Be my woman gal I’ll Be your Man (x3)
Everydays Sunday dollar in your hand
In your hand lordy, in your hand
Everydays Sunday dollar in your hand
Stick to the promise girl that You made me (x3)
Be my woman gal I’ll Be your Man (x3)
Won’t got married til’ uh I go free
I go free lordy, I go free
Won’t got married til’ uh I go free
All ready, join the band
Come on and join the band
All ready, join the band
Everyone join the band
Ohhhhhhh band
Ohhhhhhh band
All ready, join the band
everybody want join the band
All ready, join the band
Every poeple want join the band
Ohhhhhhh band
Ohhhhhhh band
All ready
All ready, join the band
everybody want join the band
All ready, join the band
Every poeple want join the band
All ready
All ready
All ready
All ready
All ready
All ready
Ohhhhhh
Ohhhhhh Band
Ohhhhhh
Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty, Where you come from ? (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty, Where you come from ? (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty What you know (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty What you know (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty, Where you come from ? (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty, Where you come from ? (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty What you know (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty What you know (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa lord, it’s Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa lord, it’s Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa lord, it’s Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa lord, it’s Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
There Is A House In New Orleans
they Call The Rising Sun.
it's Been The Ruin Of Many A Poor Girl,
and Me, Oh God, Am One.
if I Had Listened What Mamma Had Said,
i'd 'a' Been At Home Today.
being So Young And Foolish, Poor Boy
let A Rambler Lead Me Astray.
There Is A House In New Orleans
they Call The Rising Sun.
it's Been The Ruin Of Many A Poor Girl,
and Me, Oh God, Am One.
if I Had Listened What Mamma Had Said,
i'd 'a' Been At Home Today.
being So Young And Foolish, Poor Boy
let A Rambler Lead Me Astray.
one Foot Is On The Platform
and The Other One On The Train.
i'm Going Back To New Orleans
to Wear That Ball And Chain.
going Back To New Orleans,
my Race Is Almost Run.
going Back To Spend The Rest Of My Days
beneath That Rising Sun.
Go to sleep little babe,
Go to sleep little babe
Your momma's gone away and your daddy's gonna stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby
Go to sleep little babe,
Go to sleep little babe
Your momma's gone away and your daddy's gonna stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby
Go to sleep little babe,
Go to sleep little babe
Your momma's gone away and your daddy's gonna stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby
Go to sleep little babe,
Go to sleep little babe
Your momma's gone away and your daddy's gonna stay
Didn't leave nobody but the baby
Executive Production And A&R :
Laurent Bizot & Thibaut Mullings
Performed, Arranged, Produced, Recorded
And Mixed By Nicolas Repac At Home (Paris)
Mastering : Chris Athens
At Sterling Sound On March The 20th 2012
Published By Nø Førmat!
Except
Chain Gang Blues, All Ready ?, Betty Loop, La Complainte De L'aube, Delta Lullaby
By Nø Førmat! & Global Jukebox Publishing (Bmi),
Courtesy Of The Association For Cultural Equity
Bo's A Lumberjack By Arc Music Corporation
Pulaar By Nø Førmat! & World Circuit
Cenas De Gaby By Africa Nostra
Redemption Blues By Sweet Roll Songs / Métisse Music
La Fuerza Del Sentimiento By X-Track
Slepa Ljubav By Nø Førmat! & Lausanne Musique
Special Thanks To Jeff A. Greenberg And
Don Fleming At The Association For Cultural Equity
For Their Great Support
Merci / Thanks
A Stanko, Anouch Et Najet
A Tous Ceux Qui M'ont Aidé A Trouver
Le Chemin De Voix De Cet Album :
Vincent Segal, Samuel Doux,
Jean Dindinaud Mon Inlassable Ami,
Et Arthur H Mon Ami Inséparable
Corinne Micaelli Et Mark Mulholland
Pour Mes Rencontres Haïtiennes,
Ainsi Que Toute L'équipe De L'institut Français
De Port Au Prince.
