L'eau à la bouche : macarons faits maison

Je ne peux résister à l'autosatisfaction culinaire, après plusieurs heures passées dans ma cuisine ce week-end, et vous présente sur mon blog (ça change des critiques musicales) la photo de mes macarons faits maison, aux couleurs aussi diverses que leurs parfums (de gauche à droite et de haut en bas : pistache, framboise, chocolat, citron, pain d'épices, choco/coco, clémentine, fraise tagada). C'était mon premier essai et même si j'ai hésité encore sur la taille ou le temps de cuisson parfois, le résultat est globalement réussi :



Je ne saurais que trop vous conseiller, pour peu que vous sachiez manier la poche à douille et la spatule à blancs en neige, d'aller jeter un coup d'oeil sur le site où je me suis procuré la recette de ces délicates gourmandises : www.puregourmandise.com
Clair, précis, aux multiples parfums et aux alléchantes photos, ce site dédié aux macarons mais pas seulement, vaut le détour !

Falling in love with Mike Rizzo's new mix of Kenne's unreleased song

What's in common between the following people :
- ex PWL Mixmaster & british pop hits producer Phil Harding,
- UK G-A-Y favourite remixers Almighty,
- US latin club act Roc Project,
- US Circuit God Jonathan Peters,
- german Culture Beat producer Doug Laurent,
- London based club remixers Sharp Boys and
- US Top10 remixer Mike Rizzo ?

you don't know?
let me help you out...

He debuted in 2004 with the best sing-along feelgood pop-dance song of the year ("Everybody Happy"), remixed at Almighty for the clubby crowds, and then released a following single covering one of New Order's best song ever ("True Faith").
He recorded further songs nowhere else than at PWL ex star Phil Harding's own recording studios and although these jewels stay commercially unreleased, they have been unleashed in various mix combinations on his own MySpace page and have pleased our ears with perfect dance-pop style, sometimes disco-housed, sometimes more tribal house, always fun and energetic.
There have been years since these songs were talked about on some PWL fans forums and then we finally get to hear them there so I couldn't be less thankful to that special underground (but sooner or later going to rise to global club stardom) friendly singer of ours than to dedicate him a page in my pop & dance music reviews pages...

His name is KENNE and you must remember his first video clip where is blondie head emerged from the ground singing "everybody happy, everybody feel fine..." between the legs of people dancing in the discotheque, walking on the beach or on the grass...
The clip was hilarious (thankfully, Kenne changed back his color of hair into black!) and the song, released with its leading Almighty radio version, an instant hit on the floor at the G-A-Y Astoria, London, moving hands up in the air and bimbo boys showing off their bodies with T-shirts all away... mmmm, good old memories .

Then there was the True Faith dance cover version (promoted under another alias Jukka) that was a radio Top20 in France where Kenne filmed his video and although New Order songs are never easy songs to adapt, Kenne's version is one of my favourite ones (with dutch Sita's accoustic version of "Bizarre love triangle").

After these tracks were recorded with german producer Doug Laurent (who worked for eurodance superstars Culture Beat) and both remixed by Almighty team, Kenne chose to make his dream come true and flew up to London to meet and work with Phil Harding, the never forgotten first and only Mixmaster at PWL studios, home of star producers Stock Aitken & Waterman and hundreds of worldwide hits in the 80's & 90's.
He recorded 4 new tracks with him, the two firsts of which he co-wrote, "Take Me Back", "Touched By Love", "Falling In Love" and "I Still Love You" (a song the dutch boyband Get Ready previously recorded on their Harding & Curnow produced album "The Mission" in 1999) but the record companies were becoming more relunctant in signing new "pop" artists and it got tougher and tougher from then on so the only place where we can listen to these songs (from now on) is here :
http://www.myspace.com/kennesongs

It is interesting to note that since they were created with Phil harding, they have inspired some US star producers and we can listen to a fantastic storming mix by Mike Rizzo of "Falling in love" which could never sound better and up-to-date than in this edit : the perfect track to re-launch Kenne's career in US clubs. A featuring on some independant film soundtrack a la Circuit or Queer As Folk would certainly be enough for that as this song is an instant gemm you can't help but fall in love to in a second... the least for a song named "Falling in love" .

But there's more chocolates in Kenne's music box to pick up and treasure : the Sharp Boys mix of "You are a star (this is your night)" would not sound out of place in today's european clubs & radios, mixing electro disco sounds & pop appeal and I would love to see an animated videoclip to promote it heavily on music channels for example. An Almighty remix of "Be your lover", another Doug Laurent song, is so catchy I can't understand why (oh why!?) it hasn't been released nor promoted... And I have to admit my personal guilty pleasure is to listen to "Everybody happy", the Almighty radio edit, over and over again .

From the names that have decided to work with him without big record companies to invite them, it seems clear Kenne's pop appeal and instant music seduction is inviting so all I can do is to advise you to go to his MySpace page, listen to the numerous tracks airplayed to the visitors' delight and as you'll undoubtly like them, become a new Kenne's friend and leave him comments and show him your love for his music, talk about him to your friends of same tastes and make his MySpace page such a hit his music can get noticed by some record company that will finally got his stuff released so that we can, at last, get a real CD album by Kenne in our hands.
THAT would really make me happy!
"Everybody happy... Everybody feel fine..."

