The Galaxy Electric are an avant-pop duo from Washington, DC, whose striking debut was one of my absolute favourites of last year. Creating cosmic pop songs using such an interesting palette of sounds, I knew their influences and tastes would be worth mining. So I asked the band members, Jacqueline and Augustus, if they'd make a playlist for me and they kindly agreed. Listen below to their selections, a superb mix of early electronics, way-out pop and other sound adventures. I love how the first track, Ken Nordine's captivating spoken word tour through an imagined 'Sound Museum', sets up the melange of weird and wonderful sounds to come.

Tracklist

1. Ken Nordine featuring The Fred Katz Group – The Sound Museum (1957)
2. Daphne Oram – Wool (1967)
3. Peter Reno – Secrets of the Deep (1969)
4. Joe Meek & The Blue Men – I Hear A New World (1960)
5. Delia Derbyshire – Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO (1968)
6. Jean-Jacques Perrey – E.V.A. (1970)
7. Silver Apples – Walkin' (1998; recorded 1969)
8. The Soundcarriers – Step Outside (2010)
9. Broadcast – Microtronics 14 (2005)
10. Amphitryon 38 - Daphne Oram Single (1957)
11. Stereolab – Italian Shoes Continuum (1999)
12. Francis Bebey – Tumu pakara (1984)
13. Roj Stevens – Bongo Workout (2009)
14. Os Mutantes – Bat Macumba (1968)

Playlist curated by The Galaxy Electric. Mixed by me.

If you haven't yet heard their fantastic album Everything is Light and Sound, you can stream and buy it from their Bandcamp page.

Links: NewsWhistle – Interview with The Galaxy Electric
The Galaxy Electric on: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

A guest mix by Jonathyne Briggs, author of a fascinating and highly recommended book on French pop history, Sounds French: Globalization, Cultural Communities, and Pop Music, 1958-1980 (Oxford University Press, 2015):

1971—the transition. The destruction of Les Halles in Paris began in 1971 in order to make way for a more modern marketplace, and this action symbolizes how the French found themselves in a period of transition. Just prior to the economic and social problems that would emerge with the oil shocks of 1973, the French were still very much enjoying the economic boom of the economic miracle and continued to embrace new ideas and technologies, albeit with some hesitation manifest in the protests against expanded military bases at Larzac. The Events of 1968 and the death of Charles de Gaulle were just a few years past and the centenary of the Commune reminded many of the revolutionary hope symbolized by the student protests and strikes. In the realm of popular music, French audiences continued to fragment with more and more stylistic influences emerging in different subgenres with the appearance of new artists. And yet, established artists began to experiment with new styles and ideas. 1971 in many ways is a watershed moment in French pop, in which the adventurousness of the French underground is echoed in the music of more popular acts and there was a moment of brief harmony of leisure and introspection. – Jonathyne Briggs

1. Stone et Charden “L’avventura”
2. Serge Lama “Superman”
3. Jean-Jacques Perrey “Baroque Hoedown” (1971 rerelease)
4. Michel Polnareff “Computer’s Dream”
5. Serge Gainbourg “L’hôtel particulier”
6. Catharsis “Masq”
7. Leo Ferré “La solitude”
8. Françoise Hardy “La question”
9. Johnny Hallyday “Fils de personne”
10. Alan Stivell “Pop Plinn”
11. Dalida “Mamy Blue”
12. Nino Ferrer “La maison près de la fontaine”
13. Claude Nougaro “Un grain de folie”
14. Catherine Ribero + Alpes “Diborowska”
15. Jacques Higelin “Aujourd’hui Blues”
16. Mouloudji “Le Temps des cerises”

Links: The Great Albums: History Of French Pop Music

Another special guest post: this time Graham Welch of Ready Steady Girls! tells us about the career of French singer Séverine, and shares her Christmas song with us. - Spiked Candy

Sadly, the European girl singers of the 1960s rarely did Christmas songs anywhere near as well as their American counterparts. However, here French chanteuse Séverine gives it her best shot.

The singer had more IDs than a credit card fraudster. She started out life as Josiane Grizeau but became Céline for an EP on the Vogue label in 1967. The release led with 'Tu dis september', but when it failed she was dropped by the label.

A year later producer Georges Aber found her singing - as Robbie Lorr - in the Golf Drouot. The result was a contract, this time with Philips, and a new stage name, Séverine.

Her Christmas gift to us comes in the form of 'Les Enfants qui attendent Noël'. The song is taken from the second EP issued under her new name and was released in 1969. It is based on a melody by Johann Sebastian Bach, with words by Aber and Jacques Revaux.

In 1970 she released the theme to the film Le passager de la pluie, which topped the Japanese charts, but she really hit the big time in Europe the following year, when she won the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest with the beautiful 'Un banc, un arbre, une rue' for Monaco. The song went on to be a hit continent-wide.

At home, she enjoyed further hits with 'Comme un appel' and 'Mon tendre amour' but a legal dispute with Aber in 1973 put paid to her career in France. A parallel one in Germany lasted longer, though a succession of French-themed songs such as 'Ja, der Eiffelturm', 'Olala L'amour' and 'Der Duft von Paris' risked turning her into something of a one-trick pony. Nevertheless, she enjoyed great success, selling some six million records in the early 1970s.

– Graham Welch

Link: French Girls @ Ready Steady Girls!

You may remember Tag from such guest Christmas posts as Things Fall Apart and Anorak Christmas . Fortunately for us, he and his good taste are back again this year with another excellent selection.

'The Coldest Night Of The Year' can be found on the Vashti Bunyan comp Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind: Singles and Demos 1964-1967. I can't find a Twice As Much CD still in print that the song appears on, but if you know otherwise, please leave a comment. - Spiked Candy

Twice As Much & Vashti Bunyan - The Coldest Night Of The Year (1966)

Twice as much were a folk-rock duo signed to Immediate Records in 1966. Despite getting 'the big push' by Andrew Loog Oldham, commercial success remained elusive, although their songwriting skills have found a better reception in Northern Soul and girl group circles. Ironically, their finest hour as performers comes from the pens of the mighty Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. Vashti Bunyan, meanwhile, needs no introduction from me, in the light of her current (and to me, slightly bewildering) hipness among new folk fashionistas.

This is one of those records to play to friends and watch their faces light up. Adopting a similar call and response theme to "Baby, It's Cold Outside" but replacing its knowing wink-wink-nudge-nudge kitsch with a beautifully understated subtext of barely restrained teenage libido, "The Coldest Night of the Year" comes topped off with a gently cajoling melody and, yes, those all-important sleighbells. The boys forlornly plead with Vashti out of sending them home into the North Wind, and instead 'letting a cuddle appear'. And when you hear Vashti's final, breathless, assent to temptation, it's all you can do not to cheer.

– Tag

Another Christmas guest post from Tag, this time on no wave/disco cult icon Cristina's contribution to Ze Records' A Christmas Record:

Cristina - Things Fall Apart (1981)

"A Christmas Record" declares the label, disingenuously. But this is no "Frosty the Snowman", instead it's a wretched tale of world-weariness at another festive season spent amongst vacuous urbanites, heartbroken but unsurprised by another failed romance with a commitment-phobic lover ("He said he couldn't stand in my way, it's wrong. "Way of what?", I asked, but he was gone").

Overprivileged, precociously over-educated, permanently cynical, Cristina made her name with such high-camp vignettes from the gilt-lined gutters of Manhattan, delivered in a bloodless near-monotone, riddled with ennui, mordant humour, and unexpected poignancy (all the more so for its tinsel-thin backing). "I caught a cab back to my flat. And wept a bit. And fed the cat". Merry Christmas, one and all.

Photo by Frida Klingberg via Sally's official site.

Sally Shapiro - Anorak Christmas (2006)

(via last.fm)

A guest post from Tag:

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Sometimes I feel like someone's made a record with me in mind. Not in an angst-bitten way, analysing lyrics and convincing myself "it really speaks to me". I mean something that matches my own personal brand of perfection. A song I'd want to marry. Gothenburg's Sally Shapiro has made such a record. A record produced in the blissed-out Italian disco tradition, with a melody to match Abba's most bittersweet moments, delivered by a singer so possessed of wide-eyed lovesickness, she makes Annie sound like a veritable vixen. It's called "Anorak Christmas" which should make me wince with cloying indie associations - but it's just right. It could sound contrived, coquettish, but it simply sounds like a girl who's fallen rapturously in love at some midwinter discotheque, emerged into the snow and went straight home to put her feelings down, hesitantly but honestly.

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My note: Sally so beautifully makes it her own, it's surprising to find out the song's actually a cover. Here's the original by twee synthpop artist and fellow Swede Nixon:

Buy: Disco Romance

(Pics credit: jacquelinetaieb.fr)

A few months ago I was very surprised to receive an email from Jacqueline Taïeb, complimenting me on my blog - so much so that I wrote back to ask if it was a joke! After all, it's not every day you get a message from one of your favourite artists of a type of music you pretty much worship! Anyone else who agrees she was one of the most ultra-fab and talented French chicks of the 60s will be happy to know she's been writing, recording and performing again. Jacqueline was kind enough to send me her latest CD and her DVD - you can find details of these releases on her Official Website. Hear some song samples here.

I've asked Jacqueline if she would like to do a guest post on what she's been up to lately, and, happily for all of us, she's agreed. Here's what she has to say: