So, as you may have gathered over the past six months, we've had a bit of a love affair with some octuplets from the Kingdom of Mercia. DC Fontana have taken the finest aspects of mod, psychedelia and avant garde world cinema and produced cosmic gem after cosmic gem.
Their latest offering, the Italian and French La Contessa is yet another example of their unrelenting strive for artistic perfection. This temperament shines through in the video for the instrumental 'Abesses', which can only be described as a 60's French Noveau Kung Fu art house flick. Paris' premiere Burlesque dancer Mimi De Montmarte plays a starring role, adorned in a catsuit alongside lead singer Karla Milton, taking on nunchuks and other such Bruce Lee badassery in the French capital.
So while the video may not boast the star quality of The Beastie Boys' barnstorming 'Make Some Noise' or the hilarious simplicity of The Black Keys' 'Lonely Boy', it does what all great music videos do, and plays out a story which is enriched by the music and, like any great film, leaves you wanting more. C'etait fantastique!
Continuing on with The Soul Kitchen End of Year Awards, or as they've now been dubbed, 'The Soulies', we've reached the nominees for Best Video of The Year award. Sadly we live in an age where the art of the music video is often neglected by many artists in exchange for tasteless advertising (Cough Lady Gaga Cough) or mundane live performance montages. Or, at the very worst, slut and jock ridden house parties.
Thankfully though, there are still some artists who hold dear the integrity of the music video and give us reason to tune into one of MTV's endless stream of sub genre channels. And here we were thinking the Followills chasing children around in 'Radioactive' had killed the music video forever.
Anyway, the nominees . . .
The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
There may not be a cooler duo in rock 'n' roll right now than The Black Keys. Want proof? Rather than sit on their hands after the success of last year's barnstorming Brothers, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney rock up at the 11th hour in December , just when every music writer and their mother is compiling their annual awards lists, and drop El Camino on us all. On top of that, they go ahead and deliver lead single 'Lonely Boy' accompanied by a video of the greatest dance routine since Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You'. Oh, and the vinyl release of the song plays from the inside out.
The Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise
From the above referenced, ground breaking 'Fight For Your Right' video, through cop show parody in 'Sabotage', Japanese Kaiju in 'Intergalactic' and Star Trek in 'Ch-Check It Out', The Beasties have always been top of the food chain when it comes to music videos. It's no surprise given they came along slap bang in the middle of the MTV boom in the mid to late 80's. Now, we see Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D coming full circle in a video that has been dubbed 'Fight For Your Right. . . Revisited'. The above video is in fact five minutes of a half hour mini-epic, and so the big guns had to well and truly be brought out. Step forward Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny 'Kenny Fuckin Powers' McBride, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Ted fucking Danson, Steve Buscemi and a glorious cameo from Will Arnett, channelling his inner Gob Bluth. COME ON!!!
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See
Luckily for the Arctics, despite the fact that both their music and live performances have stuttered to a simmer rather than the boiling hot to bubbling over days of 2006-2007, they still know how to turn a simple music video into an unmissable mini-movie. And, as Matt Helders leather pants prove, they've not lost their sense of humour either.
The Go! Team - T.O.R.N.A.D.O
Featured on our Jukebox a few weeks back, we described this tune as BOMBASTIC and well, it's got a BOMBASTIC video to match. Think The Avalanches meeting Daft Punk in the mind of an A.D.D sufferer in the 80's and you're sort of close to where this video is coming from.
DC Fontana - Abbesses
The Kingdom of Mercia's finest Mod octuplets are firm believers in 'Art and Soul' and nowhere is this more evident than in their series of promotional films. Taken from latest album La Contessa, the instrumental 'Abbesses' may not showcase lead singer Karla Milton's phenomenal singing talents, but it does showcase how well she and leading Parisian burlesque dancer Mimi De Montmarte can fill out a pair of catsuits while Kung Fu'ing everyone in their path. C'est fantastique.
Tomorrow we unveil the nominees for Newcomer of The Year and Film of The Year. Keep 'em peeled.
. . . And so, we arrive at the third and final installment of our Mark Mortimer interview trilogy. In the final act, DC Fontana's founding Father talks Meshkalina, Art and Soul and . . . the future!
SF: DC really seem to place a large emphasis on art, or as you call it 'art and soul'. This almost seems like a lost concept on many modern bands. Why do you think that is?
MM: Actually the ‘art & soul’ slogan initially started life as a self-deprecatory in-joke but it soon evolved into a cute sound bite to express the fact that we do see ourselves as creating art though I hasten to add, not in the shitty lame way which would make you want to slap someone!
But it’s an important part of the band and we do see ourselves as more than just songwriters and musicians and it’s why we spend so much time and money on making sure our records have a cool look and are value for money and why we paint pictures with our video output.
