Antena Hf All Band

[Malva Ferster]

BruxellaitA word that Babelfish and online translation engines fail to process. Brel, unable to better describe his hometown, simply uttered, "When Brussels was Brussels, when Brussels... brusseled." Camden hipsters may be more familiar with Belgo, the Chalk Farm eatery where servers in monks' habits serve mussels, frites, and trappist ale in a cold, aluminum, industrial loft, than the Belgian stepsister of Factory Records, Factory Benelux, and its Brussels-based sister label Les Disques du Crepuscule. Though the label served as a continental dumping ground for the tour-support one-offs of major players-- like A Certain Ratio's inaugural "Shack Up" seven-inch, and later, New Order's "Touched by the Hand of God" and "Everything's Gone Green" singles-- it cultivated its own indigenous roster with groups like The Names, Minny Pops, and the massively overlooked Antena.

The Names waded in slowed Peter Hook bassline facsimiles and faux-Morrissey moaning on their Swimming LP. Minny Pops ventured into colder electro-Teutonic territory. Antena, however, macheted into theretofore (and heretofore) unexplored territory for post-punk-- namely the oddball psychedelic scene of South America. Recorded with echoing minimalism, Antena's major release, Camino del Sol, evokes dreaming, singing, charmingly off-the-mark sci-fi futurism, and the black-and-white nostalgia of Brel's Brussels. It's as beautifully outdated, yet strikingly mind-boggling and timeless, as the towering Atomium over the Expo '58 grounds.

The newly formed vinyl junkie reissue label, Numero, sniffed this truffle, and has released it between more traditional reissues of a rare soul compilation and a power-pop box set. Camino del Sol was originally a five-song twelve-inch from 1980, but was later expanded to a full-length by Crepuscule in 1982 with added singles. This reissue further expands the release with the "Seaside Weekend" single, two unreleased tracks ("Frantz" and "Ingenuous"), and new artwork. With any justice, it will bring new light to a lost gem, as similar reissues did for Os Mutantes, whose adolescent dementia influences this record's tropicalia songs ("The Boy from Ipanema", "Sissexa"), and Shuggie Otis, whose piquantly primitive drum machines propel each track. So much hidden influence lies in these songs. The wonderful opening punch of "To Climb the Cliff" and the title track predate Stereolab's Gainsbourg-gone-Kraftwerk by over a decade, and Air's cool, Parisian sex by nearly two. Tortoise directly lifted the syncopated synthetic funk of "To Climb the Cliff" on their equally rare seven-inch, "Madison Ave/Madison Area".

Stuttering kick drums, icicle synths, and robotic bass jerks the listener through "Spiral Staircase" with better effect than a handful of contemporary NY revivalists. Limited to the use of the above ingredients and the occasional dry electric guitar, Antena relied on vast amounts of space for haunting texture. Each member sounds isolated in far corners of an airport hangar, allowing coke-bottle percussion, sound effects, and Isabelle Antena's detached, seductive voice to float. The more propulsive tracks are offset by opiated cocktail numbers like "Silly Things", "Bye Bye Papaye", and "Noelle A Hawaii". Yet, the faint echo of Antena's label cousins Joy Division keeps things perversely intoxicating. Only on "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort", a cover of Michel Legrand's theme to the Catherine Deneuve film, do Antena sound positively retro-minded. Even then, the strings and horns seemingly waft from a wormhole.

The band fell apart soon after this release, and carried on into goofy plastic jazz before Isabella turned it all into a solo vehicle. These days, Isabelle Antena still rides the stereotypical "Big in Japan" wave, touring the country and releasing smooth adult albums in some cruel approximation of Lost in Translation's Sausalito. Yet she'll always have this document of inspired originality in her past, which, with this reissue, could very well make her a rediscovered figure. As this album proves, she was much more akin to Beck and Bjrk than her dour trend-following contemporaries. So unique perhaps only Jacques Brel found the verb for it.

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Electro-samba pioneer turned jazz-pop polymath, Isabelle Antena has quietly sold more than a million albums since 1982. From Camino Del Sol to Bossa Super Nova, her cool latin, bossa, jazz and funk vibes have delighted fans around the globe, and remain a staple of hip DJ record boxes from Ibiza to Goa to New York City.

Originally the Antena project was a trio. In 1981 Pascale Moiroud and Sylvain Fasy left their respective hometowns of Valence and Clermont in the south of France and headed for Paris. There they met sassy native Isabelle Powaga and discovered a shared passion for the analog mekanics of Kraftwerk, the latin sounds of Jobim and Gilberto, and an eye for a strong BCBG image. Thus was born Antena.

