20091230

Hidden List - Top fivers

Gérald (We are Unique's boss):

TOP 2009, 12 disques qui ont compté pour moi.

VIC CHESNUTT At the cut

Album testament (toujours avec les géniaux membres de Silver Mont Zion et Guy Picciotto de Fugazi) puisque Vic vient de nous quitter le 24 décembre dernier, après une énième tentative de suicide qui a malheureusement réussie. Il va me manquer terriblement. Après Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, la musique perd encore un de ses plus grands songwritters.

JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARDS ‘Em are I

Avant, Jeffrey c’était le bordel, de l’antifolk avec des pépites mélodiques égrainées au long de ses disques. Désormais avec ce nouvel album, Jeffrey, c’est un des plus grands, des tubes à gogo, héritier de Robert Pollard, Jay Mascis et autres Stephen Malkmus.

THROW ME THE STATUE creaturesque

Deuxième album, plus produit que le premier, mais toujours aussi bon, de ce groupe digne héritier de Guided By Voices. C’est léger, pop, lo-fi et classieux, bref ils me mettent la pèche et je les aime pour ça.

YO LA TENGO Popular songs

Prenez une bonne dose de I can hear the heart beating as one et de Summer songs, et vous aurez une petite idée de ce nouvel album. Soit du très bon YLT, variés, avec de la pop, de la bossa, du folk, du noise. Un groupe essentiel.

PJ HARVEY A woman a man walked by

Moins personnel que White chalk, car enregistré avec John Parish, ce nouvel album de la belle Pj comporte son lot de belle chansons énervées et d’autres expérimentations. Une des plus grandes chanteuses en activité.

JERRI

Je suis chauvin, oui et alors ? Je vous emmerde. Jerri, c’est avec 0°, l’un des meilleurs disques sorti en France cette année. Et comme souvent avec nos sorties, malheureusement pas très bien compris par le public.

0° des étoiles plein les yeux

Je suis très fier de ce disque, d’avoir aidé Nicolas Tochet de faire un si beau premier long effort. Des participations superbes (Angil, Cascadeur, Le Chapelier Fou) et des morceaux qui marquent longtemps au fer blanc. Vivement la suite, mais avant ça, vivement le nouveau Melatonine…

DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE Dark night of the soul

Danger mouse n’arrête jamais ses collaborations, et avec Mark Linkous, ce disque est un joyeux bordel pop où se croisent plein de stars en tout genre. Mention spéciale à Casablancas qui impulse la chanson pop de l’année pour moi.

GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS The lost channel

Un excellent groupe folk canadien, dont ce nouvel album présente une patine proche d’un Automatic for the people…rien que ça, vous imaginez donc le niveau.

WHY ? Eskimo snow

Why? s’écarte de plus en plus du hiphop pour se rapprocher de la pop. Mais toujours barrée la pop, quand même.

THEMSELVES Crowns down

Dose One et Jel are back ! Putain que c’est bon !!! Vous voulez du bon hiphop oldschool mais aussi novateur ? Allez y !!!

B R OAD WAY Gang plank EP

Nos amis les Broadz s’éloignent de plus en plus de la musique abstraite et cinématographique de leur début, pour se rapprocher d’une efficacité pop industrielle organique imparable. J’espère pour eux que le grand public sera enfin au rendez-vous, ils le méritent.


Hidden List - Top fivers

Rémi :

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

Diving With Andy - Sugar Sugar

Lhasa - Lhasa

Lightning Dust - Infinite Light

Sharon Van Etten - Because I Was In Love

20091228

Hidden List - Top fivers

Manu :

69 : Novo Rock
Animal Collective : Merriweather Post Pavilion
Arctic Monkeys : Humbug
B R OAD WAY : Gang Plank
Be My Weapon : March/2009
Belone Quartet : 1802
Bill Callahan : Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Black Lips : 200 Million Thousand
Coconut Records : Davy
Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse : Dark Night Of The Soul
Deerhoof : Offen Maggie
Ego Twister Movie Ruiners
Health : Get color
Jerri
Mansfield.TYA : Seules au bout de 23 secondes
N.A.S.A. : Spirit of Apollo
Sonic Youth : The Eternal
Them Crooked Vultures
Tortoise : Beacons of Ancestorship
Zéro Degré : Des étoiles plein les yeux

Best live shows:
Action Beat
Animal Collective
Health
Part Chimp
Themselves


Camille :