Eurovision’s 2007 Show in Helsinki review

It seems that each time I write here about Eurovision, I'm on the brink of suicide... Not really of course, but I'm in total despair after the results tonight...
Not really because of this year's winner, but because of the little points my favourites, UK contestant Scooch, have got from all countries, meaning 0 points, except for Irish 7 & Maltese 12 points...

Thursday's semi-finale should have warned me a bit as the pop geniuses of Netherlands' Edsilia Rombley & Denmark's "Drama Queen" and even the fame of swiss DJ Bobo & all his vampires crew couldn't be enough to make it to the final... I already feared for my lil' Scooch & their cheesy camp pop number...

Sure I was right!

I was going mad during the results coming one after the other to see that they were stuck at the bottom end with nul points. I jumped up when their got their first 7 points from neighbour Ireland and felt really pleased to see Malta still had good taste in music by giving them their 12 points...
That makes them finish ex-aequo with our awful untasty frenchies and that means too much! I feel so pleased for the latter's underperformance and so sad for the first ones' injustice!
Well, in fact, I did my best and I, who never ever before had taken my phone for any TV programm, have phoned twice (!) to try to get UK in the french points ...with no success : I must have been the only one in the country to have phoned for them
But what could I expect? In 2007, cheesy pop is dead and it looks like eastern Europe ain't the place for it to ressucite...

So what will I remember from this year's euro millesime?

First, that the winner's singer, though looking like a fat boy next door type lesbian and having 5 backing vocalist with brushed up hairdoo showing no piece of flesh at all (!), did a pretty good vocal performance and I won't complain about the good response she got in the votes.

On contrary, I can't understand that her leadership in the televoting could have been disputed by Ukrainian awful robotic man supposed to be vamped as a drag queen... Danish DQ, who was a real lady must have suffocated hearing this pastiche was supposed to have the same dressing goal... or are women in Ukraine that ugly? I have always felt drag-queens were all about glamour, glitter & beauty. Verka had only glittering outfits. The rest was only ridiculous and I don't even talk about the song!

My TOP songs from this year's entries have nearly all underperformed in the results though gettin' incredibly good performances by their artists and I won't talk any more of my poor Scooch...

- Edsilia Rombley did her best Anastacia impersonation in the semi-finale with a roaring vocal performance that should have led her to the top finalists and a tune that has HIT written all over it... Being robbed by some east european contestants of her place in finale is a real SHAME! I understand that she has even not stayed in Helsinki for the saturday night show and was back in her country showing her face while giving the votes.

- Danish DQ did a good job with his/her dancers on "Drama queen" and the song stayed glued in my head till the end of the show. I'll sure keep on listening to this tune some more!

- DJ Bobo tried his best to be Lordi's follower but although the song was memorable, maybe his performance suffered from too much dance and not enough breathing and no more studio's autotune... I'll still be adding his soon to be released album to my discography

- I liked the Belgium's entry from the CD but the performance was overall bad : it si hard to aternate high notes & low ones in live but the disco funky music was refreshing.

- Norway's spanish flavoured pop reminded me of carola but lacked a little thing that woudl have made the difference maybe.

- I fell in love with the Hungary's blues and would have thought it would finally finish higher in the finale. That girl really can sing with her heart! I'd be curious to hear a full album from her... On the same accoustic side, I really loved the german Sinatra boy : it even sounded like an english standard!

- I discovered Georgia's diva Sopho sounding like Björk would have sounded to me if she hadn't had that awful voice. Though a little too ethnic/tribal, the techno arrangements and the beautiful voice & chorus made me belt out some "My story, his story" in my flat as if I were his personal backing vocalist And she was really cute too. I'd like to know if she has some more music of that style available to check this a little more.

- Andorra tried a neopunk entry by sending a McFly/Busted boysband that failed to win a ticket to finale and Latvia's 6 tenors did a pretty good job at replicating Il Divo but it wasn't enough in the finale though...

- Greece & Turkey did their best to try to sound the same with Tarkan sound-a-likes Sarbel (young cute boy that would have performed better maybe if he had been a little more shirtless ) and Mr Dogulu, dressed in red and shaking it, shaking it too.

- While I'm in for real sex symbols & supposed ones, Spain did a wonderful job giving us 4 stallions dressed in white with a perfect dance pop song but there again they were maybe not showing enough chest or abs to get noticed. Belarus' Lady Di hidden son gets higher showing his torso with his John Barry sounding magical song.

- On the girlies side, Russia won the top place with the sexy trio Serebro but their song failed to get to #1. Other Short dress were used to different results by other female contestants and I will only thank Karolina's hair stylist for his wonderful work between the two shows : it was the least she could do to keep her shampoo publicity contract after the awful hairstyle she had on pre-finale. Moldova's miss Barbu chose leather pants to differ but I still wonder why nobody has ever explained to her that a song need to be sung ...not shouted, nor screamed! My hears are still bleeding from her performances...

Well, I think I'm finished with the ones who need a review... I just want to talk about some more contestants for their unabilities to gain any interest from me : Malta was so old fashioned that her two half-naked dancers were the only reason not to shut the TV down, the varied tribal & pop-opera influenced ones bored me, the old-fashioned rockers with long haired even more, while the Teapacks from Israel irritated me to push the mute button quickly after their chorus and the irish lullaby made me have a good sleep even before 22:00, which is a first EVER in my life!

Now I think it is high time for me to stop here and go to bed... It is starting to get late (or early in the morning?) and as I have nothing to celebrate tonight, there is no more reason to stay up all night partying...

