Freschard : Q&A

One listen to 'Who The World Belongs To' in the newest podcast is all it takes to be spellbound by the sound of Clemence Freschard. Proper Songs stole a few moments ahead of her UK tour with Wave Pictures and reissue of 'Click Click' on vinyl.

PS: Tell us a bit about yourself and what you're up to.
I was born in French Burgundy. I've been living in Berlin for 5 years. I play music and record other people music. The last few weeks I've been playing drums everyday and I hope I will become a very good drummer. I've been trying to learn Spanish the last few weeks too but I'm only able to order beer and say my name so far. I hope I will speak like a local one day.

PS: 'Who The World Belongs To' is a lovely song, what inspired it?
When I lived in NYC I didn't speak English at all at the beginning. Lucas, my friend and English teacher spent many hours trying to make me hear the difference between pirates and parrots. I guess that's what started this song. It was just in my head. For the rest I like to keep the meaning of my songs secret to let people hear what they want to hear. It spoils the pleasure when you know what a song is really about.

PS: Tell us about your upcoming tour.
I'm going on tour with The Wave Pictures and Stanley Brinks for a month. They are my favorite people to hang out with on Earth as well as my favorite musicians and songwriters, which make me very happy about the idea of being on the road with all of them. They're the best company, I laugh so much when I'm with them. We'll travel all around Germany and England. I can't wait.

PS: What is it about calypso that interests you? (Freschard is in a Calypso group called Kreuzberg Museum)
I'm crazy about the songwriting and the spontaneity of the calypsonians from the 30's. Their voices, the stories they tell, the intensity of their words and their energy. It's direct. I don't like the recent calypso, not even from the 50's. I'm just crazy about the first recordings.

PS: Give us a top 5 of something.
1. Red wine
2. Bourbon
3. Cafe con Baileys
4. Krupnik
5. Car bomb

'Click Click' will be released on vinyl through Conky. A UK tour kicks off in Newcastle on 16th October.

Proper Songs Podcast #011

1. Freschard 'Who The World Belongs To' (Conky)
2. Atlas Sound feat Panda Bear 'Walkabout' (4AD)
3. The Very Best 'Mfumu' (Moshi Moshi)
4. Memory Tapes 'Stop Talking' (Acephale)
5. Taken By Trees 'Day By Day' (Rough Trade)
6. Fontän 'Neanderthaler' (Information)
7. CFCF 'Break-In' (Paper Bag)
8. Slumberland 'Thru Crop Fields' (A Silent Place)

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Washed Out : Feel It All Around

Washed Out's 'Feel It All Around' was one of my favourite songs from this summer and its getting a release on 7" in October. *Warning* do not watch this video if you have the end of summer blues, it'll only hurt.



Buy at Puregroove.

Will Stratton : Who Will

The gently charming 'Who Will' is the first offering from Will Stratton's forthcoming second album 'No Wonder', the result of three year's worth of recording sessions sandwiched between his studies at Vermont's Bennington College. Search his Myspace blogs for more free music.

Download 'Who Will'.

Released by Stunning Models On Display.

Dark Captain Light Captain : Questions (Hatchback Remix)

Here's a lovely remix by San Francisco's Windsurf spinoff Hatchback of 'Questions' by Dark Captain Light Captain. Its taken from DCLC's new remix EP, which follows 2008's highly successful debut album 'Miracle Kicker'.

Download 'Questions' (Hatchback Remix).

Buy at Amazon.

Ólafur Arnalds : Found Songs

Iceland's neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds created the beautiful series 'Found Songs' over a week in April this year. Recording a song a day he instantly made each track available via Twitter with fans contributing artwork via Flickr. 100,000 downloads later it's now getting a full release on lovely 10" vinyl and CD by Erased Tapes.



Download all the MP3s from foundsongs.erasedtapes.com and then buy it at Erased Tapes.

Get Back Guinozzi : Low Files Tropical

Get Back Guinozzi have a naughty video for their new single 'Low Files Tropical'.



Buy at FatCat.

Hong Kong In The 60s : Guest Mix

Hong Kong In The 60s released their brilliant debut EP 'Willow Pattern Songs' through the Proper Songs label in June. Here they present an unclassifiable world wide mixtape of leftfield pop, jazz, easy listening and Oriental indie.

1. Sivuca - Voce Abusou [I'm Free as a Bird]
2. Starbuck - Moonlight Feels Right
3. Mantler - Private Doubts
4. Burt Bacharach - Hasbrook Heights
5. Carlos Lyra - Canaã
6. Joyce and Milton Nascimento - Tema Para Jobim
7. Sylvia Telles - Canção da Volta
8. Jacqueline Taïeb - Petite Fille Amour
9. Tracy Huang - 美麗人生
10. Fitness Forever - Quando Ho Tempo
11. Ennio Morricone - Ninna Nanna in Blu
12. Nara Leão - Rapaz De Bem
13. The Marshmallow Kisses - 回憶旋賺舞步

Buy 'Willow Pattern Songs' at Rough Trade.

