10 Seconds: Clementine March
1. Cindy Lee - Flesh and Blood (30'35" - 30'45")
From Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (2024)
"Let's start with the most recent one. I've been literally obsessed with this indie lo-fi masterpiece, released on YouTube (!) only by Canadian genius Patrick Flegel on April 24. This toxic, gorgeous, slow krautrock track is slowly giving all its effects, the female/male vocals tenderness at odds with all the dissonance behind. Just a drop on a 2h-long oceanic, gigantic album. I picked the moment when the gentle intro dips into this mad sloppy groove."
2. Caetano Veloso - Cobra Coral (3'45" - 3'55")
From Caetano Veloso - Noites do Norte (2001)
"Caetano is my entry point to Brazilian music, and this very produced album from 2001 was important in my musical education. This tune has more polyrhythmic elements than the ear can handle, and yet it's accessible and pop. I chose the outro which is gorgeously tender with trumpet and some Candomble percussion from Salvador da Bahia."
3. Tom Zé - Peixe Viva (2'35" - 2'45")
From Tom Zé - Jogos de Armar (2003)
"These are some of the most surprising 10 seconds in the history of recorded music. A samba/choro arpeggio is overtaking a long bridge composed of hand percussion and a repetitive whistled vocal contrapoint. The whole track itself is an insane collage of opera, pifanos (small flutes from Brazilian Nordeste), never losing its clarity. Tom Zé is a genius. This album, aptly named Building Games, changed my life."
4. Electrelane - Enter Laughing (0'05" - 0'15")
From Electrelane - The Power Out (2004)
“Another formative album, recorded by the late Steve Albini, this lockin guitar groove stays in your head forever when you hear it for the first time, this mix of repetition and tenderness always fascinated me in Electrelane. And all the feminist content of course, they were massively important for a 20 y-old indie pop woman in the 2000's."
5. Steve Reid - Lions of Juda (0'27" - 0'37")
From Steve Reid - Nova (1976)
"This deep bassline melting into a saturated farfisa organ, itself cutting into a repetitive compressed horn unison, this weird spiritual free jazz has been haunting me since I heard it for the first time a long time ago. I love the murky sound of it. My dad had the Bitches Brew LP as a starting point to get into jazz, and lots of less famous spiritual jazz from the Black Jazz Records 70's label, with their distinctive black and white record sleeves. Feeling grateful I heard that at a relatively young age, even before they got massively sampled."
6. Cocteau Twins - Frou-frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires (1'45" - 1'55")
From Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)
"As a songwriter, I cherish unexpected musical plot twists, and this incredible moment when the first part of the song seamlessly moves into a totally different development is a pure wonder. I discovered this classic album in 2020, and it was my escapist soundtrack during lockdown, This closing song was written by bassist Simon Raymonde whilst mourning his mother, and it resonated in an incredible way during those times."
7. Peluché - Swim (2'40" - 2'50")
From Peluché - Utopia Village (2016)
"This tune is fantastic. This moment of tension release between drummer Sophie Lowe and bassist Rhapsody Gonzalez is infectious, I'm very lucky I met these ladies recording this tune in a small studio in Primrose Hill, a few weeks after I moved to London (early 2016). Sophie has been drumming with me since last year, she's extraordinary, and her and Amy Maskell's new project It Was All A Dream is really worth checking."
8. Angel Bat Dawid - London (2'36" - 2'46")
From Angel Bat Dawid - The Oracle (2019)
"A plaintive gorgeous clarinet melopea that ends abruptly in the middle of a musical phrase. I was extremely lucky to discover Angel Bat Dawid's music live... at Moment's Notice in 2022, and she's been accompanying me since. What a woman, what a treasure."
9. Tapir! - Mountain Song (4'10" - 4'20")
From Tapir! - The Pilgrim, Their God and The King Of My Decrepit Mountain (2024)
"Another highly personal track, because I sing on it (choir)! Last year, in March 2023, the band and friends went to The Devil's Dyke, in Sussex, a deep valley that gives spectacular view, except that it was so foggy and rainy that day that the choir recording in shivering cold was unlikely to work out, but it did so well, that it adds some intensity to this already very epic and stunning prog-rock finale for their perfect first album."
10. Julie Tippetts - Mind of A Child (1'45" - 1'55")
From Julie Tippetts - Sunset Glow (1975)
"Because it's one of the most beautiful songs ever, because it encapsulates all my musical influences, and this moment when the slightly dissonant horns come in is heartbreaking."
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