Fille Qui Mousse/Mahogany Brain/Lard Free RFI

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Can anybody give me any info concerning these off-the-wall French people? Like, what planet were they from? What exotic plant extracts were they mainlining? How well did they know Salvador Dali and Antonin Artaud? They appear to have not shared the usual sense of reality in any way.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 20:41 (twenty-two years ago)

most of the french stuff seems to be unhinged in similar ways - like they combined acid, marijuana, philosophy, surrealism, odd humor, free jazz, psych and prog rock and probably even zappa records and managed to come up with something as distinctly french as krautrock was german.

see also: (early) gong, ame son, horrific child, red noise, etc. i've heard that horrific child included members of maledictus sound which might make them french-canadian. l'infonie, also from quebec, have a weird french-prog type sound.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks. THis tendency toward extreme wierdness seems to have crossed stylistic barriers to effect jazz & avant-classical folks like Rene Aubry, Jacques Berrocal, and Igor Wakhevitch, to whom another thread is devoted for those interested.

Once again thanks for the suggestions.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought the Fille Qui Mousse cd was funny but good, accurately described as "faust tapes lite." Horde Catalytique pour la Fin conjure some great free-noise confusion on their cd - an out-there touchstone.

On the other hand, that first Mahogany Brain cd is god-awful stoned rambling. Or rather, it feels like folks playing at sounding stoned rather than actually being stoned - the giveaway is the guitar playing; the guy sounds way too tutored and strains to really get any excitement going. I've not heard the second one, so perhaps they got "better".

I still want to hear the Semool and Red Noise discs... But yeah, I'm as clueless as you John as to the social milieu and interconnections surrounding this scene.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 22 July 2003 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, man, I kinda dig that first Mahogany Brain CD...

― roger adultery, Wednesday, 23 July 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Ugh, I've tried. Have you heard the 2nd one?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

the semool record is very good, though it took me a while to get into it. predominantly guitar and bass drifting with some (intentional? accidental?) pink floyd riff-lifting. beats horde catalytique in my book, which just reminded me of limbus 4; i think AMM beats the hell out of both of them in the early free noise department.

the first mahogany brain album is alright, but i'd rate the second much higher. fun to throw a track or two into a mix or a radio show, though.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 04:50 (twenty-two years ago)

never heard the second one - will investigate

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 05:36 (twenty-two years ago)

THis is great folks, thanks. ANy thoughts on Jac Berrocal? THe name keeps popping up in my research........

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

i downloaded a couple of berrocal albums, they were 'interesting' but i didn't really feel the urge to listen to them more than once or twice. kind of sketchy short tracks of noise, free bleat, rock, weirdness. nurse with wound based one of their albums on one of his tracks ("rock and roll station").

― your null fame (yournullfame), Wednesday, 23 July 2003 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe I've been listening to the second Mahogany Brain album all along, I'm not sure, but I can't see how anyone could not like it. Just to clarify - the first one - is this the one with "Silkskin Dawn" and "Sky Fish"?

― roger adultery, Thursday, 24 July 2003 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

err..."sky-fish" is on the first one "with (junk-saucepan)..." and "silkskin dawn" is on the second "smooth sick lights."

― your null fame (yournullfame), Thursday, 24 July 2003 11:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Really?? That's weird. I'm pretty sure I have the first album, but I'm pretty sure I remember "Silkskin Dawn" - it's the really short one, right?

― roger adultery, Thursday, 24 July 2003 11:39 (twenty-two years ago)

it's 1:26 on my copy - sounds kind of like a hamstrung attempt at "archangel's thunderbird," which is a good thing. uh... "smooth sick lights" also has an 8 minute first and 21 minute track last and sounds kind of like rock a la jandek, whereas the first has mostly tracks under 5 minutes in length that consist of vague and tuneless noodling.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Thursday, 24 July 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"smooth sick lights" also has some of my favorite song titles ever: "rose sad sea," "diamond voices of stars," "burning the vibes," "green winter of revolvers," "purple overdose no. 102"... they all seem vaguely like ashtrat navigations or birchville cat motel track titles.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Thursday, 24 July 2003 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the story behind Art & Technique? such common words render Google useless. was this an Artman project?

