Mick Harvey

Listen to Contact from Intoxicated Women

Mick Harvey has unveiled a new track, taken from his fourth and final volume of Serge Gainsbourg translations, Intoxicated Women, out on 20 January 2017.

‘Contact’, a space age pop song originally sung by Brigitte Bardot and released in 1968, features Channthy Kak of Cambodian Space Project and frequent collaborator Xanthe Waite (Terry) on vocals.

Listen to Contact here

Buy a signed copy of Intoxicated Women here

Mick will also be performing live at London’s Under the Bridge on 25 March, tickets available now: underthebridge.co.uk/events/mick-harvey

‘Intoxicated Women’ mainly concentrates on the duets and songs written by Gainsbourg, mostly during the 60s, in a period where he was focusing his songwriting on singers such as France Gall, Juliette Greco and most famously, Brigitte Bardot.

Here Harvey has enlisted the talents of guest singers Channthy Kak (Cambodian Space Project), Australian singers Xanthe Waite (Terry, Primo), Sophia Brous, Lyndelle-Jayne Spruyt and Jess Ribeiro and the German chanteuse Andrea Schroeder plus the special appearance on ‘Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth’ by Harvey’s son, Solomon.

‘Intoxicated Women’ opens with a stunning version of ‘Je T’aime… (Moi non plus)’ – here titled ‘Ich Liebe Dich… (Ich Dich Auch Nicht)’ – rendered in the sexiest imaginable German by the divine Ms. Schroeder and culminates with ‘Cargo Cult’, the closing track from the classic ‘Histoire de Melody Nelson’ album. In between we are treated to a smorgasbord of Gainsbourg gems in English (with a bit of Khmer thrown in).

“After the initial recordings for ‘Delirium Tremens’ JP Shilo and I continued investigating the duets and female songs, many of which were unknown to me. So it became a voyage of discovery into quite a lot of material I hadn’t heard before. There are even a couple of songs for which the only versions existing from the 60s are from TV performances Serge gave.” [‘The Drowned One’ (La Noyée) and ‘Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth’ (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup)]

A recent reissue of Vol. 1 (‘Intoxicated Man’, originally released in 1996) and 2 rekindled Harvey’s interested in the Gainsbourg translations and 20 years after the release of Vol. 1 – ‘Intoxicated Man’, work began on what would become Volumes 3 and 4. Recording in late 2015 in Melbourne with J.P. Shilo and the rest of his Antipodean-based live band, 10 songs were tracked at Birdland Studios. The project then relocated to Berlin where a further 9 songs were recorded with Toby Dammit (The Stooges, Residents) and Bertrand Burgalat (of French label Tricatel) who was the string arranger on the first 2 volumes.

The resultant recordings served to whet Harvey’s appetite for more and almost immediately work continued back in Melbourne in order to have enough material to fill 2 new volumes. Along with principle musical collaborator, Shilo (with whom Harvey also worked on Rowland S. Howard’s ‘Pop Crimes’) and Melbourne based musicians Glenn Lewis and Hugo Cran, Harvey enlisted the aforementioned female singers to help complete this final volume in the series.

Listen to a sampler for ‘Intoxicated Women’

“Entrancing” 4* – MOJO / “Delightful” 4* – Uncut

“Superb” 4* – Q magazine / “Masterful” 4* – Record Collector

Intoxicated Women – Tracklisting and Featured Vocalists

Ich Liebe Dich…Ich Dich Auch Nicht (Je T’Aime… Moi Non Plus)

– featuring Andrea Schroeder & Mick Harvey on vocals

All Day Suckers (Les Sucettes) – with Mick Harvey on vocals

Contact – featuring Channthy Kak & Xanthe Waite on vocals

Prévert’s Song (Chanson de Prévert) – featuring Jess Ribeiro & Mick Harvey on vocals

The Eyes To Cry (Les Yeux  Pour Pleurer) – featuring Sophia Brous on vocals

Puppet Of Wax, Puppet Of Song (Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son) – feat Xanthe Waite on vocals

Baby Teeth, Wolfy Teeth (Dents de Lait, Dents de Loup)

– featuring Solomon Harvey & Mick Harvey on vocals

God Smokes Havanas (Dieu est un Fumeur des Havanes)

– featuring Andrea Schroeder & Mick Harvey on vocals

While Rereading Your Letter (En Relisant Ta Lettre)

– featuring Sophia Brous & Mick Harvey on vocals

Sensuelle et Sans Suite – featuring Lyndelle-Jayne Spruyt on vocals

The Homely Ones (Les Petits Boudins) – featuring Xanthe Waite on vocals

Lost Loves (Les Amours Perdues) – with Mick Harvey on vocals

Striptease – featuring Andrea Schroeder on vocals

The Drowned One (La Noyée) – featuring Jess Ribeiro & Mick Harvey on vocals

Cargo Cult (Cargo Culte) – with Mick Harvey on vocals

Delirium Tremens

The Guardian – “a revelation and a joy”

Pitchfork “Harvey is a cool, calm, plainspoken singer; his true voice has always come through his sense of arrangement, and his ability to render exquisite beauty and apocalyptic clamor with the same brushstroke.”

The Quietus – “…there is an energy that comes from the confidence of experience… Harvey makes each song here his own.”

Uncut – “Harvey’s intimate understanding of Serge’s rich catalogue allows him to smother markedly different compositions with a menacing Bad seeds swagger that unites Delirium Tremens.”

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