From: borella@cs.ucdavis.edu (Mike Borella)
Newsgroups: alt.music.progressive
Subject: French Article: Part II
Date: 12 Oct 1992 15:53:25 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


Part 2 of 2 of the French Article

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France #2

     I covered France's most 'famous' symphonic trio in the last
article - Ange, Atoll, and Pulsar as well as a look at Musea's
symphonic sampler "Enchantement."  As part of this article I will
delve a little into France's alternative progressive scene, one
that holds more surprises, yet is possibly not as accessible as the
three I talked about last time.

     The three bands I will cover in this issue may not appeal to
most of you at this time.  Magma, Heldon/Richard Pinhas, and Art
Zoyd all have remarkably different styles, yet can be extremely
bizarre at times (or all the time, for that matter) and may be hard
to listen to.  But at the same time, all three bands created a very
distinct sound that must be discussed when talking about
"progressive music" in general.  All three bands were innovators
and each created a style that many would try to imitate or improve
on down the line.  Most people seem to want some sort of reference
point to compare a band to, but with these bands it is quite
difficult.  I will, of course, do my best to describe them.... with
a little help!

     Matt Howarth, probably the most inventive "progressive music
artist" does a fantastic job of describing Magma in his comic short
in Audion #13, p. 26  "Imagine fanatical percussion all ashudder
with the timber of striking great redwoods.  Imagine regal horns
whose notes echo forever from far away heights.  Imagine the rumble
of a thunder lizard bass.  Imagine the the pounding of piano and
the chant of electric organ  Imagine the twitch of the fusion jazz
guitar.  Imagine mouth rhythms that twist and contort as wildly
jubilant vocal choruses in the strange tongue of Kobian.  The
band's leader, Christian Vander, has created an entire alien
language for this epic musical saga of cosmic enlightenment..  Each
album, you see, is another chapter in Vander's "Theusz Hamtttaahk"
space opera.  Although classified as experimental jazz, Magma's
music is actually psuedo-Gregorian chant with heavy teutonic
overtones, all put to an unbelievably intense jazz march a la John
Coltrane."  Couldn't have said it better myself.  I can tell you
that you have never heard anything quite like Magma before.  These
guys can be very hard to listen to - especially Klaus Blasquiz's
nearly manic vocals - he literally screeches for minutes sometimes! 
The talent, though, is nearly unsurpassed.  Vander's drumming is
easily in the top five (albeit quite subtly) and the intensity
NEVER drops and when these guys finally go instrumental, they play
some of the best fusion around.  And if operas in strange languages
take your fancy, I think you may like these guys :-)  

     MAGMA launched what is now labeled as "Zeuhl" music in France
and while a number of bands (ie HONEYELK, SHUB NIGGURATH, YOG
SOTHOTH etc) have tried to follow in a similar fashion - especially
with screeching bizarre languages and murky plod fusion - none
sound quite like Magma.  You may know slightly what I'm talking
about if you can picture H P Lovecraft (the author) set to music
circa "Shadow Over Innsmouth" etc.  I am waiting for a tape copy of
Magma's double LP debut (1970) so can't review that yet but will
take a shot at some of the others.

     "1001 Centigrades" (1971) is a three song excursion into Magma
land and tends to be more instrumental than some of their later
output.  Among Vander's ensemble of musicians is future Gong
bassist Francis Moze and future Zao members Jeff Seffer and
Francois Cahen, and let me tell ya, these guys truly blaze on this
album.  But "1001" doesn't even come close to the splendor of
Magma's third and probably best "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh."
(1973) Definitely the most vocal laden of their albums, this one
twists and turns on the "Coltrane March" theme, the atmosphere
getting more tense every second.  Magma coaxes climax after climax
and gets to one point in the album where it seems like Blasquiz
goes into a rage of frenzied orgasmic screeching - surely bone-
chilling stuff.  The CD reissue of "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh"
also includes an album length outake which includes less vocals
than the original and gives some room for instrumental interplay. 
There is another outtake with other musicians entitled "Mekanik
Kommandoh" that has also been released on CD.  A slower more
ominous sound pervades their fourth "Kohntarkosz," (1974) a sound
that most of the later "Zeuhl" bands tried to imitate somewhat.  On
this one, Magma wallow in the swamp a bit with a slower pace fusion
that has far less vocals than either of the previous two.

     The three easiest Magma albums to get are their next three,
starting with the double "Magma Live," (1975)  Most of this stuff
is either unreleased or elaborations on other themes and is another
worthy addition to the Magma repertoire.  While "Udu Wudu" (1976)
is also highly revered, I haven't found it much to my liking as of
yet and it seems to me quite different than their previous albums. 
"Attahk" (1977) marked their downhill swing and subsequent albums
were either outtake collections or too mixed with soul to be of
interest to most progressive fans.  Their first seven are all
released on CD in France, and the three in this paragraph
internationally.