This is why we really revel in working with talented photographers, dancers, painters, film-makers, graphic designers, costume makers, performance artists, lighting wizards, folk-dancers and much more besides.
Being in a group should be so much more than knocking off a few chords and lyrics – it should be an exhilarating ride and a proper look into the heart of the group’s raison d’être in an honest and candid way.
We are always keen to work with people who are awash with original and interesting ideas and people who can take on board our own individual personalities and help twist things. This is another great thing about having such a large group in terms of numbers: you get so many different personalities and artistic temperaments and diverse trains of thought.
Thankfully we all get on really great so we don’t have to bash ten shades of shit out of each other to create something musical or artistic.
On the ‘Six Against Eight’ video – which we turned into an eight-minute short film – we paid homage to Pat McGoohan and his ‘Prisoner’ TV show and on the more recent ‘Meshkalina’ video we wore hand-crafted animal masks while having fun exploring our love of late 60s and early 70s folk-horror movies like ‘The Wicker Man’ and ‘Blood On Satan’s Claw’ etc. The ‘Abbesses’ video sees us taking elements of ‘The Avengers’, “The Girl On A Motorcycle’ and some of those late 50s nouvelle vague movies while we force our collective tongue into our cheek and have a laugh.
But the music side is clearly vital and obviously there are times when just picking up the guitar, cranking the amp up loud and letting rip in a sort of primal rock & roll way is enough.
Why do I think this is a lost concept on some bands of today? In short I am not really sure though I think that sadly in today’s fairly mundane modern world where the music industry has imploded it’s pretty sad that some people are more interested in generating clichés or re-hashing what’s happened before.
The thing is: there are lots of great people making great music today so it’s not all doom and gloom by any stretch but the problem is these people, including ourselves, getting our voices and ideas heard and seen.
SF: Who’s idea was it to cover Traffic Sound’s classic ‘Meshkalina’ and how worried were you about doing it justice?
MM: I was already well into Traffic Sound and have always been partial to Latin vibes and South American psych but Rob Bailey, the head honcho with the New Untouchables had suggested it might make a great track for us and I agreed.
If you play a cover version it’s important not to be lame and with ‘Meshky’ we injected our own thing into the veins of the song so that new highs and lows course through it and help give it a new freshness, a new lease of life. Our version is definitely a DC interpretation. Again, as I’ve already said, what’s the point in re-enacting the past?
As Dobie Gray once sang, “the original is still the greatest” so it’s a good thing to be worried about doing it justice. Like everything in music people have subjective views so the public will make their minds up but we did try and do the song justice.
In all honesty though, we’ve had a really great reaction to our own take on ‘Meshkalina’ and it’s become a live favourite so I think it's a case of mission accomplished.
SF: And finally, what does the future hold for DC Fontana?
MM: We will be heading into the studio before and after Christmas to record new material towards our next releases and I hope we can release an EP next spring with the next DC album coming as fast as we can possibly can after that.
A lot of it sadly depends on available funds because it costs us a lot of money for us to do the interesting things we do and everyone in the music world is really struggling right now so it’s a case of trying to fight your way through the jungle of cash crap as best as you can.
The days when a group can go into a studio for a month or two and record a whole album in one fell swoop are gone unless someone somewhere is pumping money into you but everything we do is self-financed so inevitably it will take us time to make the next album as and when we can afford to do it.
I think we’ve made great strides this year and we will be looking to keep building on what we’ve achieved so far, spread our music as wide and far as we possibly can and continuing to make interesting music and art.
* DC Fontana's new album La Contessa on DCTone records at www.dcfontana.com *
In the second part of the Mark Mortimer interview trilogy, the DC Fontana lord talks influences, seeing past the sixties and the ever so simple task of combining the songs of eight different musicians...
SF: Can we expect the Italian and French tunes to be unveiled live in the UK or are they for European audiences only?
MM: We’ve already played a couple of the tracks sung in French on stage in England but you’ve got to be careful that you don't come over as being all clever clogs or pretentious!
SF: How does the songwriting process work in a band containing eight members? An article on the DC website mentions that almost every member is currently writing songs for the next album. That sounds like mayhem.
MM: With such a large group you’re bound to have a wide range of influences and ideas being thrown into the cauldron which does help people realise why our music can be quite diverse and eclectic. I would much rather have too many songs than too few but the trick is to try and mould them all into one cohesive sound which knits together so it doesn’t sound like several different groups.
At the moment we’re in the VERY early stages of writing songs for the next DC album and it’s true that all eight members of the group are contributing to that while our producer Donald Ross Skinner is also adding songs to the pot. Donald wrote ‘Snake Charmer’, our first single and also ‘It Don’t Worry Me’, the B-side to ‘Meshkalina’. He’s an excellent composer so it’s great having his tunes as well as our own.