Zero degré - des étoiles plein les yeux

oddateee - halfway homeless

p.o.s - never better

broadway - gang plank

jerri - jerri

bike for three! - more heart than brains

20091221

2009 Top 5

Mickaël (Angil & the Hiddentracks) :

1. Broadcast and the Focus Group (http://futurecrayon.blogspot.com/)

2. Rain Machine (http://www.anti.com/artists/view/70)

3. Mos Def (http://www.myspace.com/mosdef)

4. Qwel & Jackson Jones (http://www.galapagos4.com/)

5. Cate le Bon (http://www.catelebon.com/)

20091203



I'll be participating this event on Dec. 12.
Ho, and on the next day, I'll turn 31.

20091103

Drawing by Benoît Guillaume


With legendary French cartoonist and publisher JC Menu, rehearsing a cover of "Tipp City" (The Amps). Benoît Guillaume drew it.

20090920

New Hiddentracks picture


Us, last summer, recording The And.
The drummer's girlfriend took the picture. We're sitting in the stairs leading to the studio.

Featured (as opposed to tagged):

Francis Bourganel (saxophone)
Flavien Girard (keyboards, carillon, guitar), carrying David Hurault's face (percussion)
Pierre-Alain Giraud (clarinet)
Pauline Dupuy (double bass)
Mickaël Mottet (guitar, lead vocals)
Thomas Boudineau (trombone)
Jean-Christophe Lacroix (bugle, trumpet, violin)
Xavier Pradel (drums)

20090812

The And - beginning Monday 17


We'll be recording our next album The And for 2 weeks from Monday 17.
This is a picture of the studio, Ohmnibus.

20090630

Monade + Angil @ Gran Lux





Last week-end with Monade at Gran Lux, St Etienne's best venue. What a day!

20090527

Angil & the Currently-listening-to's:

Lisztomania by Phoenix - great, great song. Just bought the album.

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard by Paul McCartney. Brilliant.


20090524

New video!

Live version of You most II+III, Good bye Oulipo Saliva, Tigerfest, Scotland

20090508

Good Bye Oulipo Saliva



We'll soon be playing two shows untitled "Good Bye Oulipo Saliva" (one in Scotland and one in France).

Guillaume Long drew the nice poster.

20090325

Canada/US tour











Montreal has a city below the city.






Also, I've incidentally discovered today that the e-less novel untitled Gadsby, by Ernest Vincent Wright (1939), is fully available here. Amazing.

20090323

Back from Canada/US tour



I'll be posting a few photographs taken in the course of our Canadian/US tour in the next few days.





Moog Store in Montreal. Expensive impressive stuff.




20090217

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 10

Mathieu says:

- Shearwater - Rook (The Smiths Vs Mark Hollis)
- Deerhunter - Microcastle (the new Quickspace?)
- B R OAD WAY - Enter the Automaton
- Kris Dane - Rise & Down of the Black Stallion (Mark Lanegan and Tom Waits in the same LP)
- Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom (Phil Elverum's melodic genius)


Camille says:

Why? : Alopecia
Alias : Resurgam
Son Lux : At war with walls & mazes
Subtle : ExitingARM
Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip : Angles
Leila : Blood, Looms and Blooms
MGMT : Oracular Spectacular
Portishead : Third
Albin de la Simone : Bungalow!
Julien Ribot : Vega
Sebastien Tellier : Sexuality
Angil Was A Cat
Psykick Lyrikah : Vu d'ici
Broadway : Enter The Automaton
Angil : Ha Ha
Idem : The sith aspiration museum overview
R-Zatz : will we cross the line?
Minitel Rose : The French Machine
Anoraak : Nightdrive with you
College : Secret Diary
Crystal Castles
Gong Gong : Mary's spring
Vic Chesnutt : North Star Deserter
Silver Mount Zion : 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

20090211

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 9

Emmanuel says:

31Knots : Worried well
Angil was a cat (merci Manu !)
Beck : Modern guilt
The Breeders : Mountain battles
B R OAD WAY : Enter the automaton
Deerhoof : Offend Maggie
Foals : Antidotes
King kong was a cat
Leila : Blood, looms and blooms
Mogwai : The hawk is hawling
Portishead : Third
Radar Bros. : Auditorium
Silver Jews : Lookout mountain, lookout sea
(Swell) : South of the rain and snow
Why ? : Alopecia


