Yesterday, I had a few French tunes on my mind and peppered throughout the day; a pretty good sample of some different sounds from contemporary artists. From Emelie Simon, who's an in-demand soundtrack artist whom you may unintentionally know if you saw March Of The Penguins, we heard something from her excellent 2006 release The Flower Book. Dreamy, poppy and dubby in equal measure, if you peep her other work you'll find it also rocks.
Also had an excellent cut from Berlin's Stereo Total, a duo that also performs in German, has a pretty playful syth-pop sound. The couple has recorded 13 albums but the sound is still spry, youthful even..
Hip Hop is pop, here and in France. While I was tempted to play some MC Solaar, perhaps the best known artist rapping in French despite the fact that his best rapping was 15 years ago, I instead went with one of his protoges, Menelik. Menelik, like Solaar is French by way of Yaounde, Cameroon and has a dope funk on this song...
French rockers Dionysos sings songs that are almost silly, balanced with the right amount of pith. With influences like director Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) and writer Roald Dahl ( James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory); so yeah, they're wierd cool.