Luckily I'll be making pleasant dreams of tomorrow UK chart placings, with Scooch entering the Top Ten maybe at the highest place? Who knows? I've ordered my CD single anyway and I'll keep playing it surely for a long time !

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sunday 13 May Edit

Incredible but true... They've made it to #5 in this week's UK Charts !

Some european people out there still love POP, I feel better now...

Marc Massive finally unleashed his Ego !

After years and years of performing his art on stages & on several singles, Marc Massive, frontman of his multi-partners music entity Massive Ego, has finally released his first Long Player CD, "Nite Klub Skewl" (on underground dance label Klone Records), and it's... em... MASSIVE!


The tracklisting of 13 tracks includes his previous singles and known songs as well as new anthems and after pre-ordering it back in January on Amazon and beeing delayed again and again, I've cancelled my order and bought it elsewhere to finally receive my CD full with a nice coloured booklet with photos, notes & credits yesterday. I've put it in my CD player and discovered the new tracks as well as the older ones and I must say that I LOVE IT at around 85% for there are 2 songs near the end that I, for now, don't like as much as ALL the others... That's a good rate anyway for a dance album... It's just that the title track is maybe more hard edged techno dance than other tracks and it'll take me longer to get into it and I'm so in love with the original version of 1996 Belvedere Kane's unreleased promo single "Never felt as good" (a work of ex-PWL Jewels & Stone) that I can't bear their cover version after just three listens.

And to talk a little bit more of the two greater fantastic producers/remixers that started their career at PWL, I have got to add that Barry Stone is one of Marc's partners in crime here as there are three other songs linked to him, the Gingell/Stone song "Murder", "Wrecked", he co-wrote with Mr. Massive himself, and the cover version of Duran Duran "Planet Earth", that he produced.
Among the other cover versions, there is naturally their Dead Or Alive version of "My heart goes bang" of which I owned the CD single of 2002, and dare I say that Marc Massive could have been the musical son of Pete Burns... Inspiration is not enough to call this. Marc must have had a musical crush on dead or Alive when he first turned up the TV and Barry Stone has collaborated with Pete too .
Then there are The Beloved's beautifully danced up "Sweet harmony", Cerrone's "Supernature", Divine's "You think you're a man", Depeche Mode's "Master & Servant", Animotion's "Obsession" & The Adventures' "Broken land". Marc co-wrote one more track, "Fight the feeling", which sees 80's Scarlet Fantastic beauty Maggie DeMonde feature (and here again another name picked up from Barry Stone's agenda I know but surely a singer Marc Massive gets inspiration from too) and it is one of my favourite ones! (with "Wrecked"). This original has HIT written all over it and it's got to be released as a single for me, and it'd change from the previous cover versions.

So Marc co-wrote 3 songs out of 13 and he co-produced 3 tracks too. The other major music directors are Barry Stone and Klone wizzard Ross Alexander. Other Klone relatives are invited on backing vocals, Jacquii Cann, Dusty O & Teresa Marie and the whole project sounds like a very good Klone release, which means
you gotta like your cover versions being danced up,
you gotta like your dance track to be camp pop & Hi-NRG inspired,
you gotta like to dance around your bedroom with your hands up in the air and the bassline on your hifi playin' loud & heavy,
you gotta like to be (or try to be) the singer's additional backing vocalist 'coz you can't help sing along with Mr. Massive when he does his Pete Burns on the mic
and...
that's all folks!

YOU GOTTA BUY IT
'cos it's better to buy a good dance album on an underground dance label than buy the latest cheap compilation at your local HMV to help the music we like to stay alive and to get maybe sooner than this one a second album full of pop lil' stars.

So don't stay away from these links :
http://www.myspace.com/marcmassive
http://www.massiveego.co.uk
http://klonerecords.com/releases/moreinfo.php?ID=271
where you can listen to their songs and buy the album.

Hugh Grant en Star Pop! dans le film

Bien sûr, je ne vais pas dire que Hugh Grant est le meilleur chanteur de l'année,
Bien sûr, je ne vais pas dire que "Le Come Back" (Music And Lyrics) est le film de l'année,
Bien sûr, je ne vais pas dire que "Pop! goes my heart" est la chanson de l'année,

...mais ce soir, après avoir profité du Printemps du cinéma à 3€50 pour aller voir ce film tandis que les giboulées de mars sévissaient sur ma Bretagne d'adoption, je ne peux m'empêcher de chantonner depuis le refrain de ce titre :
I never thought I'd ever lose my head but then POP! goes my heart...

Pur délice pastiche des année 80s servant de titre phare du passé pop du rôle interprété par Hugh Grant dans le film, celui d'Alex Fletcher, star improbable d'un groupe à mi chemin entre ABC et Wham!, il va pour le moment squater mon lecteur mp3 en attendant que je me procure la BO du film de toute urgence.
Pour mettre en valeur cette addictive composition, le réalisateur a concocté un clip digne de ces années berceau de ma culture musicale (et la votre?) et je n'ai pu résister à l'ajouter sur ma page pour tous ceux qui n'ont pas vu le film.

Hugh Grant est, comme d'habitude, irresistible dans ce film et, coaché par Martin Fry, le leader d'ABC justement, il a posé sa voix de manière tout à fait convenable sur les 3/4 des titres de la BO du film.
A retenir également, la ballade clef du film "Way back into love", qui aurait pu être écrite par Diane Warren et qu'il chante avec Haley Bennett, jeune actrice américaine qui explose dans le film avec des déhanchements lascifs mélange de Britney Spears et Shakira.

