Thursday, January 19, 2006

Isabelle ANTENA/whisperin & hollerin

'L'ALPHABET DU PLAISIR (BEST OF 1982 - 2005)'   

-  Label: 'LTM'
-  Genre: 'Pop' -  Release Date: '17th October 2005'-  Catalogue No: 'LTMCD 2542'

Our Rating: 9 stars/10
Why is it, that when it comes to women singing breathily down a microphone, their eyes closed and their body swaying to the gentle beats of the music, that French women somehow manage to do it so much better than everyone else??

Is it due to their inbuilt sexual magnetism which seeps its way into their music, seducing listeners on the way? Or is it French woman's sophisticated nature, which reflects itself in the tunes, or could it be the way that when a song is sung in French it sounds a million times better than in any other language?

Who knows? French women are one of the eternal mysteries of life, and singer Isabelle Antena is a lady who epitomises her kind to perfection. Her Best Of album 'L'Alphabet Du Plaisir' is a collection of the artist's work from 1982 to the present day.


For those of you who have never heard of her name before, Antena started out in a French jazz trio called Antena, before
going on to collaborate with artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Henri Mancini (of Pink Panther theme tune fame) and other jazz greats. Her music is a mix of Brazilian jazz, funk and soul and the result is absolutely breathtaking. 'L'Alphabet Du Plaiser' is an album packed with 20 beautiful tracks full of energy, life and passion. A real treat to listen to!

 
author: Charlotte Otter

ANTENA/Tangents review

 
Devotion To Duty
Shop Around 20
Taking pride of place in my room at the moment are the four releases from the Numero Group. They are exquisite pop artefacts. The attention to detail is impressive. And I urge you all to indulge.

The Numero Group is a bespoke salvage operation, operating out of Chicago, and run by music obsessives Tom Lunt and Ken Shipley. Quite rightly they invest a lot of love into creating beautiful objects, with detailed booklets, loads of photos. And best of all consistently themed, generic packaging. Now I’m a real sucker for that sort of thing. You get it a lot with books like the Penguin Classics, or the Rebel Inc Classics series but it’s frustratingly rare with records. Though, in fairness, Ze, Impulse!, Kent, Blood and Fire, and Soul Jazz are honourable exceptions.

The Numero Group is running a wonderfully named Eccentric Soul series, focussing on lost local soul/funk labels from the ‘60s and ‘70s. So far the spotlight’s been on Capsoul from Columbus, Ohio, and Bandit from Chicago, and the music’s sensationally uplifting and in turn raises wonderful questions about just how much amazing music was produced by local independent soul/funk labels at this time. Quite simply if you like your old soul and funk stuff, you’ll love these sets.

My own favourite Numero release is the salvaged set of Camino Del Sol by Antena, with lots of lovely extras. Think Astrid Gilberto and Tom Jobim doing Suicide’s Be Bop Kid or Cheree, throw in Francoise Hardy and the Marine Girls, and you will be in the area covered by these young French explorers at the start of the ‘80s. These frail sounds are utterly heartwarming and deliciously danceable. Originally released on the excellent Crepescule label, it all ties into a great story about the adventuresomeness beyond punk on the European mainland think of LiliPUT, Malaria!, Marine for starters.

Antena’s story like so many others of the time is a tragic tale of false starts and unrealised potential, nonchalance and a blatant disregard for the rules of the game. I loved their 'Be Pop single madly, and it was almost a manifesto for years. It thankfully has been salvaged by our old friends at LTM, as part of their series of Isabel Antena reissues. These are well worth investigating after indulging in the glories of Camino Del Sol, though the first En Cavale is very much of its time. With the ubiquitous Camelle Hinds on bass, Danny Cummings on percussion, and Martin Hayles (of Orange Juice fame) at the controls, it’s pleasantly funky, lightly latin-esque new pop. The 1987 follow-up Hoping For Love is more jazzy, and all the better for it.

