A free trip to Tripoli

[imomus]

I spent the weekend learning about Arabic scales from the excellent MaqamWorld website and ended up making a song based on the bayati scale. It's about a Tripoli taxi driver who loves slapping his wife -- and being slapped back. The idea comes from a fragment of an answering machine message heard on Dorine_Muraille's Mani album in which Julien Loquet's voice can be heard saying 'I slapped you because I love you a lot'. It seems like a pretty French theme, so I sang it in French, turning it into a kind of Rai song.

This one seems like a diversion or curiosity to me, and I don't think it'll make the 2005 album, so I'm offering it here gratis. Think of it as a free trip to Tripoli.

Klaxon

Sorry, this track is no longer available. Please buy the CD when it comes out!

Je suis conducteur de taxi
(Je vais te claquer)
Dans les ruelles de Tripoli
(Tu va me claquer)

Klaxon, klaxon
Dans ce cloaque de la passion

Tu es ma femme, moi ton mari
(Je vais te claquer)
Et comme tu partage mes avis
(Tu va me claquer)

Claque moi, claque moi
Chacun qui claque doit frapper fort

Klaxon klaxon
Dans ce sieste de la raison

Comme je t'ai toujours bien aime
Je vais te claquer
Si tu m'aime bien, ah, ma cherie
Tu va le payer

Parce que claqueses
Claquent que ceux dont elles sont amoureuse

N'aie pas de peur, n'aie pas le trac
(Viens te faire claquer)
Il y a de l'amour, pas d'attaque
(Viens vite t'faire claquer)

Klaxon klaxon
Ca fait du bien de claquer quelqu'un

C'est bon de frapper, oui c'est bon
(Je vais te claquer)
Ma jolie cedre de Liban
(Viens te faire claquer)

Les belles claqueses
Ne claquent que ceux dont elles sont amoureuse

Klaxon, klaxon
Excuses je donne, mais aucun explication

Je ne veux plus conduire mon taxi
(Je vais te claquer)
Toute la journee et toute la nuit
(Je vais te claquer)

Un jour la chair
Que je claque fort ne sera plus que poussiere

Klaxon, klaxon
C'est un peu glauque, mais il y a de la passion

For those who don't speak French, here's a literal translation courtesy of Alta Vista's Babelfish service:

I am conducting of taxi (I go you claquer) In the lanes of Tripoli (You me claquer goes) Horn, horn In this cesspool of passion You are my wife, me your husband (I go you claquer) And as you divides my opinions (You me claquer goes) Opera hat me, opera hat me Each one which opera hat must strike extremely Horn horn In this nap of the reason As I t'ai always well likes (I go you claquer) If you m'aime well, ah, my chery You will pay it Because claqueses Claquent that those with which they are in love N'aie not of fear, n'aie not the trac (Come to make you claquer) There is l'amour, not d'attaque (Come quickly t'faire claquer) Horn horn Ca makes good of claquer quelqu'un C'est good to strike, yes c'est good (I go you claquer) My pretty cedre of Lebanon (Come to make you opera hat) Beautiful the claqueses claquent only those with which they are in love Horn, Excuses horn I give, but no explanation I do not want to drive my taxi any more (I go you claquer) All the day and all the night (I go you claquer) One day flesh That I strong opera hat will be nothing any more but dust Horn, a little glaucous C'est horn, but there is passion

Comments

My Backhand Brings All The Wives to the Yard

[33mhz.livejournal.com]

Neat. Certainly wouldn't hurt the 2005 album in terms of quality, but would probably contrast a bit strongly with the mood of the tracks that have been released so far.

Ever since I heard Tabla Beat Science's Tala Matrix, (despite that the electronic bits are more mid-90s D&B) I've been eager to see traditional and/or non-western musics get passed through the laptop looking glass. That seems to be precisely one of your passions right now, with the folktronica essays, Corkscrew Kings' subtle electronic touches, and now Klaxon.

[(Anonymous)]

Très bonne track! J'avais besoin d'un beat indien! J'imagine ça jouer à mon Samrat (http://www.samrat.co.jp/) préféré. :)

- Patrick (http://www.chipple.net/)

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

You always get a really clean, strong sound in your recordings.
The use of small bits of silence in this piece is really effective. This one is going onto the Lyra.

such fun!

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

very few western musicians give thought to the different world scales. my friend diaryarena always complains about the arrangements of foreign music that my choir sings at concerts, because they never do give thought to the difference in the musical scales. you two actually have a lot of common. i wonder what it is about you french-speaking musician nicks that i know so many? hah.

have you ever read the book "like water for chocolate", by any chance? i was assigned to read it and i hated it but now i have to do a project on it. it's basically making a mix cd with songs related to the book. if you have read the book, then i was wondering if there were any songs written by you that would even vaguely relate to it. you could think of it as advertising for the teen crowd as i have to play the cd in front of my class.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

Teehee -- I can't help but think of Toxic, which makes this rather blithe, gladsome track even better.