Laurent Bizot Mon No Formaté Ami
Et Ses No Formatés Compagnons Thibaut Mullings
Et Francois Reboux
Ti Coca, Wooly Saint Louis Jean, Brad Scott,
Bonga, Cheikh Lo, A Filetta
Yann Ollivier, Damien De Clerck, Emma Pick,
Jérôme Witz, Nicolas Becker, Yvan Assael,
Jules Maillard Et Francois Basset (No Brushing),
Clément Souchier, Sonia Cesaratto,
Pacôme Vexlard, Richard Gamba,
Anne-Lorraine Vigouroux.
Alan Lomax, Jeff A. Greenberg, François Post,
Maggie Doherty, Mario Perales, Naomi Moran,
Thomas Eckert Et Christelle D'almeida,
Jean-Jacques Hertz, Olivier Buttex, Petra
Gehrmann, Sabine Grenard, Valérie Salducci,
Justine Debicki, Thomas Rousseau, Erwan Julé.
Carine Rusznievski, René Souza,
Charlotte Pastourel, Denis Faïck, Marco Ostojic.
1 . Chain Gang Blues
(Nicolas Repac / Alan Lomax)
Contains A Sample Of « Rosie » By C.B Cook
And Ten Prisoners
Recorded By Alan Lomax At Parchman Farm
Penitentiary, Mississippi, In 1948
2 . Bo's A Lumberjack
(Bo Diddley)
Contains A Sample Of « Bo's A Lumberjack »
By Bo Diddley
(P) 1963 Geffen Records (Umg)
3 . All Ready ?
(Nicolas Repac / Alan Lomax)
Contains A Sample Of « Join The Band »
By John Davis And The Georgia Sea Island Singers
Recorded By Alan Lomax At St. Simon's Island,
Georgia, On October 12, 1959.
4 . Pulaar
(Cheikh Lo / Nicolas Repac)
Vocals : Cheikh Lo
Recorded By Nicolas Repac At Home,
On November 2, 2011
Cheikh Lo Appears Courtesy Of World Circuit
5 . Cenas De Gaby
(Bonga)
Vocals : Bonga
Bonga Appears Courtesy Of Lusafrica
6 . Haiti Bottleneck
(David Metellus / Nicolas Repac)
Vocals : David Metellus
Recorded By Victor Raymond At The French
Institute Studio Of Port Au Prince,
On February 2, 2012
7 . Betty Loop
(Nicolas Repac / Alan Lomax / John A Lomax)
Contains A Sample Of « Black Betty » By James
"Iron Head" Baker And Group Of Prisoners
Recorded By John A. And Alan Lomax At Central
State Farm In Sugarland, Texas In December 1933.
8 . Redemption Blues
(I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole)
(Blind Willie Johnson / Arranged By Nicolas Repac)
Contains A Sample Of « I Know His Blood Can
Make Me Whole » By Blind Willie Johnson
(P) 1927 Columbia
9 . La Fuerza Del Sentimiento
(Guillermo Arrevalo Valera)
Contains A Sample Of « La Fuerza Del Sentimiento»
By Guillermo Arrevalo Valera
(P) X-Track
10 . La Complainte De L'aube
(Nicolas Repac / Alan Lomax)
Contains A Sample Of « The House Of The Rising Sun »
By Georgia Turner
Recorded By Alan Lomax In Middlesboro, Kentucky,
On September 15, 1937.
11 . 335 Time
(Nicolas Repac)
12 . Delta Lullaby
(Nicolas Repac / Alan Lomax)
Contains A Sample Of « Didn't Leave Nobody
But The Baby » By Sidney Lee Carter
Recorded By Alan Lomax In Senatobia, Mississippi,
On September 26, 1959.