The Beach Boys : End Of The Summer

This collection of tracks was put together for my good friend Sativo from btglondon.com as a long overdue introduction to a side of The Beach Boys that most people are unaware of - but is also my personal favourite. Mostly taken from their later albums - post Pet Sounds - it focuses on their more experimental work led by genius Brian Wilson. It also includes a few rare and unreleased versions of songs that non-obsessive Beach Boy fans probably won't know.

The Beach Boys : End Of The Summer by Proper Songs on Mixcloud

1. Celebrate The News
2. Its About Time
3. Little Bird
4. Wonderful
5. Slip On Through
6. Feel Flows
7. Surf's Up
8. Child Is The Father Of The Man
9. Cool, Cool Water
10. Vega-Tables
11. Roll Plymouth Rock
12. Diamond Head
13. Mrs O'Leary's Cow
14. Can't Wait Too Long
15. We're Together Again
16. I Went To Sleep
17. Let Him Run Wild (Instrumental)
18. All I Wanna Do
19. God Only Knows
20. 'Til I Die

Recommended Listening:
Sunflower + Surf's Up
Friends + 20/20
Smiley Smile + Wild Honey
Good Vibrations Box Set

Sin Fang Bous : Catch The Light

Here's a track offered up in support of the forthcoming US tour by Icelandic pop experimentalist Sin Fang Bous with friends and collaborators Múm. His debut solo album 'Clangour' was released earlier this year on Morr Music and is worth picking up - particularly at the cut price Boomkat are offering at the moment.

Typically, I've picked a video of a Fleetwood Mac cover.



Download 'Catch The Light'.

Buy at Boomkat.

Arms : Kids Aflame

Lucky us in the UK have been able to get hold of the lovely lo-fi 'Kids Aflame' by Arms for a good while, but country mates of Brooklyn's Todd Goldstein's, for it is he that is Arms, have only been able to buy it on import...until now. Gigantic Music, label of Todd's daytime band Harlem Shakes, have picked up the album - plus bonus tracks - for release on 27th October. Check out the ukelele-tastic title track on video and MP3.



Download 'Kids Aflame'.

Buy at Melodic (now if you're UK) or Gigantic Music (from the 27th Oct if you're US).

The Phenomenal Handclap Band : 15-20

'15-20' by The Phenomenal Handclap Band is undoubtably one of the summer's most tip top tracks. It's done got itself a re-release with remixes on 28th Sept and they've cut a fancy new video to go along with it.



Buy the album at Pure Groove.

CFCF : Monolith

Following up the brilliant 'Panesian Nights' EP 'Continent', the debut album by Montreal-based CFCF, has been announced for relase on 27th October. 'Monolith' is the first track on offer, indicating a predilection for early house, midtempo disco and classic electro snare rolls. The tracklisting for the album intriguingly includes a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Big Love'.

Download 'Monolith'.

Check more at Paper Bag Records.

Memory Tapes : Seek Magic

Memory Tapes is the combination of one man band Dayve Hawk's Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes projects. Its seems to be for the best as the melding has resulted in Hawk focusing his talent into an album of excellent lo-fi electronic pop experimentation. The dusty disco 'Bicycle' is as good a tune you'll hear this year, dreamy West-Coast guitars fuzz away with 'Plain Material' while hypnotic synth arpeggios fill 'Pink Stones' with joyous repetition. Only currently available through Rough Trade, the CD version comes with a bonus disc featuring 22 minute jam 'Treeship'.

Download 'Plain Material'.

Buy CD at Rough Trade

Fontän : Winterhwila

From the ever reliable Information label comes the debut album by Fontän, Swedish producers Jesper Jarold and Johan Melin. Recorded in part in Jesper's grandmother's garden shed on broken - then mended - musical equipment, the LP catches the mood of the setting summer sun with pure Balearic vibes, dub-disco and psychedelic Kraut rock. Layered textures of synths and cosmic guitars create otherworldly soundscapes with a strong 80s influence, while keeping a tight reign on the Knopflerisms. The vocal tracks stand up strong, such as 2008 single 'Early Morning' and 'The Bridge' - the illegitimate son of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes'. As should be expected from label mates to the excellent Studio, this is beautiful, timeless music.

Download 'Early Morning'.

Buy at Boomkat.

Here We Go Magic : Here We Go Magic

This snuck by me in February but definitely deserves a plug for all fans of warm, fuzzy, lo-fi recording it may have also side-stepped. Here We Go Magic is the project of Brooklyn's (where else?) Luke Temple, recorded at home on 4-track tape over a two-month period of stream-of-consciousness writing. The densely layered recording excentuates the trance inducing bliss-pop and Afro-influenced rhythms of stand out tracks 'Only Pieces', 'Tunnelvision' and 'Fangela', while the more experimental instrumental tracks prove a welcome counterpoint.



Buy at Rough Trade.

The Second Release On Proper Songs Is By Special Benny

Available on digital in November, 'Air Filter' is the first track from Special Benny's exceptional debut album 'Toys' out in Spring '010.



propersongs.net/label