Paralleles is somewhat overrated, and La Nuit est au Courant aint no great shakes, but don't dismiss Berrocal. that first Musik Ensemble album (JB/Dominique Coster/Roger Ferret) on Futura is incredible. same ethno-forgery mold as Ghedalia Tazartés - one of my heroes - but coming at it from Continental free jazz rather than kitchen-table musique concrète. one to treasure.

― summerslastsound, Thursday, 24 July 2003 14:32 (twenty-two years ago)

You should also include Heldon in this thread, especially their records in the late 70s. Also Philippe Besombes. One day, all this stuff from France will come back, and take its rightful place alongside German rock and electronic music as one of *the* great experimental European scenes of the 70s.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 24 July 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

You all must hear Lard Free's self-titled album
and III. These Gilbert Artman-led Frenchmen
combined stellar free-jazz chops, surprising
funkadelic tendencies, and generated a Xenakis-from-
Saturn textural vortex that never fails
to drop my jaw floorward [see "Spirale Malax"
off III].
Oh, and track down everything by
Heldon while you're at it.

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Thursday, 24 July 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

AND most of Pinhas's solo stuff.

dleone, I hope yr right bucuz most of the french shit is as good as / better than the celebrated stuff from Germany

― roger adultery, Thursday, 24 July 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope yr right bucuz most of the french shit is as good as / better than the celebrated stuff from Germany

Oh come on, this is a preposterous statement.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 24 July 2003 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

One can make a convincing argument that the
best albums from Heldon, Lard Free, Magma,
Spacecraft, Boris Vian, Fille Qui Mousse,
Maledictus Sound, Archaia, Pulsar, Shylock,
Igor Wakhevich, Semool, etc, etc are at least equal to Germany's
elite works. You just have to dig a bit
deeper to find the amazing French music.

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Thursday, 24 July 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, then, "make a convincing argument".

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 24 July 2003 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

That wasn't a facetious request. I wouldn't mind reading someone, you know, exercise their critical faculties about this stuff. I mean, I'd be interested in reading some writing that demonstrates Spacecraft were better than, say, Cluster. I mean, doesn't anybody care to write and think and express their ideas?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 24 July 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the best heldon record to start with?

― j fail (cenotaph), Friday, 25 July 2003 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Mr. Diamond, my feeling of much of the music in this thread (though I would say Magma is probably not in the same "scene" as the others) is that it's so different from the concurrent German stuff, it's hard to say one scene is better than the other. I probably own more German stuff -- but then it's a lot easier to find. In general, the French experimental music from the 70s seems a lot darker, druggier to me. The power of Heldon's "Interface" or Lard Free's "III" is like being caught in the middle of an acid storm, paranoid, sweaty, hopeless -- but also fascinated at the utter chaos of it. Sirens and big swirling winds all around, guitar roar and extroverted synth patterns (as opposed to a relatively ambient use of synths in a lot of krautrock). The French liked trance, but it was pretty frightening, aggressive stuff, whereas German bands seemed to want to bliss out, lull you into their world.

J fail: I'd go for Interface (about to be reiisued again this year on Cuneiform) or Un Reve Sans Consequence Speciale.

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 25 July 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

i haven't heard a bad heldon record. from the 70s.

i do have to kind of withdraw my almost-recommendation of red noise though, it kind of blows. the 18 minute track on the second side is nice, though.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Friday, 25 July 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

i like red noise but it's silly - if you enjoy a lot of humour with your weirdness, go for it.
some parts sounds distrubingly like mayo thompson.

― j fail (cenotaph), Friday, 25 July 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Patric Vian's Bruits et Temps Analogues redeems Red Noise for me. the guy had some great music in him. not enough of which made it onto Sarcelles-Locheres, granted. or maybe it was just lost amid all the humeur de toilette.

