Tapete Records : TR516

Just when you think you’d found all your favourite music along comes something that was right under your nose all along and a new world opens up. I remember reading about Louis Phillipe and the curious world of él Records (for which he was a sort of in-house songwriter) in Record Mirror about 1986 and finding the artwork and unknowable strangeness fascinating but there was no way of hearing this stuff easily in the 80s and it faded from view.

I stumbled back across him again recently looking at some reissues of his stuff on the Cherry Red record label and went down a bit of a wormhole… . I won’t repeat his extraordinary back-story here but suffice to say this French pop composer (and Football pundit – wha?!) is remarkable and ticks so many boxes for me..elegant, smart, full of unexpected melodic twists and turns. So much to discover but delightfully one of my other favourite songwriters Sean O’Hagan made this excellent compilation as a primer (and indeed if you’re a fan of High Llamas these songs might float your boat too). A singular as Van Dyke Parks, and with chords shifting like only Brian Wilson can, this all too brief collection is a fine taster and there’s not a duff track on here.

The music on here spans the 90s and 00s but it’s weirdly timeless and could be from the 50s, 60s, 70s or the future. There’s even an unexpected cover of XTC’s ‘I Cant Own Her’. Wow..ok Monsieur Louis – we’ve got some catching up to do….