New Vive la Fête album ‘Produit de Belgique’
Out soon is the newest Vive la Fête album “Produit de Belgique”. Produced by Jo ‘Technotronic’ Bogaert “Produit de Belgique” will be preceded by the single “Décadense” of which the video is now available.
“Although some might think the material is rather Sisters Of Mercy like, the latest single shows a rather chanson like approach, which they displayed quite often in recent times. Not sure if it will please the more electronic crowd the band used to cater to.”, says SL.
Décadanse is the first single of Vive la Fête’s new album ‘Produit de Belgique’. It’s a group album with songs worked out by all the members of the band. “This way the record represents very well the typical live-sound of the group,” says guitar player Danny Mommens. “It also enables us to play every song live.”
Vive la Fête’s new live show is therefore a mix of new material and songs from the previous six albums. Indeed since 1997, the Belgian band of Danny Mommens (ex-bass player of dEUS) and Els Pynoo has been bringing danceable electro-rock, with a touch of kitsch and some new wave and French chanson lurking in the background.
In 2002, the king of fashion Karl Lagerfeld meets the couple and is charmed by their music and their looks. This gives green light to the international adventure of Vive la Fête: fashion shows of Chanel in Tokyo, New York, Las Vegas, Berlin, Milan and Paris, the posh Bal de la Rose in Monaco and the face of Chilli Beans in Brazil.
Still in 2012 Danny (guitar) and Els (vocals) are travelling around the world in the company of Roel Van Espen (keyboards), Ben Brunin (bass) and Gino Geudens (drums). The solid live-fame of the band is taking the five-headed cast to festivals and catwalks at home and abroad: from Sweden to Tenerife, from Russia to Colombia, …
Interview with electro pop act Vive La Fête
Here’s a great tech-talk with Roel Van Espen via Side-Line magazine: We live in an era where music is produced on computers with programs as ProTools / Logic / Cubase / Reason / Ableton Live / … Some artists prefer analog synths above digital, some stay their whole career loyal to the same brand. Nowadays keyboards and technology became much more easy to use and cheaper for the masses.
Our interviewer DJ Wildhoney had an exclusive talk for Side-Line with some of the most important musicians of the electronic scene about the gear they use to compose songs and to perform live on stage. From today on we will publish every day a new interview with such bands as The Neon Judgement, Vomito Negro, Wumpscut, Pouppée Fabrikk, Monolith, Vive La Fete, Frozen Plasma, Haujobb, etc. Step with us into the studio of your idols and discover how your favorite tracks were produced and which equipment was used for it! How cool and interesting is that?
Roel Van Espen plays keyboards in Vive La Fête since 2006 and is also active in Raul D’Jam (as Raul de Jamonez), Zuppastar and Elysian. The “French touch electro-rock band” has built a new studio recently and is currently writing on a new album.
SL: How long ago did you buy your first keyboard ever? Which technology did it use and do you still own it?
RVE: The first keyboard I bought was a Korg Polysix, somewhere in the eighties. It was one of the first polyfone synths that were not too expensive in those days. I remember the “Ensemble”-effect was great fun and totally new for me. Those strings… waw! It’s a shame I don’t have this keyboard anymore… I once didn’t turn it off during the night, so the circuits inside melted! In those same years, my brother bought one of the first affordable samplers: an Ensoniq (Mirage, I think). It was a revelation for us: you could sample for even more than one second! My brother bought it second hand, so it had already a lot of nice samples inside. I remember the guitar sample from Yes (“Owner Of A Lonely Heart”), ugly but also kinda cool. I used the sample in almost every song I made in those days. It’s a good thing those 4-track tapes are buried deep under the ground now.
SL: Which computer(s) and software do you currently use in your (home)studio?
RVE: I use ProTools. I’m still obliged to do this on a pc, as I use FL Studio as a great plugin within ProTools (for drums, virtual synths, …). Until now, FL Studio is only available for pc. Hopefully it will be available for Mac soon (they are beta testing it right now), then I can finally switch to Apple. I already use Logic on my Mac, but that’s mostly for dj-stuff or as a backing track. For recording purposes, ProTools works fine for me. So why change?
Read the full interview here >>
The 20 best electronic albums in the past decade
Hi all
Time to sum up the past ten years and list the 20 best / most important electronic, electro, EBM and synth albums that has been released. This is of course a tricky quest and will most likely create some debate. Numerous of good albums has been released and I have certainly not listened to all of them, but still someone needs to make a statement :-). The albums are listed in order of importance, but may not be absolute, in the sense that – if they are rated as number 6, they could easily be argued to have place number 7 instead etc, but still…
Number 1:
Kraftwerk – Tour de france soundtrack
Number 2:
The Knife – Silent Shout
Number 3:
Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
Number 4:
Covenant – Skyshaper
Number 5:
Colder – Again
Number 7:
Daft Punk – Discovery
Number 8:
Felix! – Kittenz and thee glitz
Number 9:
Welle: Erdball – Die wunderwelt der technik
Number 10:
Suicide – American supreme
Number 11:
DAF – Fünfzehn neue D.A.F-Lieder
Number 12:
VNV Nation – Futureperfect
Number 13:
Röyksopp – Melody A.M.
Number 14:
Rammstein – Mutter
Number 15:
Vive la fete – Republique populaire
Number 16:
And One – Agressor
Number 17:
Jeans Team – Musik von oben
Number 18:
Recloose – Cardiology
Number 19:
Melotron – Sternenstaub
Number 20/21:
Télépopmusik – Genetic world
System – Self organizing