Le plus étrange est que ce faux groupe POP! rappelle aussi par certains aspects un passé moins lointain comme ce quatuor des années 2000 managé par Pete Waterman qui s'appelait lui aussi POP! ou les fameux STEPS dont le clip de "Chain reaction" avait une scène inoubliable dans un hopital comme celle du clip ci-dessus. Alors je rêve que les vrais POP! se reforment et relancent leur carrière... Jade McGuire, leur chanteuse principale avait une voix formidable et c'est dommage de ne plus l'entendre. "Without the boy" sera pour longtemps l'une des plus belles chansons d'amour teintée de mélancolie restant sur mon baladeur mp3... Et ce n'était qu'une face B !

Mais revenons au film...
Bon d'accord, une fois l'excitation post séance retombée, les chansons ne sont pas si inoubliables que ça mais le film est une agréable comédie romantique comme on les aime qui vous fait oublier les soucis, a fait rire plus d'un spectateur tout du long, et vous fait quitter la salle le sourire aux lèvres et une seule mélodie en tête : I never thought I'd ever lose my head but then POP! goes my heart...
Au fait, je vous conseille de rester pendant le générique de fin ; il s'accompagne d'un titre interprété par Haley qui ne figure pas sur le CD, "Invincible".

Pour finir, pour pouvoir l'entendre partout sur les radios et faire plus de buzz autour du film, je rêverais que "Pop! goes my heart" soit sorti comme single du faux groupe Pop! dans lequel Hugh Grant partage la vedette avec le craquant Scott Porter . Dommage qu'on ne le voit pas plus dans le film... Il est à croquer!

Eurovision 2007 : France gone mad... help Scooch go for UK!

Tonight I'm devasted, horrified, shocked, shot dead by the french public (and the jury's) votes that chose the song to go for France to Helsinki on the 12th of May for the Eurovision song contest 2007.

The Fatal Picards will represent our country with an awful pastiche song led by lyrics sung in french with a ridiculous english accent and a guitar chorus. Aimable & Son orchestre are not far ! This is the perfect song for a popular wedding party after 4 in the morning when everyone is drunk and wants to dance himself mad around the table trying to catch girls and steal them a kiss... I'm in hell!

The song is even bad enough and second degree to steal some voting to real serious eurovision entries and finish in the last ten placings for sure... I can't stand it!


Countdown to the desaster :

The show started right with Bob Sinclar's "Rock the party" sampling of C+C Music Factory line Everybody dance now! and I was prepared to see my favourite ones perform on stage, Jenifer Chevallier with the eurovision ballad "Mon étoile" (my star) and Estelle Lemée with the bubble pop "Comme un rêve" (like a dream) which reminded me of Ginie Line's 1999 take on the Eurovision internal french contest ("La même histoire") that failed against Nayah's "Je veux donner ma voix"...

The two hosts of the evening, Tex & Julien Lepers were awful, the first taking more interest in 2 cents' jokes than in knowing the title of the songs and the latter as always reading his memos.


First to compete were Les Vedettes, 6 majorettes dressed in red, with a song written by Katerine, "Vive papa", which, on a basic retro rockabillie beat, had them sing happily like bad backing vocalists that dad (apparently for Augusto Pinochet) is dead... 0/10

Then came MAP's "Grain d'sel" (litterally, grain of salt, but meaning they want to put their oar in), two rappers from north of France dressed like blue collars with caps that hammered their song like it should be as if they were in front of MTV's cameras... 2/10

Then came Jenifer Chevallier with her classic ballad "Mon étoile". She had 2 dancers and 3 vocalists with her, including a black guy that sung the high notes all along with her from the middle bridge part. They wear strange dresses & trousers and their performance was nice, the song classic but appealing though not a eurovision winner... 8/10

Then there was the Fatal Picards with "l'amour à la française" (love the french way). They all had a red rose and there was an irritating bald singer on speed singing along the lead singer all through the song. They seemed to have numerous fans in the crowd and elsewhere too as they are the winners...
I've said it all already, happy rockabillie song with awful way of singing the lyrics... 2/10
I HATE THAT SONG FOR GOING TO HELSINKI!

Then came more R&B/Rap/Riddim beats with Medi-T and "On & on" (On & On, you should've guessed!), two friends singing/rapping for friendship and peace between all colours of the world. The song came second to the show after getting to the final duel... Nice beat, good vocals and it'd have been fun to see France go to Eurovision with a french/english song for a time... 7/10

More urban rhythm then with Raï & R&B by BZR featuring Cheb Hamid rapping rather than singing "Galbi" (???)... Everything I dislike... 0,0000/10

Carribean short haired beauty Valérie Louri sung "Besoin d'ailleurs" (Need for somewhere else) after that. The song started slowly, very moody with african beats then got up with a storm before the end. Not a melody to really remember and vote for but a very nice dance & performance... It even made me like the song... 7/10

Do you remember the lithuanian entry of last year, LT United, singing We are the winners of Eurovision, we are, we are! we are, we are! THEY'RE BACK! or at least, they've been copied! It's a piece of shouting rock by The Wampas with a pathetic old rock leader taking his shirt off in the middle of his performance, running across the stage while shouting to us "Faut voter pour nous" (Gotta vote for us) and nearly losing his voice at moments, breaking it more than often but hey, that must be that, good ol' rock'n'roll . Not my cup of tea for sure but always better than the F***** Picards... 4/10

Charlotte Becquin and her all-woman band came to the stage then for a moody-rocky-shouty piece of non-sense called "Je veux tout" (I want it all). The song started so low that you couldn't understand a word she was singing then she got two steps behind her mic to shout so louder (and too far for her real vocal abilities) that you didn't understand anything more, then she got back to rumbling then back to shouting and when the girls finally left the stage, I got back to life... 3/10

Finally, miss bubble gum 2007, all dressed in pink & white like her dancers and with a pink scooter on stage, Estelle Lemée with "Comme un rêve", a piece of seventies pop that I liked and was my favourite ...before I saw her performance. She didn't give her song justice, singing a little out of tune when she had to sing in the high and looking so old fashioned, even for fans of Pop & Camp Eurovision like me that I was desperate not to want her to win anymore... 9/10 for the song, 5/10 for the performance . After that, I got high hopes for Jenifer but have been deceived she didn't even made it to the final two...


Now the cards are laid.
France will send an horrific song to this year's contest and we still need a real pop entry to save the Eurovision crown that has been stolen by KISS-a-monster-a-like Lordi last year...


ALL MY HOPES NOW GO TO...
UNITED KINGDOM!

Their Make Your Mind Up Competition to choose the right one to go to Helsinki is still to happen (on Saturday, 17th March) and the savers of pop are amongst them .

Six years after they've split, SCOOCH are back!
And I got all my fingers crossed that they will be be singing their camp anthemic song "Flying the flag (for you)" on Helsinki's euro stage.

Like Abba, they are two girls and two boys, they had 4 singles between 1999 & 2000 in the UK and in some other countries like Japan and were produced by Stock & Aitken (of legendary SAW but you all know that, don't you?).
They were opposed to UK number one group STEPS at the time and didn't challenge them : They disbanded after their first album's release while STEPS were still riding high in the UK charts.

But now they're back, all dressed like flight attendants and ready to take us to a pop flight to Eurovision Camp.
Clearly they got inspired by Kylie Minogue, her song "Light years" is not that far from here, but it sounds so good, cheesy and fun-tastic it deserves to win!

Sing with me :
Ba ba da Ba ba da Ba da da ba ba da
Ba ba da Ba ba da Ba da da ba ba da
We're flying the flag all over the world
We're flying the flag for you...

I imagine dancing steps with all four of them on stage waving flags around them with one eurovision flag, one european flag, one rainbow flag and the Union Jack... Would that be too much ?
NO!
This song is so camp!

Now go support them and hear it on their MySpace page :
http://www.myspace.com/scoochworld

Ba ba da Ba ba da Ba da da ba ba da... Ba ba da Ba ba da Ba da da ba ba da
That's universal language! As memorable as Kylie's "Can't get you out of my head". Since I heard their song yesterday, I can't get it out of my head .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17/03/07 EDIT :
TONIGHT THEY'VE MADE IT...
THEY'VE WON THE MAKING YOUR MIND UP FINAL AND WILL REPRESENT THE UNITED KINGDOM IN HELSINKI
VOTE FOR THEM!!

Another Michal's CD, the australian angel boy's

Another Michal's record in my music reviews today but this time we're flying away from Europe to Australia to read about his first long play CD from (already!) 2004... So it is nothing new but released on an independant label and available only from CDbaby.com, it's never too late to order.

I've ordered mine a couple of days ago and received it today. Shall I say that the CDbaby team is very friendly and efficient? They're suppliers for hard to find (because not released by major companies) stuff and they use humour in their mails, pack CDs well and I've never been deceived.

First, let's solve out who's Mr. Nicolas?
Well, let me say the important things about him only :
1/ He's got a marvellous voice of an angel, sometimes sounding warm and deep, sometimes higher and nearly feminine
2/ He looks like a greek god statue come to life
3/ He produces anthemic dance that fits perfectly every Sydney's gayfest Mardi Gras OR a dance music lover's CD player

If you're curious enough and want to read/see more of him, just go to his site www.michalnicolas.com or to his MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/michalnicolas if you want to hear some.


Now, let's get back to his album called "UnCovered", what sounds tacky as he show off his muscular body on the cover and booklet and there are 6 cover versions out of 13 tracks.


The first one that springs to my mind is the song that made me know of him, his wonderful version of Billie Ray Martin's 1994 anthem "Your loving arms". It is included in its wonderful Wayne G anthem radio version and in a longer (and darker) DJ Anim remix.
Maybe it's because of this song I ADORE and that always makes me sing along like a Jimmy Somerville in heat (to great shame from my neighbourhood), but I really think he gives it justice and can really compare to the original version, giving it a more festive and instant feeling, while Billie's version was more introspective and warm. The Wayne G heaven anthem should have been called orgasmic mix to tell the truth about it!

Now there are other covers, Pat Benatar's "Love is a batterfield", Bronski Beat's "Smalltown boy" (Michal's voice is incredible on it!), Lou Reed's & Queer As Folk UK theme's "Perfect day" and Maria McKee's "To deserve you".
The last one has been his second single and it is included in a Chris 'The Greek' radio version that is perfect for the dancefloor, more americanized than the versions Almighty did for Deja Vu feat. Tasmin. "Perfect day" finishes like a full on vocal gospel choir house anthem and makes you want to join a dancing crowd and put your hands up in the air singing along with Michal.