Friday, January 13, 2006

ANTENA/indie pop Italy

La cantante francese Isabelle Antena esordì nei primissimi '80 nei tour di Paul Haig, Tuxedomoon e Cabaret Voltaire.
Nel 1982 si mise in proprio, e aiutata dagli strumentisti Sylvain Fasy e Pascale Moiroud fondò Antena: voce, sintetizzatori, drum machines, harpsichord, percussioni...
 

 
 
 

Discografia:

• Camino del sol (Les Disques du Crépuscule, EP 1982, LP/CD 1988, Numero Group, 2004)

Sito Ufficiale Numero Group:
www.numerogroup.com/numero.html
 
 

 
 
 


Camino Del Sol
(Numero Group, 2004)
 
 

"this record almost didn't happened. It was an accident. A cheap gamble"
"before there was Air or Stereolab, there were three french kids running around streets of Brusells making a record that no one wanted to hear"
(su "Camino del Sol", dal sito di Numero Group).

Le ristampe infondono passione filologica. Da anni questo delizioso e misterioso dischetto campeggiava nella mia collezione di cd, e, come per l'omonimo dei Fantastic Something, mai m'ero chiesto dell'origine, nonostante l'ascoltassi spesso.
Semplicemente stava lì, senza troppi perché. Lo avevo comprato usato da Dark Star (facciamo un po' di pubblicità), per via della copertina, senza prima ascoltarlo, garante il marchio "Disques Du Crepuscule", dei Paul Haig, Tuxedomoon, Joy Division, Durutti Column.

L'omissione della data di pubblicazione originaria sul CD in mio possesso, intricava la matassa. Infiniti dubbi sorsero riguardo Antena, tanto ampiamente quegli eterei, minimali, obliqui elettro-bossa erano de-contestualizzati, oscuri, sorprendenti, niente affatto seguaci di futili mode.
Mi dicevo: sarà fine '80? inizio'90? Poi, quando lessi 1982, trasalii.

Isabelle Antena e soci furono una one album band, in grado di lasciare profonde, distintive orme, sia pure immaginarie e inconscie, come Young Marble Giants di "Colossal Youth".
Il fatto è che riuscirono nell'impresa con un singolo e un Ep.

Se "Camino del Sol" avesse prodotto un qualsivoglia seguito, discografico o di pubblico, staremmo a citare Antena diffusamente, da almeno un ventennio.
Ab initio fu un singolo ("The boy from ipanema", maggio 1982), seguito da un telegrafico, sfuggente Ep di cinque brani ("achilles", "silly things", "camino del sol", "bye bye papaye", sisséxa", la scaletta originaria, settembre '82), entrambi targati Crepuscule.
Nel 1988 l'Ep venne accorpato coi brani ex singolo, e stampati su Cd. Nel 2004, la nuova definitiva ristampa.
L'indimenticabile la copertina di Benoît Hennebert ritrae la terrazza di una villa, estremamente simile a quella del "Che?" polanskiano. Vuoto e spettrale, questo ambiente, nel proprio biancore silenzioso e sinistro violato da squarci d'ombra, sembra attendere qualcuno.

La musica: tristi tropici, letteralmente. Una straniante, onirica atmosfera strumentale creola, tribaloide, sovente kraftwerkizzata. Flussi di synt autobahn percorsi dalla calda carezzevole voce di Isabelle.
La scaletta è del tutto inconsueta e pregevole, sin dalla incipiente "boy from Ipanema"; indispensabile lussuosa rilettura della Girl Jobimiana, un'elettro-samba dell'assurdo, patrocinata da nient'altri che John Foxx.

