Holmes Boy
David Holmes is a certified eclecticist. Punk, rock and soul all
find their way into his music. Protean film scores for movies
that do and do not exist make for essential listening. LPs like
“This Film’s Crap, Let’s Slash The Seats” and “Let’s Get Killed,”
capture New York’s down-and-outs, beat poets and low-life street
urchins at their worst.
It should come as no surprise then that “Bow Down To The Exit
Sign” (Go Beat!/Barclay) is another cinematic soundbite from the
Irish-born Holmes. Drawing inspiration from wild, psychedelic
cult movies “Performance” and “Midnight Cowboy,” snippets of drunken
bar talk mingle with snatches of a script that this time actually
exists.
But Lisa Barros D’sa’s screenplay wasn’t written to accommodate
the soundtrack or vice versa à la U2 and Air, but instead the
two were conceived side by side. So when Holmes samples a drug-crazed
hustler with a recipe for PCP, D’sa works the character into the
movie’s screwed-up script.
And the characters on “Bow Down...” are just as twisted. Primal
Scream’s Bobby Gillespie collaborates on “Sick City” and “Slip
Your Skin,” two dark, raging rock’n’roll cuts that, yes, tip a
hat to Mick Jagger’s kind of debauchery witnessed in Performance.
This is a mish-mash of visual music that effortlessly comes together,
gelled with the blurb from a poster for Steve Mc Queen’s Bullitt
read in French... David Holmes’ “Bow Down To The Exit Sign” is
released June 13.
Two Steps Back
Remember drum‘n’bass, the underground sound that promised to rumble
the proverbial urban jungle? Well, in many ways it wet the whistle
of myriads, but after a few short years as the juke-box choice
of the jet-set, the tunes turned too dark and the scene sank in
a sea of washed-up musical wreckages marked “soo last year.” So
what are the champagne-sipping, Gucci-wearing cognoscenti listening
to now? UK Garage, innit.
If you didn’t hear the bouncing, bass-led beats of George Morrel’s
“Let’s groove ’97,” or Dreem Teem’s “Theme” first time round (when
Speed Garage was what they called it), these “classics” are being
re-aired on Paris’ scene-shifting FM stations, as the city hots
up for the sound of summer.
MJ Cole’s imminent garage opus “Sincere,” is one of the first
and most original (ie not a compilation) among an upsurge of Möet-friendly
long players, hoping to conquer the capital’s clubs. Cole, a one
time d’n’b aficionado, presents fifteen tracks of twitching two-step
cuts with decadent disco breaks like “Rough Out There” setting
the pace. “Sincere” issued through Talkin’Loud on June 26.
Allez-mania
German producers are making their mark this month, taking the
post-industrial soundscapes of Cologne, Berlin and Dusseldorf
and transmuting them into sharp, precision-cut slices of sonorous
pleasure.
With “Three” (Kiff SM/Pias), Pole serves up his cut of urban dub
— King Tubby meets Kraftwerk in a 21st Century collision of hissing
static and crackling distortion. His hypnotic, drum-free dub can
also be sampled on “Staedticism” (~Scape) a compilation with like-minded
Berlin radicals Bernd Friedmann, Kit Clayton and To Rococo Rot.
TRR drummer Ronald Lippick, is also one half of Tarwater, whose
down-tempo “Animals, Suns & Atoms” (Kitty-Yo/Tripsichord) should
be a good lesson to all leftfield electro-pop producers. Bleak
beats and deadpan vocals don’t usually add up to much, but here
the whole is somehow greater than the sum of its parts — “Song
Of The Moth” and “Babyuniverse” only leave you wondering why.
Voiceover
Vinyl-addicted scratch junkies, Dilated Peoples, present their
first LP “The Platform” (ABB/EMI), skillfully proving that gimmick-free,
hardcore rhyming is what hip hop is all about. Phoenix, who treated
us to last year’s inspired house hit “Heatwave,” take a change
of direction and rise from the ashes with “United” (Virgin), in
the shops sometime this month. Richard Ashcroft goes it alone
in a solo-career move following The Verve split. After decrypting
his lyrics and the eleven new titles, his record company finally
uncover his loved-up debut “Alone With Everbody” (Hut/Delabel)
on June 27. Step inside the alternative world of Belle & Sebastien,
an eccentric, idealistic place and their magical melodies may
incite the desire to listen to “Fold Your Hands Child...” (Jeepster/Pias),
out June 5. Bob Sinclair, the denizen of Parisian disco, allows
a sneak preview of new album “Champs Elysées” (Defected/Eastwest)
with single “I Feel For You,” slated for a June 5 release, while
the legendary Larry Levan shows us how disco was done in ’79 with
the original, un-edited “Live At The Paradise Garage” (Strut/Pias),
out now. . .
Live
K7! labelmates A Guy Called Gerald, Beth Hirsch, Funkstörung and
Terranova play dope drum’n’bass, depressing guitar-folk/rock,
fuzzy electronica and trippy hip hop respectively at their collective
gig, apparently in aid of Adidas (!) New Morning, June 5. ZZ Top-bearded,
vocoder rockers Grandaddy are on the road with recent project
“The Sophtware Slump” (Will/V2), La Maroquinerie, June 20. Super-cool
soulman Horace Andy returns to Paris to give us a rendering of
whatever it is he does when not being in Massive Attack, Bercy,
June 24. And finally, if you want to hear what our feature on
UK Garage is all about, get down to weekly bash 2Step House for
the latest moves and grooves. La Péniche Boer 2, Thu, 10pm.
Venues
Bercy8, bd de Bercy 12e, Mº Bercy, tel: 01.43.46.12.21
La Maroquinerie 23, rue Boyer, 20e, Mº Ménilmontant, tel: 01.40.33.30.60
La Péniche Boer 2 Port de la Gare, 13e, Mº Bibliothèque, tel: 01.45.85.40.32
New Morning 7, rue des Petites Ecuries, 10e, Mº Château d’Eau, tel: 01.45.23.51.41
1, av Jean Jaurès, 19e, Mº Porte de Pantin.