But Mr. Nicolas is not just a cover boy and he co-wrote the 7 other songs, mainly with his aussie producer Steve Peach (he worked with Tina Cousins, Lonnie Gordon, Märy Kiani & Deep Obsession to name a few I have in my disco).
There is a tribal deep house number "Feels like love", a seductive hypnotic trance anthem "I'm addicted", a trance aerial & epic journey called "That's the way I miss you", a beautiful EBTG inspired "Only if you love me", an electro disco & too much vocoderized "I lost my baby (to the DJ)" that is (to my ears) the only letdown of the album and... as I saved the best for last, two WONDERFUL angelic trance perfect songs that have been touched by a heavenly grace when they were in studios, "I will find you" and "The morning after", on which Michal' voice divinely melts with his background vocalist Erika.

For those who think pleasure depends on the size, I must add that there are only 4 tracks out of 13 that fit in the "radio edit" format while all the other are from 5'30 to 8'15 mixes (and that annoyed me a little at first listen cos I'm a true radio edits addict myself... but to my surprise, the songs don't seem too long, nor that long).
Some are quite melting into each other too and that irritates me a little but hey, that's a party album and they're not mixed, they just start when the prior ones cut. I only like it when there's an intro, a middle and an end, like for making love there's prelude, in-and-outs and cooling in each other's arms after gettin' off.
I guess this CD would then be, if transposed to love life, an orgasmic multi-partners orgy ; some tracks are seperate and others joined, some long and some short, and they cover many different styles, but all in a same dancing goal.

There are some big names on remix duties. I've already said it but let's do it again, Wayne G, Chris Panaghi, Julian Marsh, Paul Goodyear... Michal Nicolas has worked with Gerry DeVeaux & Rozalla on the (Ultra) DeVoted single's project too and I expect greater things to come from a singer that's so vocally talented and that's looking gorgeous & sexy!

So what am I hoping for now?
See Michal release a new album full of new songs in shorter versions. After this first CD for the clubs, I'd love to see a CD with dance/trance songs, some covers for good measure among them, and some slow ones too (his voice would sure fit well a drama ballad that will get our eyes all wet and nose sniffing) that could appear in a remix for dance form at the end of the tracklisting too for sure .
That is to say that after meeting him first with this sonic orgy, I'd hope next time we meet on CD, there'll be more intimate moments to dance to with him, at the beach, at the gym, on the road, at the club, in a disco, at Mardi Gras, on the couch, by the window while it's raining, same changing moods, but in more episodes 'cos 13 tracks are not enough!

That would be heaven on earth for sure but for now, I think I'm gonna take this CD to my car cos it'd make me feel good for the day while driving me to work tomorrow morning!

Now That's What I Call A Great Compilation! (Freemasons' Shakedown)

Freemasons, a duo of producers/remixers formed in mid 2004 by Russell Small, one half of hitmakers Phats & Small, and James Wiltshire, have just released their first album, "Shakedown", and it is a double CD compilation of their best remixes with a huge portion of self-made funky disco house anthems they've produced with great female vocalists like Siedah Garrett (of Michael jackson or Brand New Heavies fame), Sylvia Mason-James, Katherine Ellis or their usual favourite Amanda Wilson.

Here is the full tracklisting :

CD1 (mixed)
1. Intro
2. Beyonce : Déjà Vu (Freemasons remix)
3. Trick vs Freemasons : Zap Me Lovely
4. Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson : I Feel Like
5. Freemasons : Atlantic *
6. Freemasons : Pacific (Saxapella)
7. Fatboy Slim : Right Here Right Now (Freemasons remix)
8. Loleatta Holloway : Love Sensation '06 (Freemasons remix)
9. Faith Evans : Mesmerized (Freemasons remix)
10. Freemasons feat. Sylvia Mason-James : Nothing But A Heartache
11. Angie Stone : I Wasn't Kidding (Freemasons remix)
12. Freemasons feat. Siedah Garrett : Rain Down Love
13 Blaze feat. Barbara Tucker : Most Precious Love (Freemasons remix)
14. Dirty Old Ann feat. Kathy Brown : Turn Me On (Freemasons remix)

CD2 (mixed)
1. Heather Headley : In My Mind (Freemasons remix)
2. Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson : Love On My Mind
3. Freemasons : Vacancies *
4. Freemasons feat. Judie Tzuke : Love Don't Live Here Anymore
5. Disco Freaks feat. Rob Li & Amanda Wilson : Take Me To The Sun (Freemasons remix)
6. Studio B : C'mon Get It On (Freemasons dub mix)
7. Walken : Boy (Meets Girl) *
8. Freemasons feat. Katherine Ellis : When You Touch Me
9. Luther Vandross : Shine (Freemasons remix)
10. Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson : Watchin'
11. Freemasons : Desperados *
12. Freemasons feat. Julie Thompson : I'm Not Alone Now *
13. Herd & Fitz feat. Abigail Bailey : I Just Can't Get Enough (Freemasons remix)
14. Freemasons feat. Siedah Garrett : Rain Down Love (After Hours mix)

Note that five tracks (noted with an * above) are included as bonus encoded tracks in full length versions.

Apart from the artists whose remixes are included on their album, Freemasons have remixed other peoples like Jamiroquai, Black Fras, The Disco Boys, Xavier, Steve Smith, Supafly Inc., The Beach & Tia, but since their version of Beyoncé's "Deja vu" has been airplayed as usual version in the UK, they must be in BIG demand for new remixes so I'd bet this list will soon expand...

