This arrived by a long and circuitous route. Sometime in August 2006, I won a competition on BBC 6 Music for which the prize was a promo copy of Champion Kickboxer's first album
. The answer was "Smokers Die Younger"; I forget the question (maybe What's the main attraction of cigarettes??). I was looking forward to hearing the album, because I'd heard good things about Champion Kickboxer, so I was a bit disappointed when, three weeks later, it hadn't arrived. A gentle enquiry to the BBC — acknowledging that the non-arrival was not a big deal, and probably down to some underpaid temp at Royal Mail — set off a chain of events. At first a second copy was promised, but, as the album hadn't been releases, this proved impossible. So I was invited to "name an album we can order up" in lieu. As Le Fil was getting some airplay on 6 Music at the time, I offered it as one of two options.
I like it a lot. It's got a couple of little conceits: there's a drone that runs in background throughout (and between) every track of the album — it's the thread, Le Fil, of the title — and almost every sound on the album, I think, is made by Camille. Björk already did the latter with Medulla
, but that felt like hard work, whereas there's a Gallic lightness of touch with this album that doesn't let the conceits get in the way of the simple prettiness of a song like Pour que l'amour me quitte.
Lucy loves the album too. She and I went to see Camille in Shepherds Bush a month or two after I got the CD. She was looping her vocals, but also playing with a band. Lucy thought it was great; I thought pretty good. Then the follow-up album was recorded in English. Music Hole, as in the hole where her music comes from, her mouth. I gave it a quick listen on We7, and can't help feeling something has been lost in translation.
Eighteen months after I failed to get their first album, I saw Champion Kickboxer at Bush Hall in a Sheffield double-header with Monkey Swallows the Universe. I thought they were dreadful.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
Comments