Altrettanto spiazzanti "achilles" (il brano che inaugurava l'ep), rammentante l'inquieto synt-pop da Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark esordienti. Sulle ambigue eccelse "silly things", "noelle a hawaii", "to climb the cliff", Isabelle è un'Astrud Gilberto che si racconta sul lettino dello psicanalista (anzi, sull'amaca, nella terrazza che dà sul mare, in vacanza).
Su "les demoiselles de rochefort" (altra disorientante cover), "spiral staircase" e "unable" sembra di udire una Laetitia-Stereolab... turned to hysteria.

Prima o poi qualche santo di turno (segnatamente Numero Group) si occupa sempre di una ristampa. Non senza travagli, in questo caso. Ma ciò che conta è il risultato.
Questa è una ristampa sontuosa e tirata a lucido; con brani inediti o varianti ipanemiche. Io intanto recensisco il vecchio album Crepuscule in mio possesso (non mi si tacci di superficialità!).

Se oggi il mondo può ri-scoprire il valore di "Camino del Sol", gran merito va attribuito ai tipi di Numero Group, Ken Shipley e Tom Lunt (già responsabili della ristampa degli Eccentric Soul). Come stregoni voodoo, con un sortilegio i due hanno destato questa evasiva sulfurea opera dallo stato comatoso, zombesco, in cui versava.

Grazie al restauro (peccato solo per la copertina, in origine quasi monocromatica, qui rivisitata perde d'ambiguità), quest'album diventa oggi un piccolo, irrinunciabile classico del pop anni '80 o anche omnibus, tanto riottosi questi suoni erano e restano, a posarsi, e risolversi.
"Camino del Sol" è un suono, una situazione, un'esperienza, assolutamente fascinosa e perturbante. Mai del tutto compreso, scorre imperscrutabile, dissonante, integro, intrigante.
Una volta che girerà sul piatto, rischierà l'heavy rotation per molto tempo a venire.

Fabio

Thursday, January 12, 2006

ANTENA/norway review

1. Camino del sol
2. To climb the cliff
3. Silly things
4. Sissexa
5. Achilles
6. Bye bye Papaye
7. Noelle A Hawai
8. Les demoiselles de rochefort
9. Spiral staircase
10. Unable
11. The boy from Ipanema
12. Seaside weekend
13. Frantz
14. Ingenuos


Camino del sol

Antena

I amar prestar sen:
han mathon ne nen, han mathon ne chae...
a han noston ned wilith.

Du tror kanskje du har hørt dem på Petre. Du tar feil.

Den franske jenteelektronika-trioen Antena, ga ikke ut særlig mange utgivelser på det europeiske søsterselskapet til Factory Records. Mest kjent er de for den horror-monotone casiocoveren av Stan Getz sin nutrasweetklassiker ”The girl from Ipanema". Selvsagt heter den ”The boy from Ipanema”. Selvsagt.

EP-en ”Camino del sol” kom egentlig ut i 1980, men ble utvidet til en fullengder i 1982, som i følge hefteteksten skapte forvirring. Anmelderne rev seg i håret, prøvde å stirre platen i senk, brukte den til frisbee og dartskive – alt annet enn å anmelde den. Ingen klarte å knekke koden.

Og så forsvant Antena.

And some things that should not have been forgotten...were lost.
History became legend...legend became myth...

Jada, mythos meg her, og mythos meg der. Hysj nå.

21 år senere har det lille selskapet Numerogroup forbannet seg over verdens utilstrekkelighet og gitt ut ”Camino del sol” på nytt. Den har ikke blitt en dag eldre. Faktisk er det noe med denne Joy Division møter Jane Birkin på mambokurs-følelsen. Noe som gjør at dette sparker vel så mye rompe som en hvilken som helst Warp-skive.

Det er svalt som marmor, men varmer som en sør-europeisk sommerdag omtrent i midten av juli. Det er fraværende og liksom postmodernistisk, men har samtidig en nærhet i seg som ikke er en selvfølge i elektronisk musikk i dag.

And we forgot the taste of bread, the sound of trees,
the softness of the wind ... We even forgot our own name.

Jaja, de har skjønt poenget nå. Hysj.