Scott, our keyboard player, is another fantastic songwriter and he and I have probably written the majority of the band’s tunes so far. An honest appraisal of the situation is that it’s a blessing that we’ve got so many talented people in the group and everyone brings different strengths to the table which I find inspiring.
SF: There's obviously a large 60's influence in DC's music, ranging from funk and soul to far flung psychedelics from every corner of the Earth. What was it about that generation that really struck a chord with you?
MM: Our music is influenced by an enormous wealth of wonderful music that dates back 300 or more years and not just the 1960s but I guess why that era in particular holds so much charm and appeal to us is because both melodically and artistically the bar was set ludicrously high.
If you listen to records made in the 1960s, and it doesn’t matter what genre either, the playing is usually amazing and there is a quality and an honesty in the performance which is sadly less prevalent today. Even the faceless and often unknown session men and women of those days were totally on it and producing magnificent performances.
DC Fontana - Six Against Eight
It didn’t have to be incredibly complex stuff – some of the best music ever made was the simplest and made by the least talented musicians but they all had this vision and love of music which meant they could punch way above their weight and create nuggets, real sonic gems. I think songwriters back then could compose without any hang ups and they expressed themselves with an exciting, new-found freedom which meant there was an enormous amount of great music being created in a rapidly increasing number of new genres.
They were sonic pioneers and this is the thing I have total empathy and appreciation for as a musician and songwriter myself.
For example on the title track of Six Against Eight the strings were strongly influenced by Lou Reed’s ‘Street Hassle’ from 1978 (which you can check out in all it's glory here...), while on ‘Switchblade Love’ we asked our orchestrator Christian Badzura to immerse himself in not just late 60s Scott Walker but also the mid 70s stuff by the Walker Brothers too.
You can definitely hear some influences of Julie Driscoll throughout our music and our singer Karla is a devoted disciple of her so you can imagine how chuffed we were to find out she (Julie) loves our music and even wrote the sleeve notes for ‘La Contessa.’ To me this is already tangible success for the group!
The past may sometimes inform our present but I have zero interest in re-enacting it or reviving anything. The older I become the more relaxed I am with my own era which is of course NOW and I prefer to add a new link to an old chain and there is a hell of a lot more to the sound and direction of DC Fontana than the swinging sixties. I really can’t see the point in us becoming merely a tatty photocopy of a link in the chain.
. . . Swing by tomorrow for the third and final part of the interview where Monsieur Mortimer talks 'Meshkalina', Art and Soul and what the future holds for DC Fontana . . .
The Midlands; an area of England best known for it's coal, industrial revolution and inflicting Lenny Henry and Jasper Carrot onto the World. It's also an area with a penchant for unearthing seminal British bands. From Dexy's to Sabbath, from Zeppelin to The Specials, middle England has spoiled us rotten down the years.
In keeping with this rich musical tradition , the old Kingdom of Mercia has provided us with another little gem. In fact, perhaps little isn't the correct word, as DC Fontana are a sprawling octopus of a band. Fusing everything from French cinematic jazz to South American psych and beyond, England's finest new Mod troubadours have just released their second LP La Contessa. In keeping with the band's love for the continental, La Contessa is an Italian and French reworking of debut album Six Against Eight, complete with several new compositions, including new single, the instrumental 'Abbesses'.
The Soul Kitchen managed to catch up with bassist, founder and songwriter in chief Mark Mortimer for a special three part interview, tackling the subjects of the new album, kung fu, Parisian burlesque dancers and the future...
Soul Kitchen: Firstly, in the video for new tune 'Abbesses', you try your hand, unsuccessfully, at a spot of Kung Fu. Be honest, did you perform all your own stunts?
Mark Mortimer: Of course! We do all our own stunts! Although my fight-acting was more of the “put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!” variety and I could hardly do it I was laughing that much. We staged the fight scenes in the middle of the road behind the church and we were continually interrupted by these dainty old French ladies taking their poodles on an early Sunday morning walk and before long a vintage vehicle rally came rolling by with dozens of these old cars driving past as we acted out the Avengers-like chops.
We had played a lively gig the night before in Paris and then foolishly only had a couple of hours sleep before setting off to begin the film shoot near the Sacré Coeur church so we were all a bit, err, bleary-eyed to say the least. As well as that the girls had nowhere to change so they climbed into their kinky cat suits in bushes just yards from one of Paris’ most popular tourist hang-outs.
Mimi (De Montmarte, France’s leading burlesque dancer) and Steve, our trumpet player, were particularly convincing with their fight scene. Steve stood there wielding his nun chucks like a violent expert and I thought to myself, maybe he has a darker past than I had even dared to think was possible.
SK: The new album, La Contessa, features Italian and French reworkings of songs from your debut album Six Against Eight. How was that as a recording experience? Something you'd be willing to do again?