13 . Slepa Ljubav
(Nicolas Repac)
Contains A Sample Of « Adje Mori, Nedzibe »
By Stana Selimovic
(P) 2006 Vde Gallo, From The Cd « Serbie : Mémoire
Tsigane » Coll. Aimp Lxxvii / Réf. Vde Cd-1184.
14 . Voodoo Blues
(Brad Scott / Nicolas Repac)
Vocals : Brad Scott
Recorded By Nicolas Repac At Home,
On June 9, 2011.
15 . Peze Kafe
(Wooly Saint Louis Jean / Nicolas Repac)
Vocals : Wooly Saint Louis Jean
Recorded By Victor Raymond At The French
Institute Studio Of Port-Au-Prince (Haïti),
On February 2, 2012
The artful medium
Guitarist, composer, arranger and producer all in one, Nicolas Repac is essentially the man working in the shadows. But this is not some kind of artsy posture or the result of excessive shyness. For him, music has very little to do with the tyranny of appearance or the bleak light of the spotlights. Arthur H’s alter ego for almost 15 years is always more at ease in the comfortable space of his studio on the heights of Montmartre. Up there, alone with his machines, Repac loves to dive into the night to bring back the ghostly echoes of long forgotten worlds, just like the inspired medium that he is. He’s become a master at the subtle art of freely associating samples. His works consists in giving these samples a second musical and poetic life, by reintroducing them into the vibrant murmur of the contemporary melting pot.
«Swing Swing», the retro futuristic manifesto
His association with the Nø Førmat Label in the early 2000’s certainly did bring him newfound notoriety. His sensual musings around African music and Malian singer Mamani Keita’s strong voice (the albums “Yelema” and “Gagner l’argent Français”) left an obvious mark in the public’s minds. And so did “La Grande roué”, an album that was urban, nocturnal and moving all at once. But it was probably Swing Swing, a masterful and fun-loving jazz odyssey that offers to this day the best insight into the versatile talent of the composer. In a way that is both instinctive and light, Repac asked sampled and artfully “re-arranged” historic recordings how to “set” himself in the tempo that is known as Swing. And he did this by simultaneously suggesting a wide array of futures. A retro-futuristic approach that digs in the past without being old-fashioned, that sounds like a kind of discreet manifesto of his poetic art.
“Black Box”, at the origin of blues.
And he’s back at it again today in a similar state of mind with Black Box, a beautiful musical journey dedicated to all the different shades of the blues. By diving into the source of this mother of all music, Repac rediscovered the uncountable number of realms that were embarked on the traumatic voyage called deportation. He also revealed all these idiomatic territories contaminated by the black magic of this archaic and revolutionary art, by its twelve off-kilter measures and its universal pentatonic scale.
Sonic documents and contemporary voices
Black Box, through its spectrum of deeply touching voices recorded specifically for the occasion or coming straight out of sampled old recordings is closer to some type of gripping inventory of this joyfully disillusioned complaint that never stops to nostalgically sing to paradise lost everywhere in the world. From the work songs of black prisoners recorded by Alan Lomax in the 1930’s to the timeless chant of a native American chaman by way of the joyous proto-rapping of Bo Diddley, the jabbing pain of a Serbian gipsy singer, the tongue-in-cheek creole of Haitian storytellers, the soft complaint of Cheikh Lo, or even the saudade of the great Angolan singer Bonga, the entire planet is singing all the different shades of blues through Repac’s machines.
The machine’s souls
In the impeccable cinematic “mise-en-scène” of his project, each voice is used in a moving sonic environment, striped with electric guitar along with pulsating and catchy grooves. But there is nothing formulaic or systematic in this process. Whether he brings together the sensual lines and the inflexions of the melody or instead uses confrontation and appropriation to better unravel its subliminal discourse, Repac has only one idea in mind throughout this record: letting free the raw emotion that is at the heart of the sonic matter he borrows. In his company, machines decidedly have souls.