It's mine! My own. It came to me. My precious.

Hysj, sa jeg!

Dette er sommerplaten for deg som ikke liker å få sola midt i øynene. Men som like fullt liker å sitte i den varme delen av skyggen. Dette er platen for deg som ikke helt liker Pet Shop Boys, men ikke helt forstår hvorfor. Dette er platen for deg som vet at Casio ikke bare er en klokke.

And we forgot the taste of bread, the sound of trees,
the softness of the wind. We even forgot our own name...

ANTENA/all music guide

Camino del Sol (Numero Group)
01/01/2004
 album reviews

One of the lesser stars in the Factory Records universe, Antena were a mutant anomaly, a chance meeting of Jobim samba and Young Marble Giants electro-pop austerity. Camino del Sol collects every single and the lone EP of the same title that they would produce. Few heard them in the early '80s when they were around, partially because they were stuck in the wasteland of Factory Benelux, the Belgian little brother of the main Factory operation in Manchester that never had the sway of its elder. It probably didn't help that Young Marble Giants spinoff group Weekend and labelmates A Certain Ratio were plying a similar fusion of Latin rhythms and pop song structure, although neither produced an end result as intimate or insular as that of Antena. Isabella Antena's chanteuse-whisper vocals provide one of the clues to the group's uniqueness, as do the pencil-thin synth lines and genteel bossa nova drum machine patterns -- both of which sound out of place among their contemporaries, with the exception of John Foxx, but have a revelatory quality in light of groups that have come since; think Smokey & Miho, Adult., Kahimi Karie, Arto Lindsay, even Beck. Added to the wonder of this rediscovery are great liner notes and a respectable package that harks back to Factory's heyday. ~ Wade Kergan, All Music Guide

 album credits

Giles Martin
Engineer

Ken Shipley
Liner Notes, Reissue Producer, A&R

Benoit Hennebert
Photography, Cover Design

Frank Brinkhuis
Liner Notes

Antena
Producer

John Foxx
Producer

Gareth Jones
Engineer

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

ANTENA/Gullbuy review

Its funny writing this review in Boston on a typically rainy day. I imagine the weather was like this when Antena's mini-album Camino del sol was recorded -- with the heavens opening up on Brussels. Antena was Isabelle Powaga, Sylvain Fasy and Pascale Moiroud, three friends from the South of France who finally found a home for their music on the independent Belgian label Les Disques du Crepuscule. Amidst the very old European buildings and typical grey weather, they dreamt of sunshine.

I know its a bit cliche to say this but, listening to the album again, it strikes me as how timeless it is, the musical references are obvious but skewed in just the right way, to make it sound innovative. This disc transports you to a warmer climate through its Brazilian roots. Its as if they wanted to craft their own versions of Tom Jobim songs (they go so far as to create their own cover with The Boy from Ipanema).

Neil Tennant, later of Pet Shop Boys fame, coined the term electro-samba while reviewing Antena for Smash Hits in 1982. Electro-samba it is. I love the production on this record -- it is rather sparse which complements the drum machine and vocal effects well. The songs are sung in French and English, lending the album an international feel as a whole. Europeans in Hot Weather. Numero Group's CD collects the entire output of Antena, the mini-album and singles, and re-arranges the tracks on this disc. Its hard not to love this disc, Antena took such care in writing songs, this is perhaps why there are so few of them, each is like sunkissed tropical cocktail, sweet and precious. They toured extensively in Europe with Tuxedomoon, 23 Skidoo, The Pale Fountains and Cabaret Voltaire. After that they were gone, the band expanded and Isabelle took over the musical direction of the group. It was re-named 'Isabelle Antena'. But that's another story.