MM: La Contessa is something I am proud of because it’s ludicrously ambitious and extremely unusual for a band from central England making a record that is sung mostly in French and Italian but I really think it works. I’ve always felt our music had a distinctively cinematic edge and as we were recording in Liverpool I spent hours dreaming up imaginary film storylines and plots while listening to the tracks we were creating.
While in Liverpool we flew out our friends Kicca Andriollo and her partner Oscar Marchioni to hang out with us and I originally thought we could have Kicca sing one or two tunes in French or Italian because she is bilingual and though coming from Vicenza in Italy now lives in Paris.
When we play in France they sometimes join us on stage which is always amazing as they are both amazingly talented and they’ve become dear friends of ours. In fact ‘La Contessa’ is dedicated to their new born baby girl Loulou who entered this world just as we were finishing the record off.
As it turned out doing the foreign versions in Liverpool was made easier because the studio engineer, Ashley Martel, is a French guy so he could help translate the lyrics easily.
Kicca sang all the Italian material and lots of the French with Karla adding some more French vocals and then we contacted an actor called Michel Rousseau from Carpentras in Provence and he did the spoken word thing on my musical poem ‘Les Fantômes du Père Lachaise.’
He intuitively knew what I was after and managed to inject this Jacques Brel vibe into the track which was spot on.Along with the Mellotron choir, accordion, psychedelic ebow guitar and Steve’s Spanish flavoured trumpet (which in itself is very Brel) we got it exactly how I envisaged it.
The poem describes how the ghosts of the famous and infamous rise from their tombs in the cemetery at Père Lachaise in eastern Paris when its gates are locked at night and they all hang out, dance around, and make fun of the tourists as they head off to the brothels and bars of the French capital. Michel also did the voice over on ‘Six Contre Huit’ and it lent a Serge Gainsbourg feel which tickled my Francophile funnybone immensely.
Whether we’d do this again is another story but it’s been great to do something so unpredictable and off the wall as releasing this album.
SK:Has your French or Italian improved since recording the album?
MM: Oui Oui and a 'good moaning' to you!
. . . Swing by tomorrow for Part Deux of Mark's interview.
Miles Kane - Quicksand
The former Rascal and Shadow Puppet has never been shy to wear his Mod credentials on his sharply tailored sleeve and nowhere moreso than on this three minute slice of infectious Weller inspired guitar pop. A joyous hybrid of The Style Council meeting 60's surf rock, all beautifully produced by everyone's favourite Avant-garde Welshman, Gruff Rhys.
Proud Mary - Ocean Park
No, this isn't a long lost track from the cutting room floor of a Neil Young desert session, but rather the title track from Manchester band Proud Mary's 2010 LP Ocean Park. Given their Crazy Horse influence, it's not surprising they were signed to Noel Gallagher's Sour Mash label in 2001, on which they released the fantastic Same Old Blues to great critical acclaim. Ten years and a solo album each for founders Paul Newsome and Greg Griffin later, the pair show they're the finest Bluesmen the UK currently have to offer.
The Youngsters - I Wanna Be Your Man
First a hit for The Beatles, then The Rolling Stones then a little known Brazilian outfit of whom next to nothing is known. Released on Joel Stones' phenomenal 2010 compilation, the outrageously titled Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas, the only crumbs of information the inner booklet's liner notes contain about The Youngsters is that they released the single on Polydor Brazil in 1969 and were once known as The Angels in the early 60's. No names, production or recording information is known. A hypnotic blend of funk driven drums, fuzz guitar and shrieking vocals, it may be the only time the Fabs were outdone on one of their own songs.
DC Fontana - Meshkalina
Peruvian psychedelia covers anyone? When Peru's Traffic Sound penned Meshkalina back in 1969 for their Andean psychedelic masterpiece Virgins, it's safe to say no one was predicting this iconic song about Mescaline (with references to the Inca Civilization of Peru for you history buffs) was to be resurrected over 40 years later by an eight piece from the Midlands. However, resurrected it DC Fontana have, complete with galloping drums, a funk driven brass section and Karla Milton performing a rousing rendition of Manuel Sanguinetti's original vocals.
The Dustaphonics - Tornado
The brainchild of DJ, producer and underground musician Healer Selecta (aka Yvan Serrano-Fontova), The Dustaphonics' members backgrounds are as far reaching as their genres. The group's nationalities span from England, onwards across the channel to France, back across the Atlantic to America and then onwards to South Africa and Jamaica. Musically, they effortlessly blend 50's rock and roll with 60's R&B with the soul of swinging London. This, the B-Side to debut single 'Burlesque Queen', is infectious, groove driven garage rock at it's finest. Leading lady Kay Elizabeth's powerfully soulful vocals soar across surf guitars with lyrics born for the dancefloor, "Well she touched my hair and tore me apart/she twisted my veins that led to my heart/she was a tornado". Their debut album drops in November. Keep 'em peeled.
