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NOUVELLE VAGUE (Wolves Civic, 25/11/08)

23-04-2008

If wonderful lounge re-interpretations of John Peel classics are your thing, you won’t want to miss these classy French subverters. Amelie meets the sound of the underground.

Here’s the deal. They take something by one of your all-time indie heroes – PIL say, or Nirvana – and give it a sacrilegious going over in a smoky, chin stroking, late nite club stylee.

The clue is in their name, by the way: Nouvelle Vague is French for New Wave, of course, but is also a phrase used in Portugal for bossa nova. Go figure.

It shouldn’t work, but it does. Maybe it’s those sultry Gallic vocals, maybe it’s the sheer weirdness of hearing guitar driven angst stripped of its noise and reconstructed as mournful folk jazz.

Anyway, whatever it is, I LOVE IT! Well, most of the time anyway.

It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it adds a whole new dimension to your appreciation of great songs from the back catalogue of late night Radio One.

If you’ve never heard ‘em, check out “Love Will Tear Us Apart” http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l4efME9Vnlc&NR=1 "This Is Not A Love Song" http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RqAPbFm4tXQ&feature=related or “The Killing Moon” http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Azj08Q80qOA&feature=related