo The Freemasons, but apparently they've been keeping themselves busy producing music for others, such as this sublime piece. It's Pegasus featuring Chloe Wolf and Gorecki:
This song is simply brilliant! Many thanks again to the lovely Henry at Barbarella's Galaxy for highlighting it - it's the magnificent tonsils of Miss Kimberly Davis and the Dave Audé remix of her single With You:
But to finish, this may possibly be my weirdest discovery yet from that land of mystery, Japan - famously described by Dom Lawson in The Guardian as "a collaboration between Slipknot and Aqua", it's Babymetal and (fortuitously on Easter Sunday) Gimme Chocolate!! Bizarre...
As ever, enjoy - and let me know your thoughts!
As always, an interesting selection. I am still holding out for a physical copy of the Roisin EP, and I am of course getting the deluxe version of Nightclubbing, so I am saving these two for later.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest, I adore "Décollage" - I really need to get some CD's with this type of music! I can not say the same for the, erm, "cover" of "Self Control". The song has been covered so many times, but the only one that gets even close to the original is the excellent version done by Infernal.
I quite like the one by Neneh & Robyn, despite the video that did indeed make me think of The Reynolds Girls (scary). It is also very nice to her the wonderful voice of Chrissie Hynde on something new and the song is in fact quite good.
I do miss The Freemasons, but judging by "Gorecki" they are still doing great stuff, if not in their own name. As for Babymetal - well, I like a lot of music from Asia (especially Korea), but I simply couldn't get through all of "Gimme Chocolate". Still, a fun, demented find.
I adore "With You" by Miss Kimberly Davis, as you know. That one stands out as my favorite of the lot - along with the fabulous "Refuge" by Client. Love it, love it, love it!
Thanks for the selection - I guess I should conjure up a new one myself soon.
Glad you enjoyed it, sweetie! I do agree with you about cover versions - although I think in the case of Naked Highway, they do have their tongues firmly in their cheeks (fnaar fnaar) with this "tribute". And somehow, I just knew Babymetal would make an impression... Jx
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