sound of the suburbs

Mai
I always find it a pleasure to discover new music and especially when the points of reference are as strong as in this case. Mai are a true European duo consisting of a French boy, Dorian providing the music and a Swedish girl, Johanna giving it her best with her seductive voice. The result can be sampled on their debut single 'Snowing Downtown' released by the French label Nacopajaz, the single would appear to be very much a limited affair available only on 7" vinyl. I for one am eager to hear what their forthcoming album sounds like as this three minutes is a nice downtempo jazzy number that has me wishing that Portishead and Mazzy Star were still together and making music.

Elli Medeiros
Maybe some of you will have heard of this woman? Born in Uruguay she arrived in France at the age of 14. She was vocalist with France's first punk band Stinky Toys, who were on the bill of the original 100 club punk festival along side the likes of the Sex Pistols. Their international career did not really take off but they did manage a number of albums for Polydor France, the first of which was delayed because the record company execs found the cover colour, grey, to be too downbeat! Elli pursued a solo career after the split and had several hits in France with music of a more latin colour. Since the late eighties she has been inactive in the world of music, either raising her children or concentrating her efforts on acting. The good news for music lovers is that her long time friend Etienne Daho has coaxed her back into the recording studios, and V2 are releasing the results as 'EM'. Her voice as heard on this extract 'Souleve-Moi' reminds me very much of Marianne Faithfull, as does the subject matter which would not have been out of place on 'Broken English', something about a hooker and her pimp! Check out her web site here where you can also learn more about her films, there also some nice photos.