It was my intention to post a compilation this past weekend, but I was hit with a computer virus that took me most of the weekend to clean out of my machine. I have a backlog of LPs to post, mostly compilations, but editing and labeling those audio files takes a lot of time, so for now here's a single and I hope to post an LP this coming weekend.It would be nice to claim that this was a cool find on a trip or at a flea market, but it was simply an eBay purchase that I was the sole bidder on.
With a bunch of hair farmers and one baldhead, these guys look a bit like Spirit, and honestly given the variety of sounds that classic band gave us these guys can be said to sound something like them in places as well. For some reason many French, Italian and other Romance language speakers seemed to have trouble producing rock'n'roll rhythms smoothly in the '60s, and although some gems were produced from those countries, early on many of the records from southern Europe up through the garage era sound awkward to me in a sense I have trouble describing. Something about the rhythm section is often just a little bit off, as if the musicians had rock'n'roll verbally described to them once without ever hearing it in person. (I sometimes think this is somehow related to language as Germanic and Slavic and some other speakers don't seem to have had these problems for the most part, but on the other hand neither did Latin Americans, so who knows...) Many of my favorite '60s French recordings are things like Serge Gainsbourg productions that aren't really even trying to replicate straight rock'n'roll. Once we get to the '70s and harder rock and prog, the different groove that France was in actually seems to have worked for them and produced some cool sounds.
The A-side here has some interesting percussion in a good way, almost Latin, and the addition of some flute puts this in the mid-ground between any hard rock early '70s band, Santana and Jethro Tull. The B-side is even better, a blend of hard rock and prog with interesting keyboard sounds.
The band was only together for a few years, releasing only two studio albums. More info here.
Thanks for this one. I've found their 1970 debut album on "Disques Somethin' Else", a short lived Philips subsidiary, in near mint in a charity shop last year for 25 cents, and it's a disturbing mish-mash of sugary crap and absolute killers. Worth a fortune meanwhile, I've been told. Schizoid, but amazing bunch, those froggies. Best wishes, Lolly.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what I've found in (what we Americans call) thrift stores. Last month for 50 cents I found a promo copy of Amon Duul II's "Made in Germany." Of course this is after searching through thousands of LPs that were pure junk...
ReplyDeleteyep, that's the price you pay. shoveling thru tons of crap. but it must be in the genes. relics from the days of hunters and collectors. but more fun than farming the land...
ReplyDeleteActually this is a real gem. That bald guy is Jacque Mercier formerly of Les Jellyroll and latterly of Captain Mercier. Check them out! The french had an intriging pych scene in the 60s and Jacque Mercier is credited to a number of bands. Les Jellyroll are credited with the amazing Les Papyvores, Buddy Badge Montezuma and his long Smoke Dreamers, and Pro Cromagnum (Whiter Shade of Pale cover)although the individual band members of Les Jellyrol do not credit themselves with these on the web.......if anybody can throw light on this I would appreciate it
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