Camille - Money Note (and other funnies)

Maybe on a cybertrawl you've caught American comedian Sarah Silverman, playing her guitar and pouting into a camera as she tells boyfriend Jimmy the way things are, in this video:

Who'd have thought Matt Damon could do such a good job of a duet while playing himself so convincingly? Well I never. Quite the multi-tasker.

Anyway, I mention this by means of circuitously coming round to the kind of track I rarely hear. It's not only technically brilliant and full of hooks, but it's screamingly funny too, and at the expense of all the right people. Money Note is a first taster of Camille's new album Music Hole, which is due over here on 7th April. (Check out Wikipedia's explanation of what a money note is.)

Camille's last album Le Fil (2005 in France, 2006 in the UK) was an extraordinary recording based on a 'thread' or note, with the sometime Nouvelle Vague vocalist stretching and breaking her voice to create all sorts of sounds. These she'd then layer and loop into a modern-day symphony for vocal sounds and marry these to French and English lyrics. Björk's similarly a capella Medullah came nowhere near it. If Money Note is anything to go by, Music Hole looks like taking her on to another level again. I for one absolutely love it.

If, like me, you can't wait to hear Camille's new material, Money Note is available on a compilation CD (those round, silvery things people used to buy) called French Talent 08. Better still, Camille plays London's KOKO on 14th May - ahead of a series of concerts at Paris's beautiful La Cigale. So this time the French are letting les rosbifs in on the act from the off - what generous spirits they are. À votre santé.

More, naturellement, can be found at her MySpaz.

Comments

[Mike]

Too bad that Music Hole/Le Fil aren't purely a capella albums. Björk released Medúlla with the concept of making a pop album purely out of human voices. Camille doesn't put that limitation on her music, seeing as she includes piano as a significant instrument. In Medúlla, Björk doesn't use a single instrument. In effect, Björk was first in pushing the concept to it's very limits with technological manipulation, while Camille uses it to explore the human voice without altering it. Both are great musicians, don't get me wrong. Björk pushes experimentation into the barren realm of artistic conceptuality, while Camille can create a universal pop sound out of experimentation.

[Michael]

I <3 them both.