... and since both cannot be separated as far as I'm concerned, here are my 15 favourite films:
1. No country for old men
2. Two lovers
3. Shotgun stories
4. Entre les murs
5. Redacted
6. Valse avec Bashir
7. Gomorra
8. La vie moderne
9. Un conte de Noël
10. L'un contre l'autre
11. The dark knight
12. Peur(s) du noir
13. Young Yakuza
14. Serbis
15. Elle s'appelle Sabine

20090130

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 8

Guillaume (of the Hiddentracks) says:

Forent Marchet, Rio Baril.
An album built like a novel. Gorgeous melodies, words to cry for. I've been expecting a French record such as this one.


François says:

Silver Jews, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea


+ I say:
Another one I forgot: Scarlett Johansson's Anywhere I Lay My Head. Amazing.

20090121

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 7


David says:

Relax by Frustration (http://www.myspace.com/_frustration)
Really different stuff from what has been going on in the world of post-punk.

Third by Portishead

Also, King Kong Was A Cat
I do understand why you wanted to re-create something out of it: their album is brilliant.

http://www.kingkongwasacat.com/

20090120

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 6


Dominique, Anne, Louise & Enzo say:

"WHY? - Alopecia
They're just great. Alopecia is the album that we've been listening to the most in 2008. And their gig was the best of the year.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Full of energy + fresh + exotic = make you escape the ongoing moroseness! They sound like the Feelies on their way back from Africa.

PORTISHEAD - Third


Late '08 favourite: MEGAPUSS - Surfing.
And our kitchen becomes a dance floor. An out-of-time record that has you dancing in the clouds with the Beach Boys or the Doors. Like it ain't no joke.

Also: SYD MATTERS' Ghost Days, ANGIL WAS A CAT, THE BREEDERS, THE NOTWIST..."





20090115

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 5


Jean-Christophe (of the Hiddentracks) says:

Why? - Alopecia









Stéphane says:

The Do - A Mouthful

Juno - Soundtrack from the motion picture (and a great movie, too) (trailer)






I say:
I'd like to mention two other records and one great song I've heard this year.

The Walkmen - You and me
Good songs, amazing voice, clever production.

The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night
Just bought the LP - listening to it right now, actually. Fantastic stuff, as usual.

And THAT song: Sugar Man by Sixto Rodriguez. A symptom of its time (production means a lot here), but still a good song. I wonder what instrument they're using. I'd go for Ondes Marthenot.

20090110

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 4

Gérald's choices:

(Gérald Guibaud is one of the founders of my French label, We Are Unique Records)

"First of all, our label productions, mostly ignored, what can I say...fuck them all and their fucking hype!

imagho
IMAGHO "inside looking out"
Jean Louis Prades plays as IMAGHO some incredible electroacoustic-folk-jazzy tunes. To me, IMAGHO is the missing link between GASTR DEL SOL and FENNESZ. A great great musician, humble and sincere. He recently was nominated (among more than 1,000 artists) at the Qwartz electronic music awards in the 'Best Albums of the year' category, alongside such great artists as Autechre and Battles from Warp. It is only fair.


broadz
B R OAD WAY "Enter the Automaton"
B R OAD WAY is one of the most underestimated French bands. Their songs might be compared to the Notwist. But "Enter the Automaton" is a thousand times better than "the devil, you + me"!


awac
ANGIL WAS A CAT
Fucking great mix of hiphop-pop with unconventionnal electronica. The best hybrid vinyl EP of the year.


Friends' records that you need to listen to:

lena
LENA "the uncertain trail" (Sounds around)
One of the most brilliant French musicians. Jazz, electronica, hiphop, triphop, spoken word - LENA mixes them all with class and creates a fantastic musical odyssey for its listeners. Also nominated to the Qwartz electronic music awards in the 'Best Albums of the year' category. He does deserve it.