So what's good with this compilation?
Well, all the tracks sound like hits, even the new Freemasons ones. Their choice of songs and vocalists is great. Some songs are pure disco house next-to-be singles like "I feel like" or "Nothing but a heartache" and some others are more indie balearic house numbers like "Atlantic" or "Vacancies". It sounds like there ain't a single track out of place here but I suppose it's the least for mixed CDs .

Naturally included are Freemasons first three singles, "Love on my mind" (UK#11), "Watchin' "(UK#19) and "Rain down love"(UK#12) and I can't help but wonder which song will be their fourth...

What's wrong then?
All I can say is that I don't really like mixed CDs because the song are mixed into each other and there's no intro and no ending to each track and this kind of album is best listened in one continuous play.
But apart from that letdown (for me), all I would say is that I miss some of their remixes like "Moving into light" by Black Fras and Jamiroquai's "(Don't) Give hate a chance" and I would have loved to see them included in the mix, maybe more than Studio B or Fatboy Slim but these ones have been greater hits in the UK charts... In fact, Russell & James have just let me know that they haven't been able to clear the rights for these two remixes and licence them for this Mix. That makes me think that it must have been a piece of hell to get all copyrights from mother record companies of the artists whose remixes are included here! .

Now the best you can do is go to their MySpace page and hear more of them and decide to check it out : http://www.myspace.com/freemasons
I have to say I won my "Shakedown" copy and would like to thank their label Loaded Records once more for picking me up .

Disco Revival from Australian Divas

Give me a decade that hasn't had its disco revival full of cover versions sung by much or less talented vocalists than the originals, compilations trying to list the eternal disco classics and selling us always the same clichés, discoballs all over the TV shows and things like that...
There ain't a single one all around the planet and at the end of 2006, a Disco Revival Festival took place in Australia without a doubt!

In a couple of weeks have been released in these territories two incredibly good albums full of party anthems & disco stompers. The first one is by four girls from Real TV world, the "Young Divas", the second from a real disco queen coming back, Marcia Hines, and is called "Discothèque".

I won't try here to choose between the two of them as I like them both. They enlist good songs, the ladies can sing, the production makes them sound fine and they should both belong to every disco lover around the world collection for sure. That's said!
I will only try to give you more infos on these ladies and the songs they chose to re-do on their albums.

So first, there's the self-titled Young Divas album.

Who are they?
From left to right, they are Emily Williams, Ricki-Lee Coulter, Paulini Curuenavuli and Kate DeAraugo. They were all contestants on Australian Idol TV Show and all but Emily already have had solo album(s) released.

The story of their partnership is that Sony-BMG wanted to promote a summer tour of them all with a single and the "Young Divas" were born.

The song chosen is not a disco classic but a 80's hit by disco queen Donna Summer, the Stock Aitken & Waterman song that relaunched her career back in 1989, "This time I know it's for real". It reached #2 on the ARIA charts and the tour was a huge success so they decided to record a full album and here are the songs that matched the concept :

- "What a feeling", everybody knows this classic from the soundtrack of the 1983 film "Flashdance" but who does remember its original singer was Irene Cara and that it is a Giorgio Moroder song? (UK#2)
- "This time I know it's for real", I already said it : a Donna Summer song from 1989 written by UK Hit Machine Stock Aitken & Waterman (UK#3).
- "Right about now", this one is more edgy as it's a 2004 original song by german funky house producer Mousse T.
- "Gloria", the Umbertto Tozzi song that Laura Branigan immortalized in 1982 (UK#6).
- "Happenin' all over again", another Stock Aitken & Waterman hit from 1990 by house diva Lonnie Gordon (UK#4) and the second single off this album (ARIA#7)
- "Searchin' ", a hit of 1984 by Hi-NRG lady Hazell Dean (UK#6) and the third single off their album in Australia.
- "Woman in love", the 1980 classic by Barbra Streisand (UK#1).
- "It's raining men", the forever gay anthem of the Weather Girls, hit of 1983 (UK#3).
- "Let's hear it for the boy", another gay classic of 1984 by Deniece Williams, UK#2.
- "She works hard for the money", another Donna Summer single from 1983, a minor UK hit but a US #3.
- "Say I'm your number one", a soul ballad written by Stock Aitken & Waterman (again!) for Princess in 1985 (UK#7).
- "You'll never stop me loving you", #1 hit for Sonia in 1989 and the fourth Stock Aitken &Waterman song on the album, that must've been a tribute!
- "I will always love you", the Dolly Parton song that is well-known for being the #1 song from the Whitney Houston film "Bodyguard" from 1992. Note that this song, a solo from Emily, was not on the original release and has been included on re-editions of their album but is downloadable for free from their official site .

So what's up? Not that much of disco anthems on there. Considering the age of the ladies, it's more of a 80's tribute album and the songs go from Disco to Hi-NRG with some ballads too.
But I can't help but think there's a huge disco feeling spread all along the tracks that may have to do with the powerful mix of their four strong voices roaring like 70's disco divas...

Now comes the time to turn the interest to a real disco diva, a woman that started her career back in these days, released successful albums from 1975 to 1982 in Australia then came back to the music scenes in 2000.

If you remember the 1997 hit "It's alright" by Deni Hines, you may be interested to know that Marcia is Deni's mother, so talent is in the family for sure .

Here we get a full rendition of real disco hits from her time but none are unknown to our ears for they've already been covered by many peoples since their first release.

