Elle est belle et son prénom c’est Bonnie…

Matthew Herbert is one of dance music’s few real visionaries–a producer who’s done to house music what Steve Reich did for classical minimalism, or what Cabaret Voltaire did for electronic experimentation. Second Hand Sounds is a collection of his finest remix work under a variety of pseudonyms–including Doctor Rockit and Herbert and proves that he is one of the most versatile and forward-thinking electronic musicians of his time and this is as good a showcase for his talents as any of his other albums to date. Gathered together in Secondhands sounds are some of his best, most sought after mixes of Matthew Herbert. The pedigree of the musicians who sought mixes by Mat is not to be sniffed at. Serge Gainsbourg, Moloko, Blaze, Recloose, Louie Austen are just a few of the names here. But to me, the Gainsbourg remix takes the cake as I thought of writting a post about Seurge while watching his biopic movie, Gainsbourg, vie héroïque. I just don’t think I could’ve write anything new about Serge that would not have been discussed before.

Serge Gainsbourg  –

Bonnie & Clyde (Herbert’s Fred & Ginger Mix)

OST : a bit of baroque funk by Gainsbourg’s producer

Fantastic Planet aka La Planète sauvage is an animated 1973 science-fiction film directed by René Laloux. The film was an international production between France and Czechoslovakia and has won the special jury prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. The story is based on the novel Oms en Série, by the French writer Stefan Wul. And it is one of the maddest soundtrack of the 70s with a baroque mix of wah wah funk and sophisticated orchestrations, very much in the mode of work by David Axelrod or some of the backings heard on Serge Gainsbourg’s best records. No surprise it’s handled by Alain Gouraguer, a groovy Frenchman with a style that’s a mix of the late 60s baroquery of Michel Columbier, and some of the smooth sexiness of the best Italian composers of his age. Great electric piano, wah wah guitar, and soaring strings — with a sound that’s as odd as the cover! Producer Madlib has avowedly drawn inspiration from, and sampled, Goraguer’s work on the first Quasimoto album.

The music to Fantastic Planet has a more progressive funky score. If you can imagine Pink Floyd meets Shaft, you get sort of an idea. The music consists of synthesizers, flute, Hohner clavinet, guitar (with lots of wah-wah effects), bass, and drums. Variations of themes do recur, which makes more sense when you’ve seen the film. Really trippy and dense, it is a testament to the unfortunate reality that they just don’t make ’em like this anymore. Tastefully orchestrated and uniquely original. A must for the collector of the avante-garde, psychedelic, or experimental.  

Alain Goraguer : Strip tease [1973 : Pathe]