Julien Doré: Paris-Seychelles

A teaser has been released for a new track by Julien Doré ahead of the release of a new album later this
year.

The track comes from his forthcoming third album entitled Løve

It follows his album Bichon that came out two years ago.

Doré, who initially came to prominence as the winner of the fifth series of Nouvelle Star - the M6 version of Pop Star - in 2007.

He went on to have a number one single in France with Les Limites in 2008, his debut album Ersatz reaching number two.

Rather than following a straightforward pop star career, Doré has always been a more colourful and interesting character, more an artistic outsider who occasionally hits the commercial mainstream.

The track Kiss Me Forever from Bichon gave him a number 4 single in France in 2011, and since then he's collaborated with artists like Coeur de Pirate, Mélanie Pain and Sylive Vartan.

He's also appeared in the film Pop redemption playing the vocalist with a fictitious black metal band.

Løve is expected to be released in the autumn, and ahead of it the track Paris-Seychelles will be released as a single.

Phoenix: Trying to be cool

A new video for another track from the Phoenix album Bankrupt!, a strong contender for 2013's album of
the year.

The album was certainly one of the most anticipated of 2013, and it's certainly lived up to expectations.

While other bands returning after a four years gap between albums can find themselves behind the times and only playing to fans they've already won over, Phoenix sound fresher than ever. They don't need to try too hard to be cool.

Meanwhle, the new clip is the kind of video that demands to be watched a second or third time after it's seen for the first time.

The track follows Entertainment, the first single from Bankrupt!, and it's a strong track from an album that set the standard for what a modern rock band should sound like. Seemingly stylish and effortless, but with a startling amount of skill and expertise at work.

A bit like the video itself.

Phoenix are playing over the summer at a number of festivals, and are playing a number of arena dates in France in November.

-M- : Baïa

A new clip for the track Baïa by -M-, the latest track from his album ÎL to get the promotional treatment.

The video sees Matthieu Chedid in B-movie Technicolor film action, or as it describes itself "A space opera picture in Rockabilly color."

It's certainly a very different proposition to the previous videos from the album, the title track Mojo being one of last year's more memorable clips.

ÎL was released last November, and he's been touring extensively since its release, with more shows at festivals over the summer.

Baïa, with its latin flavour, should easily find some airplay over the summer.

Mr Oizo: Amicalement

A new EP - Amicalement- has appeared by Mr Oizo, with the track Solid featuring the voice of Marilyn Manson.

The EP is available free from Oizo's website, although the website can be a bit unpredictable about loading.

Hopefully it's just a case of it being hit repeatedly for downloads of the EP.

Oizo's one of France's most respected producers and artists, and one of the few to have a huge mainstream hit with Flat Beat in 1999, a number one in the UK and a huge hit elsewhere.

The new release follows 2012's Stade 3 EP, a seven track affair that's also available from Oizo's website.

In the meantime, some cracking French music, available free. What are you waiting for?

Phoenix at Glastonbury Festival

Great to see Phoenix take to the stage at Glastonbury at the weekend, even if the closest I got the event was watching it on TV.

Increasingly that's how festivals work these days, with the event being seen by thousands more beyond the actual festival itself. Millions watched the BBC's Glastonbury footage, and pretty much every act that played will benefit from a massive increase in their profile.

While the likes of the Rolling Stones and Mumford and Sons were the acts that grabbed the headlines, plenty of others got to benefit from the publicity around an increasingly iconic event.

So Phoenix will have had the chance to show what they do to thousands across the country, many of whom will be likely to see the band themselves as they play events like T in the Park later this month.

Of course, Phoenix weren't the only French band to play Glastonbury, François & the Atlas Mountains , Melody's Echo Chamber and Savages were also on the bill.

And plenty of other opportunities to catch Phoenix over the summer, as the band play extensive festival dates to support the release of their Bankrupt! album.

Carla Bruni: Le Pingouin

A new video for Carla Bruni, with the song Le Pingouin from her recent album getting some attention.

Not that it's not had some attention in France already, with a 'row' (ie a few comments in the media) about the supposed political message of the song.

Some have taken the song to be a reference to François Hollande, but Bruni herself has denied this, saying that the song doesn't have any political thinking behind it. In in an interview with L'Express she said that the song's about disagreeable people in general, about no one and everyone.

If she wanted to make a political song, she's probably more entitled to do so than many others, having actually been involved in that world, but I have my doubts that she'd be interested. From what I've read, she's not all that bothered about getting involved in the mud-slinging of politics, leaving that to others - including those in the media - to deal with.

The video certainly doesn't take itself too seriously and is more of a nod towards Monty Python than towards any particular politician.

The song comes from her latest collection  entitled Little French Songs, her first since her days as First Lady. the album came out on April the first.

It's been a successful release, despite her having to take a step back from music on account of her position over the last few years.

She's playing a series of live dates at the end of the year, including three shows at the Casino de Paris in November.

Editorial: July 2013

Another good month on the Vive le Roq French music blog.

I managed a record number of posts last month, which is no surprise given the quality and number of releases over the past few weeks.

Again, this was reflected in a pretty healthy number of visitors to the pages. Thanks for dropping by.

I thought I'd take the time to take a look at a couple of interesting things that happened over June.

One obvious one was the Fête de la Musique, which again put music front and centre in France's cultural landscape. If anything I think music - popular music in particular - is somewhat disregarded in France. There could be a huge number of reasons for this.

Perhaps its because the cultural landscape in general is valued more in France, with the result that music is seen as one amidst many strands of culture, while in the UK its seen as particularly vigorous simply due to the lack of public attention given to other forms of art. In short though, it's a remarkably enlightened idea, and one that deserves to be spread further.

Another thing that raised its head this month was the idea of cultural exceptionism with regard to free trade agreements at the G8 summit. The French government were unhappy with the proposition at the G8 conference to agree to free trade in all areas, including cultural, meaning that the French government would be unable to offer financial subsidy to areas such as music and film. Fortunately the French argument prevailed, and the government protection to the creative industries will be maintained.

While in a free market sounds a good idea, trade free from red tape and legislation that allows the consumer to determine the value of the product, the playing field is always tilted in favour of the more powerful player. In the area of culture, especially music and film, that will be the USA. While I have no particular dislike of USA, the world has more to offer than just one voice and a system that maintains, to some extent at least, a cultural plurality is essential.

French cinema might not always be the artistic showcase it's held up as, but the film industry is one in which the reality of making a profit is a far more difficult one that the takings of the latest box office blockbusters might suggest.

The same applies to music. While there are stars, there are many musicians working hard just to earn a living. France is aware, it seems, that it is more than just another market for international acts, and is able to make the case for its own industry at the highest level.

That a government is prepared to stand up internationally and say that its creative industries are important and deserve support and respect is a position that other countries should consider.

Elsewhere there was some good news that Taratata, the TV music show that was to be axed thanks to a decision by France Télévisions is to continue online. The last show in its present format goes out on July 5, but a concert's taking place on October 10 in Paris, which will herald the new era for the show. With terrestrial TV just one more 'platform' in the digital age, fingers crossed that the new online version of the show can thrive.

The show's been at the forefront of online music, so hopefully the new version will continue to thrive.

What would be interesting, of course, would be for some other innovative channel to buy the rights to broadcast the forthcoming internet version of the show. We'll see.

July is now upon us, and I'll be taking a break for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I'll have a few articles written in advance to fill the gap while I'm away from a working wifi connection.