     Electronic ensemble HELDON were led by Guitarist Richard
Pinhas and mixed "Starless" era Crimson with bizarre elctronics and
effects.  Pinhas was a very Fripp-styled guitarist and an avid user
of the Moog synthesizer, one in which he can play to death at times
(side 1 of "Chronolyse") and the music that Heldon created was
quite industrial and often grating but always fascinating.  Since
Heldon albums are quite rare nowadays, I haven't had the pleasure
of hearing them all as of yet (Hey, Malcolm review the first couple
for me, please!) I do have their fourth "Agneta Nilsson" (1976) and
fifth "Un Reve Sans Consequence Speciale."  (1977) Both of these
are extremely mechanical and often take forays into the dark side
of electronic music.  This is not Yanni, folks :-)  or Tangerine
Dream or Schulze for that matter, Heldon were an island to
themselves.

     RICHARD PINHAS evolved his ideas of electronic music futher
when he went "solo."  I use this reservedly since he didn't seem to
change much until later in his solo career.  Although I haven't
heard his 1st "Rhizosphere", "Iceland" and "Chronolyse" are
excellent albums (except maybe "Chronolyse" side 1) further
producing music in the Heldon vein.  Especially superb is the 30
minute cosmic jam on "Chronolyse" in which Moog bursts, Frippian
guitar licks and swaths of mellotron swirl and cascade endlessly in
fascinating fashion reaching unbelievable heights.  It makes you
wonder what "Fracture" or the like would have sounded like if a
sci-fi laser battle was going on in the background!

      The one that I find toughest to describe is definitely the
bizarre ART ZOYD.  To me this type of progressive music is
definitely one of the most fascinating around, yet at the same time
is truly full of those "jangling dissonances."  Well maybe not
"jangling," yet dissonances are a large part of Art Zoyd's music,
which is truly in the 20th century classical vein circa Bartok or
Prokofiev.  If you are a Univers Zero fan (like myself) and enjoy
sinister sounding chamber rock, full of oboes, violins, and other
instruments like them with the normal "rock" instrumentation, you
will probably love Art Zoyd.

     Personally, I love all of their releases I have heard, and can
just now begin to differentiate between them - if you are a new
listener to this type of music, they all sound the same at first-
yet further listening will reveal their immense differences.  I
can't really pick which one I like the most (I like 'em all), yet
their sixth "Le Mariage Du Ciel Et De L'Enfer," (1984) a piece
written for ballet is surely incredible with softer intense parts
(like in movie thrillers when something terrifying is about to be
discovered) that explode into chopping violin riffs in bizarre
rhythm patterns - I mean, how the hell did people dance to this
stuff???  Also great is their "First Four" - "Musique Pour
L'Odysee" (1979), "Symphonie Pour De Jour..." (1976) re-recorded in
(1981), "Generation Sans Futur" (1980), and the double "Phase
Four." (1982)  All have beein reissued on French LP by the
"Cryonic" division of Mantra CDs/LPs (ie Amon Duul II, Caravan
etc.) and "Phase Four" is available on double CD with their fifth
(haven't heard it) "L'Espace Inquiets" (1983) and some archive
material also on Mantra/Cryonic.  Remember, these bands are only
for you brave new-music adventurers, and not for the symphonic-
only-crowd!  If you buy one of these and end up hating it, don't
come blaming me, I warned you!  These are truly experimental
albums.

     Next time, I will concentrate on some newer bands that French
label Musea has released recently, including the fantastic
HALLOWEEN, MINIMUM VITAL, EDHELS, TIEMKO etc as well as returning
to the seventies reissue scene with bands such as SHYLOCK, ASIA
MINOR and SYNOPSIS, bands that symphonic prog lovers will
absolutely go crazy over.  If any of you have good things (or bad)
to say about the bands I will take on next issue (or 2), please
post - I know some of you out there have heard some of these bands. 
I don't know if I will do a French discography as of yet, since it
will take much time, but I may get to it sometime next year.
     I also want to say thanks for the excellent look into the band
Happy The Man by Dan Casey.  I just want to say that I agree with
his remarks on the band - HTM are indeed an incredibly talented
ensemble, full of melodic finesse and rare beauty.  Most of you
would like this band, and Cuneiform WMAS' 'Beginnings' is as good
a place as any to start.
     One of the things that confuses me about these guys, though is
that their first two albums are supposed to be very rare, and I've
heard just about everybody say this - in fact ZNR thinks that even
VG copies are rare.  Well maybe not in Sacramento, considering
everyone I know has both of them and usually in mint shape.  In
fact I have two LP copies of the first album and _may_ be willing
to part with one of them - if someone is interested.  I hear that
in Maryland, they are also a dime a dozen.  Rare?  Not that I've
seen.

Mike