One thing I'm curious about, though, is why you only seek moneys for tracks that are to be on the album. I shall, in all likelihood, purchase the 2005 album, and so feel justified in not paying for the individual tracks... but what are your thoughts on this?

[antebellumcafe.livejournal.com]

Claque?

Doesn't that mean slap in french?

Hummm...

[(Anonymous)]

This is like "Milkshake" from Kelis remixed by a French speaking Tsunku!

Jolies claques

[martymartini.livejournal.com]

Il y a un couple qui habite a cote de chez moi et qui ressemble beaucoup a ce qu'il y a dans ta chanson, bien qu'ils semblent s'aimer, je les entends souvent s'engueuler! Je suis sure qu'ils aimeraient bien cet air, parce qu'au fond, c'est une chanson romantique, non!?
... Et s'engueuler sur un air de Rai, ça fait plus joyeux et c'est moins derangeant pour le voisinage...Bon, il est maintenant temps d'aller claquer et me faire claquer!

By the way...

[(Anonymous)]

...I just figured what "Sempreverde" reminds me of.

But of course: the soma-like drugs, the robotic voice, the futuristic space, the no-future theme, the rape line.

All these theme exist in some form or another in the "Mockingbird" novel, by Walter Tevis.

"A futuristic tale set in a world where reading is forbidden, citizens are drugged from childhood on and machines dominate humans. (...) The story evolves around three major heroines, a robot which is an improved replica of a human, and a nonconformist man and woman."

Better than Brave New World, IMHO.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345431626/wwwlink-software-21/026-8300777-3910801

[klasensjo.livejournal.com]

It's about a Tripoli taxi driver who loves slapping his wife -- and being slapped back.
:D

Arabic scales...I thought you meant the ones in the window? Now I see..

Babelfish, I think, messed up a relationship I had with a spanish girl from Lanzarote. She was called Milagro and was a racecar driver...César Manrique lives in all of us.

Claquer aboot the face

[(Anonymous)]

I don't see why this couldn't make the 2005 album. Trying to distill a theme from the recent offerings seems to show that there is a preoccupation with characters fictional or otherwise. Although Sempreverde disputes that.

I like themes on Momus albums. Oskar was a mixture of things but was held together by the eccentricity. It's too early to know where this album is going. Hearing the songs in my I-tunes list after other Momus albums is curious. They fit in but until the last two postings have not really stuck out like Summerisle does. This is not a criticism but more an observation as the excellent tunes from the 2005 album have certainly been rattling around in my head .It's Momus doing his admirable one song a day thing and returning to where he left off with Oskar and writing twisted pop music. It's just a contextual thing hearing the songs jammed together artificialy and being allowed to participate in this process makes one want to become a back seat driver ( especiallly if one can't drive) . I like this track for the very reason that it moves away from the patterns of western pop .Klaxon reminds me of hearing pop music in the back of a Turkish taxi cab where you recognise it as pop but with an exotic otherness. Maybe that is where this album is heading ?
RichardG

Honking good

[(Anonymous)]

Wonderful! Sort of like an updated Three Mustaphas Three, but more devilish. (This does remind me of their "Taxi" song. Momus must go to Tripoli and sample their taxi horns to finish this one off.)

Momus should also do a sort of "Around the World with Momus" albums, like one of those old easy listening stereo demonstration records,appropriating the genres of many of the countries he's visited or resided in. I'm still waiting for the promised Tatar pop song, by the way.

Re: Honking good

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

Me too.

Re: Claquer aboot the face

[(Anonymous)]

Where can you get Summerisle in the US? I've tried buying it from a few stores who've all said it's unavailable from their distributors.

Re: Honking good

[imomus.livejournal.com]

One thing that occurred to me is that the album might be turning into something like David Bowie's third Berlin album, 'Lodger'. That's also a kind of 'around the world with David' record. In fact, Klaxon could almost be seen as an amalgam of two songs off Lodger; it's got a theme like the wife-beating song 'Repetition' and music not unlike the Turkish immigrant worker song 'Yassassin'. Since Kreuzberg, where Bowie hung out and where I may be moving later in the year, is by far Berlin's liveliest district (the city can feel a little too laid back elsewhere) and is largely Turkish, it's arguable that after the experimental music scene has impacted musicians moving here (and 'Summerisle' is the sound of that, perhaps), the next thing to 'slap us in the face' is Kreuzberg and its somewhat macho energy. It was swinging on May 1st, I can tell you!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Download the song again, it now has added car horns, honks and klaxons!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm blushing in gratitude. Those horns send the song over the edge.

Should've thought of "Yassassin"--"Lodger" is probably my favorite Bowie album.

Fait la pisse

[bonniemac.livejournal.com]

J'aime bien comment tu fais la pisse a Babelfish.

Babelfish ne parle rien.

[(Anonymous)]

I refer you to today's (actually May 5th's) "Zippy" comic:

http://zippythepinhead.com