Miele “Le Jour et la Nuit”

Folkwit, 2011

Miele clean up in the Belgian pop stakes

• On a formative trip to Belgium I discovered the pleasures of beer, paprika and chips with mayonnaise. It was the first foreign country I visited and yet I still remain ignorant about its popular culture, musically Belgium for me is Jacques Brel and judging from this second album from Miele, it is my loss.

• Catherine De Biaso plays the naive ingénue and Stephane Daubersy the world weary Gallic philosopher see ‘Chateux De Sable’ and the title track for ample evidence that it’s not just lazy stereotyping on my part. I’d like their voices to twirl around each other more often as they do complement each other so well,

  Catherine adds some lovely backing vocals to ‘Campari Orange’ otherwise they mostly keep themselves to themselves. There’s plenty of variety on offer ‘L’Inventaire’ is smeared with driving guitars and keyboards, the songs where Catherine takes the vocals like ‘Tu N’es Pas La’ tend to be more pop orientated (think Allo Darlin’) whereas when Stephane takes the lead the songs are somehow more Gallic more Serge Gainsbourg.

  There are hints of Americana-Uk endorsed French popsters Orwell when Stephane is piloting, ‘Corps Fluorescents’ is typical of this, the music is slower it follows his lead, the shrug in his voice controls the song. The closing ‘Dans La Nuit’ stitches their voices together in a more tranquil setting; it’s a lovely ending to a satisfying record.