EXP
EXPERIENCE "nous en sommes encore là" (MVS)
Experience is one of the best rock bands in France. They are also the best hiphop band in France. Music and words. Great production in Steve Albini's studio. Respect.


cornflakes heroes
CORNFLAKES HEROES " Dear Mr Painkillers" (Greed recordings)
A very nice "indie" band that makes me feel like if the nineties have never ended. Maybe not very original, but they play well, with infectious enthusiasm. Lovely.


depth affect
DEPTH AFFECT "hello crisis" (Autres directions in music)
Click'n'cut blitch electronica meets hiphop and dubstep, by one of the most interesting electronic bands in France.


alina simone
ALINA SIMONE "placelessness" (Travelling music)
Ukrainian folk singer (exiled in US) with an incredible voice. Her first album was re-released by our brothers of Travelling Music. I recommend it to all Pj Harvey, Catpower and Shannon Wright fans. Her next album, entirely made of covers of a Russian poet, sang in Russian, is simply fantastic. An artist whose name you should remember.


Other records from the rest of the world:

radarbos
RADAR BROS. "auditorium"
A Radar Bros. album is always a classic. This new one does not infrige this rule. Jim Putnam is a fucking great songwriter.


throwmethestatue
THROW ME THE STATUE "moonbeams"
The record that brought the most pleasure to me this year. Fantastic popsongs. These guys are the new Guided by voices.


why
WHY? "alopecia"
Yoni Wolf is a genius, one of the best melody makers. This new album first disappointed me, but after several listens (around a few hundred times) I was deeply into it. A classic.


subtle
SUBTLE " Exiting Arm"
Subtle are the Sonic Youth of underground hiphop. And Dose One is also a genius.


emilyjanewhite
EMILY JANE WHITE "dark undercoat"
The best 2008 folk record. This girl made me shiver this year with her homely tunes.


V.O.
V.O. "obstacles"
I met this belgian band when they played with Angil in Brussels this year. They played lovely music between Tortoise, Jim O'rourke and other nice postfolk stuffs. A great discovery for me this year.


portishead
PORTISHEAD "Third"
The come back of the year. Simply radical. Bravo, a great band that deserves respect.


rem
R.E.M. "accelerate"
Surely not the greatest REM album, but I've always been a fan of the band. This short and direct new album simply rocks, and it does it well.

20090107

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 3

Anne-Louise says:

PORTISHEAD - Third ("no comment!")


GABLE - Seven Guitars with a Cloud of Milk ("sort of wacky, with loads of various atmospheres")


SHUGU TOKUMARU - Exit ("the kind of record that makes you feel like you constantly are a 5-year-old with chocolate on your teeth")


JUANA MOLINA - Un Dia ("she's also great live!")


FRANCOIS VIROT - Yes or No ("Some like it, some find it a bit too much. I love it!")


Find out more about the Hiddenlist here.

20090104

2008's most underestimated album


Flavien's suggestion:

The Breeders, Mountain Battles.
http://www.deezer.com/#music/result/all/breeders%20mountain%20battles

Flavien says: "The best B-sides LP this year. And the best collection of distinct songs."
I say: ... Fucking A!

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums - 2

Côme's choices:

Etyl "Les Souris"
http://www.myspace.com/etylfr

Côme says: "First I saw the video of "J'me fais mal", then I liked the LP artwork, so I bought the record. I'm glad I did: this is great stuff. Melancholic and brilliant songwriting!"


The Notwist "The Devil, You + Me"
http://www.myspace.com/thenotwistnow

"I bought their LP last summer in Montreal, following my brother-in-law's advice. Just marvellous! (plus, the American artwork is much nicer than the European one!)."


Mind Necrosis Factor "Morphogenesis"
http://www.myspace.com/mindnecrosisfactor

"My brother-in-law (again) got me introduced to Reason, whom he works with. Monstruous, heavy atmospheres, weird Eastern-oriented samples and voices..."


Blue Sky Black Death "Slow Burning Lights"
http://www.myspace.com/blueskyblackdeath

"A hip hop producer who decided to do very efficient trip hop à la Cinematic Orchestra."


Look Daggers "Suffer in style"
http://www.myspace.com/lookdaggers

"Concept genius, between Ikey Owens and 2Mex... I'm speechless!"



To find out more about the Hidden List, click here.

20090103

The Hiddenlistians' top 2008 albums

Rémi's choices:

Portishead - Third

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

(click here to see their "A Punk" video, definitely a nice one)


Rémi says: "Didn't really like the album at first, but I gave it more listens, and it turned out to be totally amazing."





Department of Eagles - Ear Park

The songs on their Myspace page are good. I need to check it out...






Shugo Tokumaru - Exit

This sounds real nice too!








Find out more about the Hiddenlist (Angil & the Hiddentracks supporting list) here.