Some Bizarre's Blog

--

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/five-on-open-ended-richter/id421011766
... ... ... ...
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/halber-mensch/id421086511

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/haus-der-luge/id420979525

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/drawings-of-patient-o.t.-zeichnungen/id421047608

Risqué

Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

Label: Some Bizarre

Released: 17^th August

Cat No: SBZCD092

KINKY ELECTRO POP FROM VIBRANT FRENCH/WELSH DUO

Oozing sensuality and provocative energy, Risqué emerge from the erotic underworld with their debut album, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down on the revered Some Bizarre label


Risqué – French vixen Nathalie and her Welsh husband Huw – combine their lavish soundscapes with a series of incredible collaborations from the likes of dance pop diva Billie Ray Martin and New York City's legendary transsexual sexbomb and muse of David LaChapelle, Amanda Lepore


The album's title track, Tie Me Up Tie Me Down showcases Nathalie's ethereal vocals (in French and English) astride classic electro rhythms while Push The Button with Billie Ray Martin is a rock n' synth pop anthem in the making.


I Want Your Number is a futuristic combination of pure dancefloor energy and the confused mathematics of love: '6% pneumatic 60% politic 20% chemistry, 90% destiny' coos Nathalie.


"This track wasn't written for Marilyn, it was written for me!" says Amanda Lepore, of Marilyn, the track she guests on. An ode to the celebrity culture of chasing money, youth and 'VIP utopia' with echoes of the Pet Shop Boys, it's a guaranteed hit

Elsewhere, Risqué give their unique take on Talking Heads' Psychokiller and Velvet Underground's S&M anthem Venus In Furs. With provocative tracks like Plastic Lover and Deshabille Toi, rounding up an accomplished debut album, listening is a seductive and sensual experience. Erotic-electro duo Risque chatted to Skrufff this week about their just released debut album 'Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down' and revealed that they signed with infamous Some Bizarre boss Stevo after meeting him just briefly at a London sex club.

"We only met Stevo once at the Skin Two rubber ball," Risque vocalist Nathalie recalled,

She sighed. "We never met again. . . but we're in touch every week." The Some Bizarre label chief has long been known as one of the most colourful characters in the music business, at one point introducing a private chapel and confession box in the office for bands to deliver demo tapes. Two of his most influential signings of the 80s, Soft Cell and The The (aka Matt Johnson) both credited him with inspiring them to record ecstasy albums when the drug was still legal in 1981.

"'Soul Mining' was one of the first Ecstasy albums.

Not a lot of people know that," Matt told Select Magazine in an interview in 1991. Chatting to Skrufff more recently (in 2007) Soft Cell writer Dave Ball recalling being inspired to make Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing by Stevo when on a New York trip, also in 1981. "I think it was Stevo who first mentioned ecstasy to us,"

Dave recalled. "He came in to the studio one morning saying 'I had this amazing drug last night', We weren't really into drugs at that point, we didn't know much about them beyond a bit of speed.

All this great dance music and E-ing off out tits. So we thought 'Wouldn't it be a great idea to make a full on club version of the first album?"

Some Bizarre talk aside, Natalie was chatting to Skrufff primarily to promote aforementioned album 'Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down',

an electro-trash style record which includes contributions from Billie Ray Martin and New York tranny star Amanda Lepore.

Natalie, a brain surgeon in France by day, handles all the lyrics while husband Huw does the music with a firm hand, she explained. He asks for opinions but he knows the answers before asking, he's a control freak," she laughed. "The music is always first," she added. "I suppose it all started with the song 'Tie me up Tie me down' because the sound had something quite striking, punishing, disturbing, and kitsch at the same time. Though there is much more than one concept in 'Tie me up Tie me down' and despite the fact we can be dark, self-centred, sensitive, belligerent, we also hate taking ourselves too seriously."

"We've taken influences from everything, cinema (Almodovar of course), weirdos and common people, fetishistic and romantic, gay and straight, goth and comic," she explained. Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): I understand you're a neuro scientist by day; how do your colleagues feel about your parallel career: are any/ many of your patients aware of your other persona? Risque' (Nathalie): "I don't have any 'patients' as such but if I had it would not be problem, I could blackmail them with a lobotomy so nobody would know."

Skrufff: Being a brain surgeon is one of those 'dream jobs' most kids consider: what are its downsides? Risque' (Nathalie): "I don't know, I never wanted to be a brain surgeon, I wanted to save the world. I saw once a human brain for real, and it doesn't look good." Skrufff: Nightlife is full of people taking all sorts of brain affecting chemicals; how much do you encounter patients who have partied too hard and damaged their brains? Risque' (Nathalie): "We're surrounded by them and if they bite you, you will transform yourself and become one of them . . ." Skrufff: Do you ever find yourself wanting to warn people against certain drugs? Risque'
OUT NOW!