A Bigger Splash is Xavier Jamaux (Ollano, Bangbang, Tokyo Eyes), Marianne Elise (Klanguage), Cosmobrown, and JP Bottiau. The supergroup’s album “Tunes For Teens” is coming out November 3rd on BangBang&Beats. Listen to their superb mix, done exclusively for Fairtilizer.

Xavier Jamaux answers our questions and comments each track selected for the mix.

Hi Xavier, how are you doing?

Groovy, baby.

What’s goin’ on in A Bigger Slpash’s world right now?

We’re about to release our album “Tunes For Teens” which is quite exciting after the long time we spent on the recording.

Please can you introduce the people you are working with on this project?

This project is somehow a continuation of something I initiated on the previous album of bangbang with a track called “Shoot The Model”. I worked with a singer called Cosmobrown, and the track ended in sounding uncannily like David Bowie. It was playlisted by Pete Tong, Rob Da Bank, and we thought it would be a tremendous idea to go further onto this aesthetic, call it “Bowie-meets-electro”. There’s also a female singer Marianne Elise who was previously in a band called “Klanguage”.

Some old friends gave us a hand on remixes (Nouvelle Vague, Alex Gopher)

What are you currently listening to?

A lot of good new stuff: Ting Tings, Friendly Fires, Cut Copy…maybe we share a taste for good music like it was made 20 years ago, with a nowadays twist.

And of course a lot of old stuff: Marvin Gaye, Bowie, Roxy Music…

As you may know there is not old music and new music, there’s only good and bad taste

How is the scene in Paris at the moment?

There are really cool bands emerging right now. I am not talking of dispensable fluo music for fluo kids (we got enough of this), but some newcomers like 1973, Chateau Marmont or Klanguage and ancient French touch actors who are still here.

You are just releasing your first album as A Bigger Slpash in a difficult moment in the music industry: how do you see the future of this industry?

I guess no one can tell now. “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be”. “Live and Let Die”.

Will you take your album on the road? And if yes, how?

Definitely maybe. We’re five on stage (bass+guitar, 2 singers and a computer).

How important is the internet for you as an artist?

There is the good, the bad and the ugly

The good is that the Internet makes all things and people more proximate.

The bad is that there is an avalanche of informations you can get sick about.

The ugly is about both previous statements: never has music been so present and free, but in some ways it becomes invisible and dispensable.

We are in a world with a lot of different models on the net: what kind of services should be brought to the table?

I think there’s a kind of conflict however between “customers” who’d like music for free, and musicians who want to get famous by any means (including making music for free), but who need to be paid in the end for their job. I doubt the internet right now succeeds in solving this paradox.

Anything to add?

“Check ignition and may God’s love be with you”.

Playlist tracklisting with Xavier’s comments

1/ Alain Goraguer: “Meditation des enfants”.

Goraguer has been an arranger for early Gainsbourg, helping him in sounding unique. A good inspiration for Air.

2/ Yellow Magic Orchestra : “Nice Age”

I came to YMO through Sakamoto who I worship and adore. This track is a gem: synths, rhythm and melody: all is perfect.

3/ Japan: “Adolescent Sex”

By this time David Sylvian seemed to hesitate between being a punk or a dandy. This tracks sounds like Trex with synths.

4/ New Order: “Age Of Consent”.

We love them. Too bad they did not last as long as… hum…Depeche Mode?

5/ David Bowie: “Because You’re Young”

Obviously not the best track of one of his best albums to me, “Scary Monsters”. But the title matched with the playlist code.

6/ Minnie Riperton: “Young Willing and Able”.

What else. It sounds like a national anthem.

7/ Taxi Girl : “Cherchez le garcon”

Best French band ever. A huge sense of aesthetic.

8/ Paul Hardcastle: “19”.

In Vietnam they were nineteen. Typically 80’s protest-pop song.

9/Carl Craig and Derrick May: “Frustration”

Because being a teenager is also about enduring frustration. This track never goes on. Frustrating.

10/ The Special Aka :“Girlfriend”

A huge sense of humor, a nursery rhyme melody, a masterpiece with tongue in cheek.

11/ String Quartet: “Boys Don’t Cry”

How to be more melodramatic than the Cure? Add strings.

12/ Marvin Gaye: “Save the children”

Sublime.

13/ Diana Ross: “Brown Baby”

Even more sublime. Is that really possible?

14/ The Smiths: “Some Girls are Bigger than Others”

Is there still someone who can write a pop song as perfectly as Mo did?

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