Its hard for me to pick favorites on a release such as this. So I'll start with the beginning, Noelle a Hawaii, was my introduction to Antena, its their 'Christmas' song, which came out on Les Disques du Crepuscule's Christmas compilation Ghosts of Christmas Past, I love its vocals, where each girl seems to complete the other's sentence-- it also contains the line 'noel au crepuscule' (Christmas at Twilight). Then Camino del Sol, which has to be the ultimate humid holiday song, its full of sea, sex, and sun. Camino del Sol was also included on (the German label) Crippled Dick Hot Wax's compilation of erotic pop songs Chansons des Perverts. It is an elegant, lush, vibrant track that conjures up memories of an escape to the perfect sunny destination.

Last, but not least, their cover of the Michel Legrand classic Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (the song they cover is originally titled Chanson des Jumelles). This track is from French director Jacques Demy's 1967 film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort and was originally sung by Catherine Deneuve and her sister, Françoise Dorléac. The original track is admittedly, a bit more jazzy and produced, while Antena's version is a bit more spare in its production but every bit as cheerful and fun.

I love, I love, I love Antena. This CD should turn on a whole new audience to their happy sounds. Let it transport you to that humid tropical, clothing optional resort you've always dreamed about.

---George F. Killgoar III

ANTENA/Whisperin & Hollerin

'ISABELLE ANTENA'
'L'ALPHABET DU PLAISIR (BEST OF 1982 - 2005)'

- Label: 'LTM'
- Genre: 'Pop' - Release Date: '17th October 2005'- Catalogue No: 'LTMCD 2542'

Our Rating:
Why is it, that when it comes to women singing breathily down a microphone, their eyes closed and their body swaying to the gentle beats of the music, that French women somehow manage to do it so much better than everyone else??

Is it due to their inbuilt sexual magnetism which seeps its way into their music, seducing listeners on the way? Or is it French woman's sophisticated nature, which reflects itself in the tunes, or could it be the way that when a song is sung in French it sounds a million times better than in any other language?

Who knows? French women are one of the eternal mysteries of life, and singer Isabelle Antena is a lady who epitomises her kind to perfection. Her Best Of album 'L'Alphabet Du Plaisir' is a collection of the artist's work from 1982 to the present day.

For those of you who have never heard of her name before, Antena started out in a French jazz trio called Antena, before
going on to collaborate with artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Henri Mancini (of Pink Panther theme tune fame) and other jazz greats. Her music is a mix of Brazilian jazz, funk and soul and the result is absolutely breathtaking. 'L'Alphabet Du Plaiser' is an album packed with 20 beautiful tracks full of energy, life and passion. A real treat to listen to!
author: Charlotte Otter

Monday, January 09, 2006

ANTENA_ADLIB (Japan)

■ Early 80's Post Punk/
Alternative Acoustic etc...
パンク少年期から表現欲望に目覚めてきた入り口あたり...まるでリトマス紙のように若き感性に影響を
与えてくれた盤たち。後半のソフト系...「日常の視点で作られる音楽」を軸に紹介しています。   




■ ANTENA:CAMINO DEL SOL (1982)

「日常のレベルや目線で作られた音楽」...この時期次々に生まれた(主に)ヨーロッパのインディペンデント・レーベルから発信された、良質で嘘のない音楽に接しながら、同時期にそれらと同様の精神で阿佐ヶ谷のアパートでコツコツとイメージの浮かぶままに曲を作っていた美術学生...当時の僕はだいたいそんな感じだったと思う。/このアンテナのデビュー作品に流れる「雰囲気」というのも...日射し/風/(部屋でも外でもなく、両方が混在しうる環境としての)庭だったり、テラスだったりのイメージ...それらを含めての(特別な場所の為ではない)「日常の音楽」の空気に満ちている。...(前記した例えと同様に)この盤も、ボサ・テイストでありながらもその音や全体の印象はよりパーソナル・ガレージ空間で響いていて、出口はボサノヴァでなく新たなオルタナ・ミュージックとして生きている「反大衆の為の音楽」。まさにジャケットのイメージ通りの世界(裏ジャケの、自然光で写る自然なメンバーフォトもいい)。当時はちょっと暗いかな...とも思っていたけど現在の方がよりしっくりきている。/素晴らしきこの盤の後、より音楽性はポップ色を強め、やがて「イザベル・アンテナ」としてソロ活動(そーなると音楽は大衆に向けられていく.../確か彼女、数年前に亡くなった、と記憶している)。

