Francoise Hardy

Francoise Hardy - "Et Meme", 1964
Francoise Hardy - "However Much", 1965

Francoise Hardy is one great lady. She recorded her own songs and there is a sincerity and assertiveness to her voice that separates her from other French female singers of this era.

This song is possibly the best thing on earth. It's difficult to say if the French or English version is better... both are great... but there is some real punchiness to "However Much"... which is quite enjoyable. "Et Meme" has a bit more background vocal.

Melody Club

Melody Club - "Electric" , 2002

Swedish greatness that may not be released in the US. Pure amazing pop. I'm electric and I was born to dance.

Dead Can Dance & The Virgin Spring

Dead Can Dance - "Windfall", 1987

Oh. My. God. Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's like a fairy tale, but not tamed down for children... so really quite frightening and traumatizing... but very well done. I have also been addicted to this Dead Can Dance song lately... and I feel like it kind of goes along with the mood of the movie.

Indians aka Native Americans

So, I just watched "The New World" starring Colin Farrell and Jewel's cousin... and It was goodish. The love story was very cheesy... but I liked how quiet and disjunctured the movie was. There was a feeling of "I don't know what the hell is going on" which I feel would be very historically accurate. I am not sure why Colin Farrell's accent was so Irish sounding... but anyway... I like Indians and I found this really amazing website: www.old-picture.com They have a whole Native American section. Some of the photographs are done by Edward S. Curtis who was paid by JP Morgan to photograph these cultures before the nice whites killed them all.

Jacaszek

Jacaszek - "Powoli"

I really like this guy and I have no idea how to properly say his name. It's Polish. I haven't listened to his whole album yet, but everything I've heard is amazing: very quiet, melancholy, and "gothic" maybe, with subtle lady voices that sometimes "ooh" and "aah". It's classical and electronic at the same time... a touch of Aphex Twin and a touch of Dead Can Dance. This record label, Miasmah, is beginning to remind me a lot of the early years of the 4AD label.

Crush

Crush - "Jellyhead (Motiv8's Pumphouse Remix)"

Crush - "Jellyhead (British radio edit)"

This is one of my favorite 90s dance songs.... so good. I heard it in some tacky store today and it made me feel it is necessary to post this. I remember hearing this song as a young lad and being consistently fascinated by the instrumental bridge at aprroximately 2:50 that sounds like the song has ended... but wait... it's still there. This is actually a remix of the original version that was released in Britain. Weird that the dancier version (Motiv8's Pumphouse Remix) made it big in the US. I do think this version is better.

I remember really enjoying their album too. There's a "We Got the Beat" cover (the Go-Go's) and a few tracks co-written by Sarah Cracknell from Saint Etienne.

Crush originally consisted of Donna Air and Jayni Hoy, two British TV stars of some sort. Donna Air sometimes still shows up in the tabloids.

Mickey & Sylvia

Mickey & Sylvia - Baby You're So Fine, 1961

This song has been in my head all day. I love these two... they had a big hit in 1957 with "Love is Strange", which is also featured in Dirty Dancing. This track was their first release on their own record label, "Willow"... and it's great.