Two Love

Le Volume Courbe is the musical vehicle for French born, London based musician Charlotte Marionneau. Charlotte has released two previous albums, I Killed My Best Friend in 2005 and I Wish Dee Dee Ramone Was Here With Me in 2015. Now there's a new album, Planet Ping Pong, eleven songs recorded while Charlotte was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The cancer diagnosis led to a burst of creativity, it became 'a vital thing' (Charlotte's words). There are some big names on the album too- Noel Gallagher plays on the single Two Love and the late Terry Hall sings a duet with Charlotte on a cover of Daniel Johnston's Mind Distorted. Two very Bagging Area adjacent names also crop up- Mat Ducasse/ Matty Skylab and Chris Rotter both appear as co- writers. 

Planet Ping Pong is out on Stereolab's Duophonic label. Stereolab's 60s experimental art- pop is a good reference point as are some Gallic singers and sounds, Serge and Jane, Brigitte, Francoise et al. There are hints of the songs of Broadcast and Syd Barrett too, some baroque pop and nods to the likes of Silver Apples. Two Love is a gem, with shuffly drums, ambient noise and a prodding bassline and Charlotte's very Gallic vocal. Noel plays piano, sounding as far from Oasis as he ever has. Primal Scream's Andrew Innes is in there too, on programming. There are samples of ping pong balls, bursts of shaker and the occasional miaow. Tres bon.

Isolation Mix Four

A bit of a change again for this week's hour long isolation mix, this time a trip into more psychedelic and psyche areas, some guitars, a couple of cover versions, some remixes and a re-edit of an 80s alt- classic with an eye, a third eye maybe, on the cosmic and the blissed out. One of the segues is a little bit clumsy but I can live with it. I've had to move the host over to Mixcloud as I'd used up all my available space at Soundcloud without going to the paid for service.



Tracklist-
The Durutti Column: Otis

Wixel: Expressway To Yr Skull (Long Champs Bonus Beats)

Moon Duo: Stars Are The Light

Curses: This Is The Day

Le Volume Courbe: Rusty

Sonic Boom/ Spectrum: True Love Will Find You In The End

Mogwai: Party In The Dark

The Liminanas: The Gift (Anton Mix)

Goldfrapp v Spiritualized: Monster Love

Julian Cope: Heed Of Penetration and the City Dweller Head Remix by Hugo Nicholson

Edit Service 8 by It’s A Fine Line: The Story Of The Blues (Talkin’ Blues)

The Early Years: Complicity

La Maison

Those of you with good memories may recall that last year I wrote about Le Volume Courbe, an experimental London based group centred around French singer Charlotte Marionneau. There was an album called I Wish Dee Dee Ramone Were Here With Me which had two songs on it that I loved. This one...



...and this one...



I have recently come into possession of a remix of The House. Sonic Boom has gotten his mitts all over it and given it his noisy, droney treatment. However since drafting this post word has come through and I've been asked not to share that remix right now, so sorry, it's not here. Having written most of the post I thought it was well worth sharing these two songs again. Enjoy.

Rusty

The French vibe continues. Le Volume Courbe- Charlotte Mariounneau and her friends, people like Kevin Shields, Martin Duffy and Chris Mackin- have a new album out and there's this lovely song on it, a shimmering ode to friendship. It sounds a bit like My Bloody Valentine after they got a little drunk and your idealised French girl wandered in and started singing over it. Everyone had a good time, hugged and had another drink. Tres bien.

The Volume Curve

The weekend and the presentation went very well. We caught up with lots of families we've met before and got introduced to new ones, dealing with diagnoses and disabled children and life limiting illness. It's good but I'm feeling knackered and drained already and that's not a good way to start the week.

Chris Rotter, round here recently as a member of The Patti Yang Group and Two Lone Swordsmen's guitar wrangler,tipped me off to this song he's involved with by Le Volume Courbe. Led by French-born, London-based singer Charlotte Marionneau, Le Volume Courbe play sweet psychedelic pop and have previously recorded with Kevin Shields, Hope Sandoval and members of Primal Scream. This song, The House, is a beauty, all sun dappled and full of gorgeous melodies.