Half An Hour Of The Limiñanas

The Limiñanas are Lionel and Marie Limiñana, a duo from Cabestany in the south of France, who play psyche/ garage/ pop dressed in black jeans and boots, with fuzz guitar, Mo Tucker style drums and tambourine and slightly stoned, Gauloise vocals. Over the course of nine albums and umpteen singles/ EPs they've steered their own course pulling in like minded souls along the way. Their music always feels like summer to me, the hot and sticky days of July and August, the air smelling of beer and cigarette smoke, sunglasses, tinny car stereos and the clink of beer bottles- so there's no better time to listen to thirty minutes of their music than in mid- January. C'est la vie. 

Half An Hour Of The Limiñanas 

• Garden Of Love
• The Gift (Anton Mix)
• The Ballad Of Linda L.
• Variation Sur 3 Bancs
• Devils Angels (Limiñanas Remix)
• Dimanche (Laurent Garnier Remix)
• Garden Of Love (Lundi Mouillé Mix)
• Liverpool (album version)

Garden Of Love was a 2016 single, a lovely piece of 21st century garage pop, Marie's vocal to the fore along with Peter Hook's mournful, elegiac bass playing that makes me feel weirdly homesick, even when I'm at home. Garden Of Love was remixed by Andrew Weatherall twice and released on clear 12" vinyl. Both mixes are great, the one here, Lundi Mouille (Wet Monday) is the slower, more downtempo one.  

Hooky turned up on The Gift in 2018 too, a single and song from their 2018 album Shadow People, their fifth album, ten songs where they really hit their stride and refined their sound. Anton Newcombe was on hand for a lot of the album and provided the mix for this version of The Gift. They formed a  one- off group with Anton and actress/ singer Emmanuelle Seigner and released an excellent album in 2019 that I've remembered about while typing this. I should have included one of their songs on this but it's too late now. 

The Ballad Of Linda L. is from a soundtrack to a documentary from last year about the life of Linda Lovelace, written and recorded with David Menke.

Variation Sur 3 Bancs was a collaboration with Golden Bug. A vinyl/ digital EP came out in 2021 with remixes by Pilooski, Superpitcher and Destino, French electronic/ Balearic catnip. 

Devils Angels is by Unloved, from their second album Heartbreak (2019) There was a remix EP with remixes by various folk including Weatherall, Jane Weaver and here, obvs, The Limiñanas.

Dimanche is also from Shadow People with singer, songwriter and author Bertrand Belin on vocals. It was remixed by French DJ and Hacienda veteran Laurent Garnier. The Limiñanas and Laurent released an album together in 2021, De Pelicula, a psyche French road trip/ noir which is highly recommended (even though I neglected to put anything from it on this mix).

Liverpool is from the band's 2013 album Costa Blanca with vocals from Mu (Muriel Margail)

Que Calor!

This year's album (De Pelicula) from The Liminanas and Laurent Garnier is one of 2021's highlights, a sleek and urgent collaboration with The Liminanas beatnik rock 'n' roll/ modern yé-yé streamlined by Laurent Garnier's dance music production/ DJ background. It pulses and throbs, the guitars all fuzzed and spitting with wheezy Farfisa organ and driving basslines. Meanwhile, the vocals (all in French) tell the story of Juliet and Saul and their antics, a film noir, A Bout de Soufle style trip. Que Calor! with French actor Edi Pistolas on vocals, came out in a remix package, three different versions of the song, the pick of which is this one. 

Que Calor! (Nova Materia Cover)

Nova Materia are a French group whose back catalogue is here. More thumping French psychedelia for you. The original version of Que Calor! came out with a suitably seedy, trippy video. The drums, 60s organ and Edi's vocals are a blast of 1969 in 2021 energy. 

It's Hot

On this, another song in advance of their album in September, The Liminanas and Laurent Garnier have really found their groove with Que Calor- thumping Velvets drums, sharp, reverb laden vox, whoops, Kingsmen guitar riffs, psyche organ riffs, the smell of jazz cigarettes and dancing, love beads and hair being tossed around, incense and fuzz pedals. 

In many ways this song really reminds of this 2015 fuzz- rock, sex and drugs blast from San Diego's Crocodiles. Both have smart animated videos too. Back to back fun. 

Foolin' Around

Stuck In God's Waiting Room

David Holmes was back in his regular monthly slot in God's Waiting Room at NTS Radio at the start of May, another two hours of perfectly chosen music from across the board- ambient, psychedelia, Velvets indebted rock from Belfast, cinematic weirdness, dub techno from Ability II in 1990, folk, experimental exotica, The Mekons in 1978, the whole gamut of leftfield music but always with a tune and a way in. You can find it at Mixcloud, two hours well spent. 

This would fit right in with the rest of David's selections, a new song from The Liminanas with Laurent Garnier on board- thumping drums and electronic rhythms, a twangy riff, beatnik gang vibes and Lionel speaking in French (naturellement) over the top. 

Dimanche

Yes, I know, wrong day. Today is Lundi.

Dimanche is on this year's Shadow People album by French duo The Liminanas. It's well worth getting hold of if you haven't already- ten tracks recorded at Anton Newcombe's studio, taking in Velvet's fuzz and rhythms, thumping drums, sunglasses and black leather and a guest spot for Peter Hook's bass. Dimanche, with guest vocals from Bertrand Belin, has been remixed by fellow Frenchman Laurent Garnier and it is very good indeed, Garnier adding some clubby dynamics, looping some parts, drawing out the ringing feedback and a sticking a massive kick drum and snare underneath. I think this came out on 12" for Record Store Day.

Crispy Bacon

In 1986 Laurent Garnier, a young Frenchman who'd been living in London for a couple of years, moved to Manchester. He went to the Hacienda one night and changed his life. Later on he met Mike Pickering and began djing as DJ Pedro. In the 90s he moved back to France, djing, running a label, producing, that sort of thing. In 1997 he put out his second album, 30, which contained this track...

Crispy Bacon

If you have any interest in or love for techno you should take six minutes out of your day today to play Crispy Bacon. It is Gallic techno par excellence and it is difficult to believe it is twenty years old. I'd imagine at club level volume after midnight it can still demolish a dancefloor too. And just in case there's any doubt about whether Laurent Garnier still has it, this year he's put out a three track e.p. on Kompackt called Speicher 95- Tribute. This is the lead track, ten minutes of intense, innovative modern machine music...

I'm away overnight (in Wales with friends for a friend's birthday) and haven't had time to do anything for Sunday. Have a good weekend everyone.