[engl] She was the shooting star of French pop in the 60s with tunes like the very famous „Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son“ and could score a comeback hit in the late 80s with „Ella elle l'a“. She was one helluva beautiful girl with brown eyes and blonde hair when she hit the scene aged 17 in 1964 and her rise to fame and stardom happened in an amazing pace. This is France Gall's debut album, released in '64 along with a couple of ROLLING STONES, HOLLIES and BEATLES albums and it could compete with all these heavy weights of their time. „France Gall“contains a nifty mix of songs that present elements of chanson, soul and heartache ballad, vocal jazz and contemporary pop. „Jazz á go-go“ for example is such a rather haunting vocal jazz track with a wicked saxophone solo and on the other hand „Les rubans et la fleur“ comes as a beautiful pop / beat song with melodies ranging between happy and thoughtfully folky, as if some chanson and classic English folksong have been mixed up with a playful beat background. „Pense à moi“owes much to cool jazz hero Dave Brubeck and his 5 / 4 rhythms and piano block chords of the „Take five“ anthem, one of the most popular jazz songs ever. Well, we are here to get a feeling for this beautiful French pop album and nothing more .All I can say is that even this song which has so obviously been inspired by another tune works well and lives from her oh so innocent vocal performance. She was 17 back then and you can hear it. The whole album emanates an angelic innocence that pop music had actually lost by that time. Still there is plenty of emotional depth to be found here. Her innocence just keeps it all together. Happy songs, dark songs, dramatic melodies, it is all here. On her early works her music was a bit more serious and cool than later in the 60s when she adopted a full but tame chanson pop sound. I have not heard many more melancholic songs than „J'entends cette musique“ from the early 60s. I do not understand what she sings about in this ballad but the melody is utterly sad but still hopeful. A masterpiece of French pop all in all. If you are into 60s female fronted pop music stuck in between the more adventurous mid 60s style and 1950s heartbreak songs you will love this new reissue of France Gall's debut. Listen and spend a joyful time.

[engl] 1965 and 1966 were the years when the underground at last exploded and first influences of psychedelia were showing in the music of many nowadays hardly remembered cult bands such as THE SAVAGES originating from the Bermuda islands. Along three 7" singles the band only released one full length record in 1966, “Live'n'wild”, recorded live at the Hub, a nightclub part of the Princess Hotel in Hamilton / Bermuda. The sound quality is quite awesome and the interaction with the audience brings quite a few very entertaining announcements next to a collection of great tunes, three of them cover versions. This album all in all is absolutely rare. It is hard to find any original copy at all. But here we go with a brand new reissue that brings back the original album to a garage beat loving audience. Strangest point here is the song “He's a man”, a cover version of Icelandic 60s rockers THOR'S HAMMER with lyrics in English written by THE SAVAGES. “We gotta get out of this place” by THE ANIMALS was quite an obvious choice for a young garage band to include in their live set, the third cover version on this album is a more powerful rendition of THE DRIFTERS' “On broadway”. Nice choices but only the icing on the cake for the self penned tunes presented a band that was up on the same level as most of the more popular garage beat heroes of the day and with “The world isn't round, it's square” THE SAVAGES had written one of the most wicked proto punk orgies of their era that became one of these cult tunes that are the reason a band survives in the memory of at least a few die hards over the decades and it still sounds fresh and furious while the great “Quiet town” for example is an early psychedelic pop tune. The overall mood of this record is certainly joyful but you can feel the teenage angst and anger of these youngsters streaming from every note of their songs. I suppose if they got hold of a fuzzbox already all their guitars would have been utterly distorted but even with no distortion on their axes there is enough dirt here to make “Live'n'wild” an ultimate experience in 1960s garage rock on par with THE SEEDS, THE MUSIC MACHINE or THE SORROWS.

[engl] This is the soundtrack to classic 1965 Bollywood movie based on the book "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. Originals in fine condition of the rare first Indian pressing score amazing prices among collectors of 1960s stage and screen music vinyls. And it is exactly what you might expect from such a record. The musical elements span from classical Hindustani music, popular folk dances from India, lushly orchestrated screen music, exotica sounds and the pop music of its era with hints of country, latin, surf and swing. A colorful and all over the place joyful musical effort featuring well known vocalists such as ASHA BHOSLE, LATA MANGESHKAR or MOHAMMED RAFI. Despite the delicately entangled arrangements of the songs, there is always a cool vocal line and harmony to attach the corresponding tune to the listener. A very entertaining record if you have an ear for exotic pop and screen music!