- "Disco inferno", a 1977 hit by The Trammps that's been covered by Tina Turner in 1993 for the soundtrack of the film on her life "Tina".
- "Never knew love like this before", the 1980 UK#4 for Stephanie Mills that's been covered by so many people since then that you know this song for sure, if not her original version.
- "Stomp!", the 1980 Brothers Johnson disco funk classic, Mr. Quincy jones himself did its rendition of the song in 1996. Deni Hines joins her mother on vocals here for a stompin' duet!
- "Right back where we started from", a 1976 disco UK#8 hit for Maxine Nightingale, that's been covered in 1989 to #4 by Miquel Brown's daughter, Sinitta.
- "Best of my love" a 1977 US#1 for The Emotions and co-written by Earth, Wind & Fire.
- "You should be dancing", nothing more to say for this one but two words : Bee Gees.
- "Shake your groove thing", a Peaches & Herb disco funk hit from 1979 that regained popularity when featured on the soundtrack "Priscilla, Queen of the desert".
- "Never can say goodbye", the Gloria Gayner eternal track (after "I will survive") that's been immortalized again by Jimmy Somerville & The Communards in the 80's.
- "Last dance", the Donna Summer disco anthem of 1978.
- "I can't stand the rain", the Eruption greatest hit that, then again, has been covered by Tina Turner.
- "You to me are everything", 1976 #1 single for UK group The Real Thing. Funny enough, it was covered in 1991 by the same Sonia the Young Divas are covering the "You'll never stop me loving you".
- "Blame it on the boogie", the Jacksons 1980 hit, UK trio Big Fun covered under the wings of producers Stock Aitken & Waterman back in 1989.
- "Let's groove", a 1981 hit for Earth, Wind & Fire.
- "I'm coming out", the forever gay anthem of Diana Ross written by Chic in 1980.

So to sum it up, on this one, there's a lot of funky roots added to the disco rhythms and the girl can touch soul too. But your feet will be moving all time the CD plays. "Discothèque" says it all !


In the end, two complementary albums, Marcia's covering the 70's to 80's while the Divas go from 80's to 90's, but with the same disco vibe and dance energy you can't help but get up and dance to.
So go have a listen at their offical site if you care :
http://www.youngdivas.com.au/ and http://www.marciahines.com.au/
and a nice place to buy on line australian CDs is http://www.sanity.com.au/

and don't forget...
"We spent the night in Frisco
At every kind of disco
I just can't control my feet..."

Un texte, une chanson, une suite de mots qui résonne dans ma tête depuis longtemps...

C'est il y déjà pas mal d'années de celà, qu'après avoir écouté un album fort en thème (où l'on découvrait notamment pour la première fois le talent d'auteur de Lionel Florence) que me sortait presque d'une traite le texte que j'ai décidé de partager avec vous aujourd'hui. Il est attaché à une mélodie (connue de moi seul, ça va pas être facile à suivre pour vous, désolé!) et ne vous touchera peut-être pas mais il fait partie de moi et j'avais envie de le partager : la chanson se nomme "Plus le temps"...

Je n'ai
Plus de temps
A perdre avec
Toi
Avec
Tout ce qui ne
dure pas,
C'est comme ça,
On ne choisit pas.

Je n'ai
Plus le temps
De vivre comme
Tout autre homme
Vivrait
J'ai
Plus le temps
D'faire semblant,
Je vis au présent.

Je sais bien que ça prend de court
Tes rêves d'av'nir, tes rêves d'amour

Mais moi,
J'n'ai plus d'av'nir
A construire,
Juste la peur
De n'pas finir
Le meilleur,
Est à vivre
Tant que bat le coeur.

Ne m'demande surtout pas c'qui m'arrive, ce qui m'a changé, tu sais,
On n'a pas toujours l'choix de sa vie mais je n'veux rien regretter

Je n'ai
Plus de temps
A perdre, si
Tu m'comprends
Fais un si-
-gne, de la main,
Car demain,
Tout s'ra p'têt' fini.

Je n'veux pas que tu pleures pour moi,
Pas de pitié, de peur, crois-moi,

La vie
Ne fait pas
De cadeau,
Si
On fait pas gaffe,
Il prend l'eau,
Le bateau,
Et l'on coule
Sans plus dire un mot.

La vie est trop cruelle, on se dit qu'ça n'arrive qu'aux autres mais
C'est pas vrai, c'est pareil pour tout l'monde mais on préfère oublier.

Mais j'n'ai
Plus de temps
A espérer
Qu'un délai
M's'ra accordé
Je sais bien
Chaque matin,
Que mes jours sont comptés.

Je n'ai
Plus le temps
Que de penser
A c'que j'veux faire,
A rêver
Que le jour
De mon tour,
J'n'aurai rien oublié.

Je veux vivre chaque seconde
Comme si c'était la fin du monde
Et surtout sans rien oublier,
J'voudrais ne pas trop y penser.

Je n'ai
Plus le temps,
Je sais
Qu'tu sais.
Maintenant,
J'peux m'en aller,
Libéré,
L'amour, c'est
C'est fait
Pour partager...

Toute réaction sera bienvenue même si je pense toujours que sans cette petite musique qui me trotte dans la tête et rythme ces lignes, ça ne doit pas rendre grand-chose...
Alors si un surdoué du piano veut que je lui fredonne mon air et se propose de me faire l'accompagnement, je posterai le texte et la musique . Avis aux amateurs!