― summerslastsound, Friday, 25 July 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Another good one, though a little earlier than most of this, is Jean Guerin's Tacet.

― dleone (dleone), Friday, 25 July 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

was there a bad record on Futura Son?

― summerslastsound, Friday, 25 July 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Glad someone mentioned Spacecraft - is that record any good? Bear in mind I'm a huge fan of MEV's "Leave the City"...should I get that Paradoxe record or whatever it's called?

― roger adultery, Friday, 25 July 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

tacet is amazing. everyone should listen to it.

"leave the city" is the only MEV record that sounds like that. it's not really MEV. it has almost entirely different members and more of a hippie folk vibe.

― j fail (cenotaph), Friday, 25 July 2003 17:31 (twenty-two years ago)

'disturbing' and 'mayo thompson' in the same sentence. I'm there!

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Spacecraft's Paradoxe is essential. I haven't heard MEV's
Leave The City, but from what MEV I've heard, it's way more
amorphous than Spacecraft. Paradoxe is simply one of the
greatest uh, space-rock/psych/prog/ambient bliss-out
albums ever. There's not a weak moment on there.
The last track is as transportingly drifting and
spaced-out as anything Jason Pierce or Sonic Boom
have done and it gives all the current electronic
ambienceurs a serious run for there euros.
I second the Jean Guerin Tacet recommendation; a major
mind-fuck heard on acid.
And I meant Patric Vian, not Boris, in my first post
on this thread. His solo album is much more consisent
than the Red Noise album, as summerslastsound indicated.

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Sunday, 27 July 2003 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn--I meant "for *their* euros."

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Sunday, 27 July 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Spacecraft's Paradoxe is essential.

wow, 'essential' is sure loosely defined these days.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Sunday, 27 July 2003 08:52 (twenty-two years ago)

haha!! no shit null. I sort of begged off this thread, but I do want to give big props to Dominique! Thank you, Dominique, for taking the time to express your opinion, and provide a kind of lens for viewing these two concurrent scenes. Thanks to Dom's words, I sort of can entertain the idea that this French stuff was better than the German scene; I mean, I don't buy it of course, but goshdarnit at least Dom provided me with a blueprint with which to realign my listening when I approach these curious records. I like his idea of the French stuff reflecting a kind of chaotic, restless worldview, as against the contemporary German stuff. I'll try to bear that in mind the next time I listen..

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Sunday, 27 July 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

ANybody know how many records Lard Free did?

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Sunday, 27 July 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Lard Free released four albums:
Lard Free
I'm Around About Midnight
III
Unnamed

Spalax/Tempel has released all of them on CD.

― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Sunday, 27 July 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Thank you Dave

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Monday, 28 July 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

six years pass...

I'm around about midnight is awesome--way different than III. Surprised at the lack of love for this group.

― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Monday, 28 December 2009 06:50 (sixteen years ago)

First album is pretty ace too: Acide Framboise is unbelievably, er, acid.

― Marco Damiani, Monday, 28 December 2009 15:07 (sixteen years ago)

seven months pass...

Can't see past the 1st album, love everything about that record, other albums are great too but somehow, despite being arguably "weirder", less surprising

― tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 August 2010 13:01 (fifteen years ago)

As I am thee John B... that started this thread w/ a new Screen name, I thought I'd chime in once again (thanks for reviving!).

Still very much into this scene, perhaps because it plays the underdog to the more well-known Krautrock troops. I've continued playing around with the bizarre French folk & can confirm that 'Tacet' (mentioned above) is most excellent. The '30 Years of Musical Insurrection' collection is highly recommended, and I've recently discovered Angel Face & Chico Magnetic Band, bands I can recommend highly. Angel Face has a sort of Stooges/psych vibe, while CMB is a sneering ball of guitar skree & crunch, a bit like a drunken, garagepunk Hendrix.

― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 13 August 2010 16:41 (fifteen years ago)

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