Frenchy’s Fracas

(thanks to Milov for the last.fm screengrab idea! have a look at his artist list for 2008)

Tracks Most Played In 2008 (Last.fm):

Nice to see one of my 2007 discoveries still getting airplay: Ferdinand Jozef George, a real Dutch talent; to me that means I didn’t get bored with the album after a short while.
Never expected Marsalis to top the list, but I sure as hell don’t have any complaints about that!
N*E*R*D is a bit of a mystery, cause the album wasn’t a very satisfying experience; glad to see some Roy Hargrove tracks there.
Kinda miss tracks by Alice Coltrane, but hey.. Scrobbling your music is a near-precise exercise

Artists Most Played In 2008 (Last.fm):

Yep, Meshell’s still on top, heheh.. One dodgy concert doesn’t take away my total fanboy adoration of this lady’s total body of work. And Lovely, lovely from her last album? Still WOW!!
Q-Tip’s latest release The Renaissance has been on my playlist these last two months, album still works for me. Good to see my girl Alice on the list, heheh.. Pleasantly surprised by Jose Gonzalez’ entry on this list, fine by me, not gonna play any of his stuff any time soon, tho..

2008 Discoveries

Just go and have a listen..

That’s it, now on to a new year of listening to great and exciting music!

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General Description
Artist/Band: Ferdinand Jozef George
Album Title: Human To Human
Year: 2007

Human to Human,
A travel to you as a travel to me.
We come closer as time is not.
In beauty I realise destination in me.

How I Got Into This Music
My pal, Hieronymous Fox, was nagging me about this album from this Dutch musician for months and seeing that sometimes I just don’t wanna listen to his stuff too many times, I kinda ignored the advice. But then the guy never gives up and tends to be right about this stuff 4 out of 5 times.. He gave me the album to listen to and well, I’m kinda glad I did..

Google Search for reviews of this album || More on the band at

Tracks that got my attention:
Human To Human
Great opening track; mellow vibed keyboards with a nice drum-n-bass energy and wicked percussion.

Madam Boogaloo
Title kinda says it all. It’s that South-American thing combined with that Lounge Lizzard feel, added bonus: the French Boulevard styled keyboards..

Gitano ft. Lillian Vieria
Nice build up, sweet vocals by Lillian Vieria of Zuco 103. Very subtle bass play, and again, Brazilian/Portuguese sounds great regardless what’s being said.

Ballad
Not so strong, it works for me sometimes as a nice lullaby, but usually I kinda wanna skip the track - the citar is nice though.

Song For Noah
Wow.. Incredible mood-filled song, the whole haunting fairy tale feel to it is just beautiful!! Beautiful vocals and lyrics by miss Simone Pormes.

Babybass
Like the title suggests, it’s all about the bass, baby!

Everytime We Say Goodbye
Nothing to do with the Cole Porter classic, but still an impressive piece of work. The track is a bit of a show-off: we are serious and talented musicians, listen to our work.
And that’s just it: it’s a technically superb performance, but not really meant to be accessable. Kinda like it, kinda don’t.

Yoopee
Heheh.. Great theme in three interesting variations.

Conclusion
This album and this artist show us another example of the great quality that the Dutch music scene can provide. A nice mix of styles, I think an interesting compromise between an almost purist love for music and simple, easy access pop music. This is done without selling their souls and that’s what makes the album so strong and incredibly mature.
HF was right as usual (godsdammit!) about this album and I share in his frustration that this guy doesn’t actively promote his stuff a bit more through the internet and with live performances. A myspace page isn’t enough, more interaction with audiences is needed.
I wanna see and hear more from this guy!

Rating:

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