lundi 8 août 2005

Daisybox come into their own Picture prudence: not dressed for work This album was a risk for the band, its fans and for me. The cover was a promising change and the music is adventurous and rewarding. Given a fresh chance, Daisybox (Fr, Flash) suggested "une séconde à ma place" and got plenty more time to deliver a rounded, high-temperature 'Diagostic'. Fans of the group formed initially in 1994 by Sorbonne students as Daisy -- until the Disney outfit saw fit to give them a lesson -- waited three years for this album and haven't regretted it for the most part. Some comment on various forums the band's gone too far for comfort. That cover says more than first meets the eye. When it caught mine my ears hoped for something new from a foursome boosted, then overshadowed, by the more internationally renowned Indochine, with whom they've been on tour. I wasn't disappointed. The woman in the band is bassist Anne-Lise Pernotte, who brought accomplished musicianship to two brothers, Olivier and Samuel Nicolas (guitar and drums) when they weren't so hot themselves. 'Diagnostic' is not gentle. It can be as lyrically "caustique" as a song of that name suggests, heavy, elaborate and merciless, but also airy and very sexy. Anne-Lise does chorus singing and she's good at dark fancies, along with Olivier. Fourth member is Léonard Vasco (also guitar). That dark side appeals to me, with the "hostile metal" both another title (translated) and part of a very together and tight technique. The macabre wit doesn't suit some fans of the second album, 'Organic' (2002), which I'd have preferred to hear complete rather than going solely on the hits that made radio stations and made Daisybox a reputation in French-speaking Europe. Others differ, but those titles were very routine rock for me. Wide-ranging and mature, 'Diagnostic' is a good introduction to what's exciting and new in France's indie music world. It's very together and still fresh on shelves (the album's been out since April). If you're curious enough to check the differences that make 'Diagnostic' a successful striptease where stepping out of the shadows to show yourself as you are pays off, a 'Daisyboxgeneration' multimedia page (Fr) adds a few past and more recent sounds and movies to what's on the Net. This album could well please non-French speakers too. The "problem" for a few fans who seem unwilling to move on as far as the band, now in their early to mid-30s, is the opacity some say they find in the lyrics, but I must have a dark streak that likes the surreal and you might get a kick out of stranger sounds that can take repeated listening and still surprise. Some electronic song intros and the subtle details that put Anne-Lise here as a VoW I've a ready ear for, weave into an intrigue and complicity missing (I reckoned) on the admittedly little I'd heard of the band when members themselves declared Indochine their mentor and patron and slid some of that group's numbers into their own sets. The scanned cover is by Nicole Tran Ba Vang. This skin signals that some matters will still frequently come up here, despite previous protests; workplace warnings will do. Part of the enjoyment in fleshing out this entry was in back-staging the woman for a change, which is the way with Daisybox once you open it. They've opened up, after a lot of touring and then a retreat, the better to get back into circuit with quite a punch! 'zephire33' of Bordeaux has been so barmy about them her blog is nothing but Daisybox. It's to Fanny, who's currently 20, I owe the discovery that while Anne-Lise brought an inspiring flair to a bunch of fellows mainly out just for fun, she's the shy one. So, at least, she claims. 9:04:25 PM  link   your views? [] Back on stream: A for Alison (Ouch!* Aug 8) If you don't recognise Alison, yet, then I'm back on a track I nearly lost when I finished and posted a story, said it's the last you'll read about me. I was knocked out by an experience I spent a day and a night trying to write up knowing I'll never find words. That happened, by accident, when I wanted no more of anything for a month but relaxing into three things: music, women and sex. Rewritten trying to get it right and in context, if you wish to risk learning how a blown mind left me ignorant, 'The night of unknowing' is planted in the quiet of the orchard. The log remains dedicated to women musicians from every part of the world who nourish my soul. My respect for such creative people grows with delight, so I asked some what they'd like of one more web site about them. Their voices have been a daily joy, their lyrics a pleasure to hear whether they're poets setting the deeper sides of life to music or lively youngsters being entertaining about what the iTMS and other stores insist on calling "explicit". These women and some men, who will get a look-in as well, kept me company during the housework when I was amazed by the number of unwanted things I managed to give or throw away in six days. I've borrowed from the much-logged Sarah Fimm "Be like water" for one way of trying to live, taken "Be music" for a harmonious aim and added a third hope and goal, maybe the most ambitious: "Wise up." But let's forget my life stories. Alison Goldfrapp is interesting and diverting. I'm getting into 'Black Cherry,' her second album with Will Gregory, after listening to 'Felt Mountain' three times while climbing round perilous mountains of stuff to chuck out. It may be provocative of me to chuck album titles at you without a word on their content. It was provocative of a man called Jean-François Micard, in a magazine named 'D-Side (Fr)' to chuck the suggestion at these reclusive Hampshire musical miracles that a third album due out shortly (Goldfrapp site) was a "best of both". Will Gregory was peeved and said he wasn't into doing the same thing twice, Alison took it with a laugh: "We were trying to do exactly the opposite." And she showed us her underwear, the top bit, as opposed to the other part on stage. I don't find this provocative of Alison. It's nice of her ... perhaps. In a comment picked up by another magazine, 'Trax', which forgot in its haste to say that Alison's been a DJ but then gave it up, she voices one reason I'd like a women's music site: "You're a woman, you know what you're doing and you say so. Pretty soon, you're taken for a bitch diva ... As I work with Will, I constantly have to remind people we compose music together. But very often journalists talk music with Will and with me, it's more: 'What a pretty dress you're wearing!'" If Goldfrapp should one day appear divested of underwear, I promise I'll still talk about her musicianship, fearing some twerp has said: "Ooh, what amazing knickers." Just as soon as 'Supernature' knocks on the door, I'll tell you about Goldfrapp. The already released single 'Ooh Là Là' is not representative of the album. Alison says so. _______ *Many apologies. Particularly to French band 'Daisybox', who will be back with their new album and the complete piece about it. Of two versions of the entry, you got the wrong one, not a good start since the instant the draft was posted, I was still up, but the Mac wasn't. Glitch fixed and log accessed, here's the intended announcement, only. 4:11:05 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.