“Harvey is a cool, calm, plainspoken singer; his true voice has always come through his sense of arrangement, and his ability to render exquisite beauty and apocalyptic clamor with the same brushstroke.” – Pitchfork
Mick Harvey has unveiled a new track, taken from his fourth and final volume of Serge Gainsbourg translations, Intoxicated Women, out via Mute on January 20, 2017. “ Contact,” a Space Age pop song originally sung by Brigitte Bardot and released in 1968, features Channthy Kak of Cambodian Space Project and frequent collaborator Xanthe Waite ( Terry) on vocals. Listen to and share “ Contact” HERE. Intoxicated Women concentrates on the duets by Gainsbourg, mainly during the 60s, in a period where he was focusing his songwriting on women singers such as France Gall, Juliette Greco and most famously, Brigitte Bardot. Here, Harvey has enlisted the talents of guest singers Channthy Kak (Cambodian Space Project), Australian singers Xanthe Waite (Terry, Primo), Sophia Brous, Lyndelle-Jayne Spruyt and Jess Ribeiro and the German chanteuse Andrea Schroeder plus a special appearance on “Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth” by Harvey’s son, Solomon. Intoxicated Women opens with a stunning version of “Je T’aime… (Moi non plus)” – here titled “Ich Liebe Dich… (Ich Dich Auch Nicht)” - rendered in the sexiest imaginable German by the divine Ms. Schroeder and culminates with “Cargo Cult,” the closing track from the classic Histoire de Melody Nelson album. In between we are treated to a smorgasbord of Gainsbourg gems in English (with a bit of Khmer thrown in). Mick Harvey explains, “After the initial recordings for Delirium Tremens, JP Shilo and I continued investigating the duets and female songs, many of which were unknown to me. So it became a voyage of discovery into quite a lot of material I hadn’t heard before. There are even a couple of songs for which the only versions existing from the 60s are from TV performances Serge gave.” [“The Drowned One” (La Noyée) and “Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth” (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup)] Recent reissues of Vol. 1 and 2 rekindled Harvey’s interested in the Gainsbourg translations, and twenty years after the release of Vol. 1 - Intoxicated Man (originally released in 1996), work began on what would become Volumes 3 and 4. Recorded in late 2015 in Melbourne with J.P. Shilo and the rest of his Antipodean-based live band, 10 songs were tracked at Birdland Studios. The project then relocated to Berlin where a further nine songs were recorded with Toby Dammit (The Stooges, Residents) and Bertrand Burgalat (of French label Tricatel) who was the string arranger on the first two volumes. The resultant recordings served to whet Harvey’s appetite for more and almost immediately work continued back in Melbourne in order to have enough material to fill two new volumes. Along with principle musical collaborator, Shilo (with whom Harvey also worked on Rowland S. Howard’s Pop Crimes) and Melbourne based musicians Glenn Lewis and Hugo Cran, Harvey enlisted the aforementioned female singers to help complete this final volume in the series. Listen to a sampler for Intoxicated Women HERE. Listen to “Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth,” a translation of Gainbourg’s 1967 duet, “Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup” – one of many songs Gainsbourg wrote for the French yé yé singer France Gall – HERE sung with Harvey’s son, Solomon.
 Intoxicated Women – Tracklisting and Featured VocalistsIch Liebe Dich...Ich Dich Auch Nicht (Je T'Aime… Moi Non Plus) - featuring Andrea Schroeder & Mick Harvey on vocalsAll Day Suckers (Les Sucettes) - with Mick Harvey on vocalsContact - featuring Channthy Kak & Xanthe Waite on vocals Prévert's Song (Chanson de Prévert) - featuring Jess Ribeiro & Mick Harvey on vocals The Eyes To Cry (Les Yeux Pour Pleurer) - featuring Sophia Brous on vocals Puppet Of Wax, Puppet Of Song (Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son) - feat Xanthe Waite on vocals Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup) - featuring Solomon Harvey & Mick Harvey on vocals God Smokes Havanas (Dieu est un Fumeur des Havanes) - featuring Andrea Schroeder & Mick Harvey on vocals While Rereading Your Letter (En Relisant Ta Lettre) - featuring Sophia Brous & Mick Harvey on vocals Sensuelle et Sans Suite - featuring Lyndelle-Jayne Spruyt on vocals The Homely Ones (Les Petits Boudins) - featuring Xanthe Waite on vocals Lost Loves (Les Amours Perdues) - with Mick Harvey on vocals Striptease - featuring Andrea Schroeder on vocals The Drowned One (La Noyée) - featuring Jess Ribeiro & Mick Harvey on vocals Cargo Cult (Cargo Culte) - with Mick Harvey on vocals
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment