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Magoo - French Modern Funk

Pick Your Tunes #7

01/22/2018
Pick Your Tunes
80's Boogie, 80's Funk, 80's Soul, Brit Soul, French Boogie, Modern Funk, Record reviews, Synth

Philippe BOUTHEMY  known as MAGOO is a singer/songwriter inspired by American black music (SouL, R&b and above all Funk), and more particularly the sound of e 80’s that he particulary likes.

Then, he became the singer of a Funk band.

“We performed in pubs in our local area. These were my beginnings as a singer, and it is at this time that I really found my style. Until then I was a simple musician often hidden behind my roots. I moved to the front of the scene and I immediately loved it, then I discovered the feelings which the song aroused in me, which was a turning point. Finally, I started to compose, initially by seeking a little bit of me, in various styles, then gradually I moved naturally towards what I preferred, Funk from my childhood!”

Magoo was the musical director, and keyboard player for three years of  “La Grande Nuit De La Funk”(Lyon, France) accompanying with his band artists such as Gayle Adams, Roney Canada, The Ladies of Skyy, Total Contrast, The Cool Notes, Yvonne Gage, Phyllis St James, Loni Gamble and Gee Bello.

 

Discography:

–  “Magoo“ – debut album (Boogie Times Records, 2010)

–  “Funktime” EP (Boogie Times Records , 2010)

– “Can’t Get Enough” (Boogie Times Records 2012)

– “The Way You Make Me Feel” (Funkysize Records, 2013)

 

 

magoo-french-boogie-funk

 

1. What’s your favorite tune to cruise at night?

Answer: Mayer Hawthorne – “Her Favorite Song” (Oliver Rmx) (2014)

It’s always so hard to choose only one song, because it depends on my mood so much. But this one came first in mind. I used to drive back home at night every week end (and every night during the summer) after my gigs , sometimes totally exhausted, and this song helped me to stay awake many times!

I love the atmosphere, perfect for a night cruising. The associations between the singer Mayer Hawthorne and Oliver (Vaughn Oliver and Oliver Goldstein, two amazing beatmakers and remixers) matches perfectly. By the way, the sound quality is amazing, as all the Oliver’s productions.

 

 

2. What’s your favorite tune to chill?

Answer: Suzanne Ciani – “Birth Of Venus” (1982)

I like old electronic music as Klaus Schultz, Tangerine Dream, Jean Jacques Perrey… It helps me to clear my mind after having spent several hours practicing piano or composing songs. Suzanne Ciani is a synthesizers wizard and one of the electronic music pioneers. I could choose any other track of her “Seven Waves” album, which this tune come from. She brings some sensuality and feminity into a kind music which often sounds cold.

 

 

3. What’s your favorite tune for a romantic evening?

Answer: Midnight Star– “Slow Jam” (1983)

One of my favorite slow jams. Still hard to make a choice, but this one sounds great. Maybe for some people it will sound cheesy, is romanticism old fashionned today? It seems that types of slow songs doesn’t exist anymore and I regret it.

 

 

4. What’s your favorite tune to shake your body down to the ground?

Answer:  Cerrone –  “Ain’t No Party Like A Monday Night” (2016)

One of my fav from the last Cerrone album. A collaboration between Cerrone, Skalp, Dabeull and Kezsia whitch matches perfectly. Funky synths riffs lead the track. This song makes me lose my mind!

 

 

5. What’s the tune that gives you instant nostalgia?

Answer:  Michael Jackson – “The Lady In My Life”  (1982)

Written by the great Rod Temperton. When I’m listening to this jam I’m an 7 years old child on summer holidays. This one brings me back to my childhood more than the others from the Thriller album. I used to listen this album with my brother and my sister. It was our “summer soundtrack” (in 1983 or 84 I guess..), but I remember I listened to this song when I was on my own, during the evenings, until the last hearable note into the fade out! Much later I could appreciate the interpretation of all those amazing muscians (Paul Jackson, David Paich, Louis Johnson, Jeff Porcaro etc…) and Michael Jackson’s vocal performance which is admirable too.

 

Interview with Alec Mansion on his boogie masterpiece LP (1983)

07/07/2017
Interviews
80's music, Alec Mansion, Belgian Boogie, eau de nice, French Boogie

In addition to the great interview conducted by our colleagues from Music Is My Sanctuary that you can read here, we also wanted to have a word with Belgium Boogie master Alec Mansion on his masterpiece album released on WEA Records in 1983.

 

What are the reasons leading you to produce « Laid Bête et Méchant »?

After my first album “MICROFILMS”, my producers Marc Moulin and Dan Lacksman came back from Paris with a contract at WEA (Warner Electra Atlantic). I was really inspired, at the time, by American music that I had discovered when I was in Chicago and Montreal.

I was particularly attracted by the combination of real piano, vocals and synths. I started to compose “Trop Triste” with a really basic equipment. The Roland Juno 60 and a 4 tracks Cassette recorder, in a little cabanon in the bottom of the garden of my friends in Montreal.
To me, Montreal was so inspiring that I wrote nearly 20 songs with that unbelievable small home studio. Back in Brussels, I played my demos to Marc Moulin and he loved the project. Together with him and Dan Lacksman, we developed it with many other keyboards such as the Korg MS20, the Minimoog,the Linndrum, OBX, Prophet 5 and even the Fairlight who just appeared at the time. It was good fun to play it all live as the midi system was only arriving with the Atari .

This LP turned out to be highly sought after: how can you explain that? Do you know how many copies were originally pressed?

In my memory, around 10.000 copies. But the thing is that so many people talked about it afterwards… I think that the interest of it could be sincerity, because I did it without any kind of pressure and with my own intuition.

 

Can you share with us any particular moments/highlights during the recording of this album?

I remember that we used to share the studio with Thomas Dolby, who was already famous and I think the Sparks were around as well.
During the breaks, we used to play football in the garden and one day, of course, the ball would go in the neighbours garden.
Thomas would ring the bell and asked for his ball with his strong british accent, and the old lady who didn’t know anything about music told him: “never again, boy!”. I have lots of great memories of the sessions at Synsound studios. One day, because the minimoog couldn’t keep in tune for some reasons, I tried to play the bass line of “Dans l’eau de Nice” with my little Korg MS20. The sound was a little thin but the texture sounded great for us, so we decide to play every bass line of the album with it and to work on the EQ of it. This bass sound is quite unique mainly because it wasn’t made for that !

 

In studio with Marc Moulin and Dan Lacskman

 

Did it reach the charts and get any club airplay in European discos and radios back in time?

A lot of clubs in Belgium played the tracks, but I don’t think it was played anywhere else.

 

Can you tell us more on the track “Dans L’eau de Nice”? What was your inspiration for this song?

I was doing my first big trip with my old red 2CV Citroën from Liège (Belgium) to Nice. My aim was to meet the famous French singer Michel Fugain to ask his opinion on my demos and I did so. Once in Nice, me and my girlfriend would have a bath in the Mediterranean sea along the “la promenade des Anglais”. At the moment where we kissed sensually in that delicious warm water, a huge Boeing arrived for landing at the airport which is along the sea. We really thought it was our last minut as it was nearly touching the water.

Back in Liège, my 2cv died and I wrote that song relating all the little trips we made with it. Londres, Marseille,Brussels,Tyrol, Ostende,….

 

“Dans L’eau de Nice” was released on a 7inch format and is a nightmare to find!

Are there any unreleased material that couldn’t be included in the LP? The year ’83 is one the most appreciated by boogie lovers, especially because of the perfect combination between soulful voices and funky bass lines: did you think about releasing some kind of sequel to this album?

Even if I didn’t have any copy of the album until now, I kept every cassette and demo of the time. I have a few songs and demo that were on their way, some finished some not, and I should don an archelogogic mission to put them together. I’m open to do it but the quality could be variable.

 

Can you explain the artwork of the album ? Why are you walking on a roof by night ? Does it have a specific meaning?

I’ve always been fascinated by the roofs of Paris, the Aristocats of Disney, Mary Poppins, Chaplin and Fred Astaire. I had the idea of a picture made in aerograph to look “cartoon”. As this album was risky in terms of mixing french lyrics with boogie funk, I wanted to appear happy in a quite dangerous situation. The cats and the night light show the atmosphere of the songs: dark but full of hope.

 

What is your vision of the music industry during the early 80’s?

I didn’t think in terms of music industry at the time…I was only interested to write songs and my producers would follow the business part of it.But to answer your question, I would say that it was an exciting period, where nearly everything was to be discovered. The feeling I had with the new keyboards and synths that were appearing was that we felt like the master of the universe (joke!)

 

And now: what are you current and forthcoming projects?

I’m just finishing the shooting of a French movie called Stars 80 la suite. It ‘s the second film on the subject and I play my own character with different singers from that period. My studio project is a new album recorded in Brazil 2 months ago with 10 original songs.
Recorded with real good Brasilian musicians over there, I’m now busy creating textures in programming sequences and atmospheres on the top of the organic material.

Many thanks Alec for taking the time to run this interview with us!


Alec Mansion’s self-titled LP releases July 7, 2017

 

Order the record

We would like to remind everyone that this fantastic album has finally been reissued by our friends from Be With Records on a limited edition (1’000 copies) so don’t sleep on it!

Top Shelf – Episode 4 | Nickee B

01/11/2017
Artist interview (Top Shelf)
80's Boogie, Disco, French Boogie, Funk, Modern Funk, Synth

TOP SHELF is video show created by the Boogie80 team that aims to build a bridge between music from the past and the new generation of artists, DJs and record collectors. This show also features interviews of 80’s artists, DJs, vinyl collectors and Modern Funk producers.

This month’s episode features an exclusive interview of French Modern Funk artist Nickee B. Enjoy !

 

Follow Nickee B:

https://www.facebook.com/nickeebmusic/?pnref=lhc
https://soundcloud.com/nickee-b

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