After a spell busking in Metro stations, the group recorded their first demo early in 1982, then posted out copies to three favoured labels: Ralph, Ze and Les Disques du Crpuscule. At the time the domestic market in France was moribund, and so Antena were delighted to receive an enthusiastic response from Crpuscule, a boutique label based in Brussels with an impressive, eclectic roster that included Tuxedomoon, Paul Haig, Wim Mertens and the Factory Benelux imprint.

In March 1982 Isabelle, Pascale and Sylvain traveled to London to record their first single, produced by former Ultravox frontman John Foxx at his studio, The Garden. Two years earlier, Foxx had set a new standard for minimal electronic music with his solo debut Metamatic, of which Antena were declared fans; now his sparse production style gave a unique edge to their wry version of The Boy From Ipanema, the Brazilian classic recorded by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto in 1964. However, it was the two self written, self-produced tracks on the flipside, To Climb the Cliff and Unable, which left a greater impression - rougher sounding, but true electro-samba.

After plans to record their first long player with Foxx fell through, Camino Del Sol was cut in Brussels in June and produced by the band themselves. Clocking in at just 18 minutes, the mini-album offers five simple, seductive latin sketches, of which the sublime title track, with its wonderful synth riff halfway, is the highlight, run a close second by exquisite ballad Silly Things. Crpuscule archivist Frank Brinkhuis captures the timeless appeal of the album perfectly. "Antena were the sound of margaritas and a deck of cards, charades and bellini, and impromptu bathing-suit-optional pool parties. All housed in a gorgeous sleeve by the brilliant Crpuscule in-house designer Benot Hennebert: a still life of the good life, perfectly matching the music."

Despite superficial similarities to then-current 'new jazz' acts such as Weekend, Allez Allez and the Marine Girls, Camino Del Sol attracted surprisingly little attention on release in September 1982. Instead, the band toured Belgium as part of an eclectic Crpuscule package tour with Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo and Pale Fountains in October, then crossed the Atlantic to play Danceteria in New York on New Year's Eve. Yet despite having discovered a sound all of their own, light years ahead of its time, Antena's exotic combination of indie, electro, pop and samba proved a hard sell in the indie sector. It was time to get serious, and seriously commercial.

In 1983 Crpuscule signed a licensing deal with Island Records, which saw select releases by Paul Haig, Winston Tong, James 'Cuts' Lebon and Antena given larger recording and promotional budgets. The next Antena single, Be Pop, appeared in September 1983 and might have been a sizeable hit, combining Chic-styled rhythms with a contagious chorus. Their new producer was Martin Hayles, who had charted Orange Juice, and now matched Antena with a team of crack session musicians whose credits included Wham. Unfortunately, after the Island single stalled commercially the original Antena trio fragmented, with Pascale leaving to concentrate on fashion design, and Isabelle and Sylvain deciding to carry on as a duo.

A stop-gap single, Life Is Too Short, appeared early in 1984 on small Belgian label New Dance, also home to the first Front 242 releases. Thanks to Martin Hayles, that summer tenacious Antena signed a contract with Phonogram and took a second shot at the chart with an improved version of Be Pop. At the same time Isabelle and Sylvain moved to London. The second single, a more polished Hayles production of Life Is Too Short, appeared in November, but also sold modestly, and proved hard to find outside the UK. By this stage Isabelle had more or less disowned the earlier Crpuscule releases, confiding to NME in November: "We are listening to different types of music now. It seems that everybody else has discovered Getz and Gilberto, and we've moved back to stuff like Chic and Sister Sledge. We could only do stuff like Camino Del Sol for so long. Brussels is very quiet and it suited that kind of rhythm, but when we moved back to Paris, where the pace is so much quicker, the music had to change. But I think you can still see bits of jazz in there. When we first wrote Be Pop it was a jazz tune."

It would be another ten years before St Etienne, Air and Stereolab made French pop hip in Britain again, and in the meantime the years 1984 and 1985 proved a difficult time for Isabelle and Sylvain. "I signed to Phonogram in England and had to go and live in London. It was a rather negative experience. They released two singles, and by that time I was already working with great session musicians like Trevor Murrell, Camelle Hinds and Danny Cummings. But it was not a commercial success. With small companies you can do as you please musically, but there is no money. On a major label, you get tied down by commercial demands. And Frenchies in England - pfft, they don't give a damn."

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