Dudley Serious's Musical Favorite Elite
              LOUIS PHILIPPE
French born/English singing musician/composer Louis Philippe is a perfect example   of an artist who the whole music loving world should all be exposed to,  but unfortunately haven't.  I have gotten so much enjoyment out of his work (as well as the search for it). I initially saw one mention in a publication that he did a cover version of an obscure Brian Wilson song, "Guess I'm Dumb" and my search began! Unfortunately,
eventhough Louis has released more than 15 albums over the past 20 yrs.
it was very difficult to locate any in the US (since a career long difficulty w/ US distributers & independent labels). But slowly after a lot of investicgation over some six years I have obtained most of his catalog & continue to revile in his art.
    Louis Philippe [real name Philippe Auclair] is a creator who wares many hats, besides being a musican; he is a BBC correspondent, journalist, chef & wine buff, he lives & works in the UK. His music is very hard to categorize (which is one of my attractions)but at the core he is a pop singer.      Yet, he touches on many musical influences including; pure vintage pop, symphonic, jazz, bossa Nova or experimental but makes it all his own all mixed together.  
   After abandoning a life as a Philosopy Professor at a young age, he formed two bands {Border Boys & Arcadians} in the early '80's before going solo, working for
the classic El label.  Besides releaseing solo albums, LP has also been very involved in
Producing & playing with many international performers.  This has made the job of record collector's investgation even more interesting.  When I say he has worked w/
others, he has actually often really created entire albums essentually by himself and had others do the lead vocals.  This includes a series of supposed various-artist pop compilations (where half the bands are really LP & friends) such as the popular
JET SET series or the quasi-children albums form the Seita label or albums by Anthony
Adverse & Leila Amezian, where he wrote & produced all the material.
all L.Philippe Photos  from
  the SUNSHINE Web Site
 [email protected]
where his LPs can be purchased
Philippe's strongest talent  might be that he's good at every aspect of music production. His beautiful voice fits  often romantic-dramatic songs.  His tastful recording production, arrangements and ability to put the right musicians together for a project are as   important as his song writing ability. It is difficult to single out individual favorite albums or particular songs, because everything is so exceptional.  For sake of discussion I guess his solo career could be broken into three periods; The Early El Yrs. in the late '80's,{Venus, Tower & Yuri G. albums}, the 90's Trattoria period {Rainfall, J. Renior, Delta Kiss, Sunshine, Jackie Girl albums }
and the Late 90's - 05 Independent Era {Nunsch, My Favorite Part of You, Wonder of it All} . of course all along the way are his involvement in other colaberations w/ people like April March, Bertrand Bugalat, High Llamas, Momus, Simon Turner, Cornelius and on... Because of his very prolific career and variety of styles, it has made it a lot of fun putting together numerous  personal favorite songcycle collections for my own personal listening enjoyment {working on 5th volume right now "In Time"}. 
    Louis has proven that he can creat under any circumstances and budgets.  Infact his latest album THE WONDER OF IT ALL
was produced on a shoestring but you wouldn't know it upon numerous repeat listens, it's among his best.   The vocals and
instrumentation is crystal clear perfect. The songs are so fresh and tasteful.  You can check out this great artist at his equally
great web site Sunshine and hear some samples and pick up some of the still available classics, old or new.

      David Scott's    PEARLFISHERS

     www.pearlfishers.co.uk
Once again I got my first exposure to The PEARLFISHERS via a  Brian Wilson connection. I picked up a Beach boys� tribute CAROLINE NOW when it came out a few years ago. The group didn�t just supply one song, an obscure Honey�s �Go Away Boy�, but the band leader David Scott produced the entire project and supplied many of the arrangements & instrumentation for the other performers. The collection is one of the better BW tributes & introduced me to another of the best under-appreciated artists in the business.  Often today we find essentially soloists who pretend to be bands, but do mainly everything themselves under the animosity of a group [other occasional musicians include Brian McAlpine & Jim Gash].  David Scott, not unlike Louis Philippe, is another multi-talented artist who is a much sought after behinds the scenes contributor to many performer�s releases.   Again Scott�s influences are many, but most noticeable are a cross between BW & Bacharach.  As a kid I hated Burt but in more recent years I�ve grown to greatly appreciate his work, post the 90�s lounge scene.
David Scott, the godfather of current Scottish rock, did his time in various bands in the late 80�s & early 90�s before starting Pearlfishers in 1994.  They {he} have released six albums of pure bliss.  Of course, my luck, they have been released on a very small independent label, Marina [based in Germany] � so distribution in the US shops is limited (though they have a good internet store). 
   It�s hard to believe many of their great songs haven�t received more exposure. The 1st album  STRANGE UNDERWORLD OF POPPIES (97) features; �Jelly Shoes�, �Banana Sandwich� & �Even on a Sunny Afternoon�.  1999�s YOUNG PICNICKERS perhaps my favorite ( so far) has �We�ll Get By�, �We�re Gonna Save The Summer� & the epic �Stella Painted Joy�.  With each album Scott�s development is evident (even though since the 1st, all have been highly professional).  2001�s ACROSS THE MILKY WAY was a dreamy outing featuring two of the best possible singles in �Shine It Out� and �We�ll Be The Summer�.  SKY MEADOWS (03) didn�t seem to have the un-abounding  energy of the previous releases, still had a few gems, �Saddle Sore� and �Pantohorse�.  I had very high hopes for one of the songs �Todd Is God� , because I thought it would be a tribute to Todd Rundgren but it sounds more like a ELO song.
Among all his other production work in 2004 he made a  spur of the moment holiday/seasonal EP A SUNFLOWER AT CHRISTMAS w/ several fine tracks including �Snowboardin��,  a very hooky 60�s style single and the touching �Snow Plus Christmas�.  I really look forward to what the future holds for this great talent, check out the web site at ;  www.pearlfishers.co.uk/home.htm .
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