ANTENA_CAMINO DEL SOL/AQUARIUS RECORDS

ANTENA Camino Del Sol (Numero) cd 16.98
A very welcomed reissue of this wonderful, incredibly obscure band's music from 1982. Although it's called Camino Del Sol (the title of their 5-song mini-lp debut), this cd includes lots of other material (compilation tracks and the like) as well as an additional three bonus tracks, swelling the total song count to fourteen swoonsome delights!
Back in the day, when he first heard Antena's breezy Brazillian tropicalia styled tunes crafted with unexpected instrumentation (early puttering drum machines and analog synthesizers), former British music journalist / Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant tagged them 'electro-samba'. And the label suits them well, they even do a spaced-out, jazzy version of "Girl From Ipanema" (renamed "Boy From Ipanema" and produced by John Foxx). Imagine if seminal electro-punk duo Suicide were suddenly magically transformed into a light, airy female-sung group, and you'd have a pretty accurate picture of Antena's sound. Blending genres and instrumentations way ahead of the pack, the stylish trio can easily be seen as a French precursor to such groups as Stereolab. You can also hear where young Brit upstarts Electrelane probably got ample birdlike vocal inspiration on the song "To Climb The Cliff". Fans of the Gilberto family (Joao, Astrud and Bebel) will surely also want to check out Antena too. Really, this album sounds perfectly fresh today.
MPEG Stream: "Camino Del Sol"
MPEG Stream: "The Boy From Ipanema"

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Antena-turn table lab review

To Climb The Cliff 7"
Antena


The Camino del Sol album isn’t available on wax, but at least we get these two great songs from the French electro-Brazilian trio on the label with the name that could be synonymous with gloaming or something dusk-related. “To Climb A Cliff(1)” starts with some clinky glasses in a restaurant and a piano in the background that could be a band or a record. Follow with a nice Cymande bassline and a keyboard with a weird baroque drone, click go when the french-accented woman comes in and then goes “ooo- oh” mid-verse. “Ingenuous(2)” is about a suck-face soul sucker though she’s not aware, I think. “All die under the kisses.” She could be a succubus as long as they keep coming with those electro hand claps- sounds that are used in hip hop electro actually, not the black raincoat goth shit that gets around as electro these days. This election thing is really fucking up the happy-go-lucky nature of my reviews. –Dave Tompkins

antena-limited addition review

ANTENA - "To Climb The Cliff" b/w "Ingenuous" 45
In 1981 three young Parisian's took their love for 70's synth pioneers Kraftwerk, Faust and Neu and combined it with a passion for 60's Brazillian icons Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, and Joao & Astrud Gilberto. Before groups like Stereolab, Air, and the Pizzicato Five would make multi ethnic electronic music, there was Antena and their album "Camino Del Sol", a landmark venture of french pop, bossa nova and electronic styles that laid the groundwork for the electro-samba movement that artist like Bebel Gilberto, Si*Se`, Moreno Veloso, Los Aterciopelados, Arto Lindsay and others would popularize almost two decades later.

In late 2001 I was digging through the international bins at Reckless in Chicago and stumbled upon "Camino Del Sol." It was the kind of record you bought just because the cover looked so incredibly cool. Several hours later I had played the record three times, flipping from A to B back to A. The record didn't leave my turntable for close to two weeks.

After several months of research I found the owners of the master tapes. They agreed to let me reissue the album's best track "To Climb The Cliff" as well as opened up their vault of unreleased material where I found "Ingenuous." This record is limited to 300 copies on black vinyl.