I was lucky enough to have seen the great clip for “Tombé Pour La France” on MTV International. My second good fortune was to know Ron Kane. Ron was a friend of a friend who worked for a company that imported records and he set me up with my first three Etienne Daho CDs around the time of “Pop Satori.” Was there ever a title that was more evocative of the contents of an album? Daho’s talent for winning melody coupled with his insouciant vocal charm and the support of the team here was phenomenal. As a Torch Song fan hanging on to “Wish Thing” and waiting for more, this was a real gift.
For a digital production, the warmth and richness of the project stands apart from what others were releasing during this period. I’m usually all about analog synths but this album proved that great work could be done with digital synths if care was taken and there was inventiveness instead of laziness at the mixing board. At a time when the UK acts that I loved were crashing and burning fiercely, this CD was the vector of infection for at least ten years of Francophilia for me, at least until the French turned to hip-hop in the mid 90s! I still follow Daho’s work, but need to catch up. The last albums I bought [during my last visit to Toronto] date back 14 years!
Wow you really know your 80s…it’s nice to know some erudite souls outside of France were into this stuff. Les Rita Mitsouko were another brilliant french act, criminally underrated everywhere else.
Sure, but something as fabulous as “Marcia Baïla” should have been massive the world over…I actually played on William’s mix of “Tongue Dance” so I’ll feature that one if I can find a video.
I was lucky enough to have seen the great clip for “Tombé Pour La France” on MTV International. My second good fortune was to know Ron Kane. Ron was a friend of a friend who worked for a company that imported records and he set me up with my first three Etienne Daho CDs around the time of “Pop Satori.” Was there ever a title that was more evocative of the contents of an album? Daho’s talent for winning melody coupled with his insouciant vocal charm and the support of the team here was phenomenal. As a Torch Song fan hanging on to “Wish Thing” and waiting for more, this was a real gift.
For a digital production, the warmth and richness of the project stands apart from what others were releasing during this period. I’m usually all about analog synths but this album proved that great work could be done with digital synths if care was taken and there was inventiveness instead of laziness at the mixing board. At a time when the UK acts that I loved were crashing and burning fiercely, this CD was the vector of infection for at least ten years of Francophilia for me, at least until the French turned to hip-hop in the mid 90s! I still follow Daho’s work, but need to catch up. The last albums I bought [during my last visit to Toronto] date back 14 years!
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Wow you really know your 80s…it’s nice to know some erudite souls outside of France were into this stuff. Les Rita Mitsouko were another brilliant french act, criminally underrated everywhere else.
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Les Rita Mitsouko? Underrated…?! Not in my house! Excellent production for them from giants: Plank and Visconti!
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Sure, but something as fabulous as “Marcia Baïla” should have been massive the world over…I actually played on William’s mix of “Tongue Dance” so I’ll feature that one if I can find a video.
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That’s right! The Guerilla Studios connection was there on the “RE” album!
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