 |
This page has been moved to a new location. The new URL is:
Please update your links and bookmarks accordingly. You will automatically be taken to the new URL in ten seconds.
May 16, 1999
April March
American pop with a French twist. April March brings the joys of ye-ye to the land of hamburgers and Coca-Cola.
By GERRY BELSHA
"It is not surprise as much as baffled," said Elinor Blake, who makes French pop records under the name April March, explaining the reaction she receives when people find out that she is American.
The latest from April March, Chrominance Decoder, is pure ye-ye and every piece of it is made to reinforce the notion that pop music is suppose to stick in your head from the moment you hear it and follow you throughout the rest of the day. From the opening "ba pa ba pa ba ba ba's" on the first song "Gardens of April" to the "being dumped can be cute" attitude of the finale "No Parachute," Chrominance Decoder combines an uninhibited innocence with outright sultry precociousness to concoct a musical mixture that makes no excuses for being sincere.
Elinor Blake, a.k.a. April March "The term ye-ye was coined way after the fact," explained Blake. "It is a period of music from about 1960-1968 in France. It is pop music but more classical and jazz oriented than our pop, which is very R&B, blues oriented."
The biggest purveyors of ye-ye included Francoise Hardy, France Gall and Chantal Kelly. And don't forget Serge Gainsbourg and his women Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin. Blake, for the most part, resembles the little girlish voicings of Gall rather than the slinky slitherings of Hardy or Bardot. And unlike similar cosmopolitan popsters of today (Air, Mono, Saint Etienne, to name a few) there is no preconceived notion to adapt ye-ye and cover it in a more dance oriented wrapper. Chrominance Decoder is the real shit.
Blake says that Mickey Baker, an American R&B musician and producer of many female French singers, best summed up the differences between the 1960s French Pop and its American counterpart.
"He said 'there is a huge difference between someone drinking wine and eating cheese and someone eating a hamburger and drinking Coke.' It's a totally different vibe," said Blake
How did an American girl get obsessed with this faraway pop?
"Right around high school I met a girl and she played me a record her father had brought back from a business trip to France that they used to play at birthday parties," said the 33-year-old Blake. "I just heard it and it was like wow. I was like 16. Then it was impossible to find any of the records. It speaks to me more. It's roots are different and I love the language."
In 1995 Blake recorded an entire album of Gainsbourg songs Gainsbourgsion and two more of his songs on Chick Habit which helped catch the attention of Dust Brothers John King and Michael Simpson (kingpins of Ideal Records) and French producer Bertrand Burgalat. It took nearly three years of collaborating with Burgalat before Chrominance Decoder was a finished product.
"He (Burgalat) heard one of my earlier records, liked it and invited me to France to make a record with him," said Blake, a self-proclaimed '90s girl,' who in addition to her musical work, paints, writes and was an original animator for the Ren and Stimpy cartoons. "It took three years, on and off, to finish it. It could have been completed in three months but, it was spread out over a period of time."
Also during that period Blake did work with Andy Paley, Jonathan Richman and the God himself, Brian Wilson. Her work with Wilson has yet to see the light of the outside world, adding more legendary mystery to Wilson's persona.
"The stuff we did together was very old school Pet Soundsy type things," said Blake about her recordings with Wilson. "There were no synths. The songs sound like old girl groups because I'm singing and Brian is singing back-ups."
Burgalat's production on Chrominance Decoder stays true to the ye-ye tradition. Simple pop structures, nice hooks, a little jazz cred and Blake's little girl voice. Half the songs are sung in French, and as with all good music, no knowledge of the language is required for the listener to obtain the pleasure or to interpret the message.
Chrominance Decoder is pop without pretentious snobbiness and it doesn't get any better or more sincere than that.
Home| Features & Interviews |Lusty Lady |Candles |Lollipops | Music Reviews |Book Reviews | News | Contact Us | Copyright 1999 Check This Out!
