Day 283

Cats Never Die: a new discovery, a very good pop band from Perm, Russia, that has just released and EP titled “Нити”. It has 6 songs of fine jangly indiepop. Don’t know much about the band but I am really enjoying this record. Wish it was released in physical format.

Did You Die: now we head to Vancouver for this band’s latest EP, “Diamond Heights”. The band formed by Richie Felix Alexander, Luke Bodi, Madison Penland and Amanda Doucette have made here 4 great shoegaze songs. They have been going for a while, so I definitely have to check their previous releases.

Magazines: now let’s travel to Dublin to check out this 4-piuece formed by Cath, Shayne, Tom and Dan. Their latest song is called “Pink and Blue” and it is really really good. A very fine slice of pop. This year without traveling has been rough for me, and one of the trips I remember a lot is the one I went to Dublin a few years back. It was so short. And didn’t catch any bands playing live. I hope to return. And hopefully I see Magazines live.

All Ashore!: the Sheffield band have a brand new song, one not included in their album “Perfect Pop Song”! It is called “In Front of the Gas Fire”. It is a bit different to their previous output, much of a lo-fi bedroom pop song, but enjoyable nonetheless!

The Aislers Set: “Cold Christmas” was recorded 10 years ago, in 2010, by two of The Aislers Set members, Linton and Cusick. Now this song is available to all the public on Bandcamp. This is a real treasure!

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Dorian Gray is a fictional character and the protagonist of Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He is an aristocratic Victorian man.

After the post I did about the band Yachines from France a friend from Japan wrote me pointing me out to the music of Dorian Gray.

I had written this line on my post (Les Inrockuptibles) also mention that Olivier Brion used to be in a band called Dorian Gray. Would be nice to find recordings by this band!

That same day I published my post about the Yachines I got a message on Twitter, just pointing me to a Youtube link and also to Discogs. It felt suddenly a mission. Find out more information about Dorian Gray. Will I be able to find it?

Okay, the one detail I know is that Olivier Brion was in the band. So far, that’s it. We know Olivier was in Discover after the Yachines and also released music solo. One thing I don’t remember finding out is if they hailed from Paris or another city. I think they were from Paris but I can’t say.

But there are some details that are easily available on the web. Let’s see.

The band released just one 7″, in 1990, on the Dexon label. The catalog number was S1001. It seems this label hailed from Belgium according to Discogs. There are many bands listed as part of the catalogue there but they seem off, like if they were of a different Dexon label. Who would know?

In any case the release had two songs, “A Lonely Night” on the A side and “Lolita” on the B side. The songs were produced by Pierre Delfosse, a Belgian producer who was in SX 96 and Why Not James?, and were recorded by Jean-Paul Lebens at Pyramid Studio in November 1989.

I am quite curious why they ended up in a Belgian label instead of a French one. Did they had more of a following there?

Luckily I found a Facebook page for the band. I wasn’t expecting this. Here it mentions the band was signed to Dexon but actually distributed by New Rose. They played many of the most important Parisian venues, Golf Druout, Locomotive, Espace Ornano and eventually released an album on CD called “Rain” in 1991! Okay! I didn’t know this. I need to track this album!

In the meantime I explore what’s on the page. We see that the band played in Reims in 1990 at L’Usine. Even cooler there is a live performance of the band playing “Girl in My Room“. It dates from 1990 in the Rock en France festival in Reims! On this same website they have a video of them promoting their single playing live “A Lonely Night“, amazing!

We find too that the band hailed from Charleville-Mézières. And that’s close to Belgium! Okay now things start to make some sense.

I am trying to find more info of the “Rain” album. So far I’ve found that there was a superb song called “In the Garden”. As you can imagine with the band’s name it is very very hard to find any information.

I try and try to find a tracklist for the album, at least which label released it. But I can’t seem to find anything through Google. I think this time I will need someone that owns the record to help me.

Also I don’t know the names of the band members. It seems it was 4 guys and 1 girl. We know Olivier Brion was one. But no clue about the rest!

So who remembers them?!

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Listen
Dorian Gray – A Lonely Night