An Pierle & White Velvet - Singles & Rarities
Quality.....: VBRkbps
Release Date: nov-18-2008
Source......: CDDA
Genre.......: Indie
Total Tracks: 28
Playtime....: 130:29 min
CD Size.....: 150,2 MB
TrackListings
- CD1
-
01 - Are Friends Electric ? 04:08
02 - Mud Stories 03:45
03 - Tower : Da Remix 03:36
04 - Anytime You Leave 02:40
05 - As Sudden Tears Fall 04:14
06 - Sing Song Sally (Radio Mix) 03:26
07 - Here In The Woods 04:15
08 - How Does It Feel 04:22
09 - Jupiter 04:33
10 - Mary's Had A Baby 03:10
11 - Need You Now 03:51
12 - Eldorado 04:37
13 - (Il Est 5 Heures) Paris S'eveille 10:53
-
- CD2
-
01 - Tenderness (Brussels) 04:37
02 - Medusa (Brussels) 07:22
03 - Mexico (Brussels) 03:48
04 - The Days Of Pearly Spencer (Brussels) 03:36
05 - Sorry (Brussels) 05:19
06 - Many Roads (Hamburg) 04:49
07 - How Does It Feel? (Hamburg) 04:59
08 - Helium Sunset (Hamburg) 04:24
09 - Sing Song Sally (Hamburg) 05:43
10 - Not The End (Hamburg) 05:23
11 - Jupiter (Paris) 04:45
12 - Good Year (Paris) 04:08
13 - Snakesong (Paris) 04:00
14 - Need You Now (Paris) 04:24
15 - Mud Stories (Paris) 05:42
Release Info
http://www.myspace.com/anpierleandwhitevelvet
White Velvet suggests, something beautiful and cold ; something
dazzling and underground ; innocence and experience - a cross between
Snow White and Nico. White Velvet was also the third album from a
very special artist who has successfully thrived in the cultural pop
otherworld of Europe, without quite breaking through in the UK or
America. There have been hints and moments, such as Time Out
enthusing about An Pierle and co-songwriter and producer Koen Gisen's
twisted, fragile pop in a strange, black pearl or Q Magazine
concluding, huge in Ghent - the world may follow suit. But few fans
or writers have made that short trip on the Eurostar to discover
Pierle & Gisen performing in front of an orchestra or An sitting on a
transparent ball, always moving as she hits the notes on her piano.
If they arrived today, they'd find the couple with a band called
White Velvet, as their sound continues to grow and mutate, eating up
all previous experiments to create something new. The new album
started coming together in 2005 as the pair filled their home with
recording equipment, string quartets and a whole range of
instruments, big and small. Having a piano in the kitchen isnt good
for your social life, deadpans Gisen. They also listened to a lot of
music, in particular piles of 70s records, George Harrison, Talk
Talk, early Roxy Music, Bauhaus, Johnny Cash, Air, Radiohead, French
muzak - the list is endless and it all seeped in, from the
spaciousness of Air through to the artful twists of Roxy and
emotional honesty of Mark Hollis. Theres also a 60s feel in the
Mellotron-laced Jupiter, while one of the highlights Tenderness is
elegantly old fashioned, a beautifully arranged song that An Pierle
confesses she loses herself in completely. The pairs eclectic tastes
also allow for simplicity - the wonderful Many Roads - and intensity,
as demonstrated by the out of control lurch and tumble of Not The
End. Pop hooks are cast throughout, from Jupiters chorus to the
playful Mexico but just as important are the subtle things happening
in the margins of the songs, creating an album that reveals new ideas
and textures with every listen. As a teenager, Belgium-born An Pierle
first broke through in her home country back in the mid 1990s when
she performed in a national song contest, stealing the show with her
own compositions and an inspired cover of Tubeway Armys Are Friends
Electric? Theres a fantastic recording of the night where you can
hear the crowd becoming increasingly excited with every note as the
song builds from a few quiet piano strikes into a Helter Skelter-like
frenzy. Although piano based, her 1999 debut album Mud Stories is
closer in spirit to the likes of Devendra Banhart or Coco Rosie than
Kate Bush or Tori Amos. Arguably one of the most experimental
song-based piano albums of all time, its essentially a series of live
takes of her own material and there are almost no overdubs. Although
Koen Gisen played a vital role on Mud Stories in getting the best out
of Pierles performances and helping her to select the final tapes, he
was even more involved as a co-songwriter & producer on the
follow-up, 2002s Helium Sunset. Guitar driven indie-pop songs such as
Sing Song Sally lie alongside the brooding Kiss Me and stark As
Sudden Tears Fall. The ghosts of Eno and Nick Cave can be glimpsed in
Helium Sunset but it remains a unique assemblage that is both
alluring and oddly sinister. The broadening canvas of Pierles second
album - guitars, synthesizers and even a breathless accordion - also
offered new possibilities live as the solo pianist integrated herself
into band-driven dynamics and at times a full orchestra. After three
years, this presented a new challenge - how to bring all these
elements together into a cohesive whole on the next recordings. The
result is White Velvet, a combination of everything Pierle and Gisen
have experienced and absorbed so far, but blended into a distinctive
style. It has both the energy of Mud Stories and the dark, twisted
sophistication of Helium Sunset, while pushing forward with more
rhythm and harmonies - in short, the sound of a new band. The
textures have greater depth partly thanks to Jon Kelly's mix
(previous credits include Kate Bush and Paul McCartney) and lyrically
too, its the best of Pierle's career so far, full of inventive
imagery and also humour: If I save your neck, its to break your back
(I Love You). An Pierle laughs as she describes Its Got To Be Me as
her Gwen Stefani song . . . Its very ironical. Its that thing, why
not me? Why isnt it my time now? Sugary and bizarre, the likes of Its
Got To Be Me and Mexico reveal Pierle and Gisen's love of pop, yet
the albums potency also lives inside the slow motion atmospherics of
Cold Winter and Tenderness or the guttural, sonorous attack of Not
The End. As Pierle says, a friend told me, its Radiohead for girls. I
dont exactly agree but I think I know what she means.