Do you know Zeuhl?

SERGE BRINGOLF - STRAVE: VISION (SZ 35) CD 36m

Serge Bringolf was a talented jazz drummer inspired by Christian Vander, who released three Magma type albums in the 1980's. The band project name was Strave who debuted with a double live album (also reissued by Soleil Zeuhl) which was not bad, if too jazz for my taste.
VISION was the second album, from 1981, which saw them come along in leaps and bounds, actually the band had almost entirely changed except for Serge and singer Mano. They still had a very big brass sound, but that aspect didn't so much as swamp the music (as previously) but instead fleshed it out.
In the opening Vision itself, here we have the original 1971 Magma sound reinvented with later Zeuhl elements mixed in with a new off-kilter funky/raunchy/rocky groove aspect that sometimes sees them running along at breakneck speed in a music punctuated by guitar solos, and much much more! In this way they created their own new language of Magma inspired music. Singer Mano doesn't really do songs, instead he does a kind of scat, not sure if any of the vocals in French, it's more non-worded intonation. Not so Magma, the second track, the three-part Plus opens very Univers Zero, militaristic and dark, with part two signalled by a wailing scream from Mano moving in heavy ZAO territory but with brass, whereas the third part is more Weidorje like. After this the 13 minute trek Ma-Ho. Peneta continues in that racey fashion. It's really "Vision Reprise" mixing elements of what has gone before.
Great stuff then. What we need now is a reissue of the third album: LIVE.



SCHERZOO
SCHERZOO 01 (SZ 28) CD 57m
SCHERZOO 02 (SZ 31) CD 51m

Scherzoo are a new fusion outfit formed by François Thollot. The same François Thollot as previous solos on Soleil Zeuhl? Would seem so, although when he debuted and played everything himself his drum work was one thing that let the album down. On his second he left the drums to One Shot's Daniel Jeand'heur. Yet in Scherzoo he only plays drums. Seems he's been taking lessons, as here he plays with aplomb in a manner akin to Univers Zero's Daniel Denis. The rest of the band comprise: François Mignot (guitar), Jeremy Van Quackebeke (piano), Guillaume Lagache (alto sax) and Anthony Béard (bass).
Not so much Zeuhl, Scherzoo are still typically French fusion, more that jazz type of psych prog from the early 1970's, done all instrumental and brought up to date. So, along with flashes of Komintern, Red Noise and Gong, there are flashes of Magma-isms in the keyboards mostly, and as much Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson and Soft Machine. Both albums are comparable and excellent. 



UNIT WAIL - PANGAEA PROXIMA (SZ 32) CD 45m

The latest project from former Shub Niggurath guitarist Franck Fromy, together with a cast of young new talent, Unit Wail are going to surprise and delight many.
Unit Wail on one hand have that Zeuhl fusion aspect of bands from the 1980's, along with a unique daring and invention that's so now, fresh and full of elements, ideas, combinations that we've never heard before. I love the way they rip apart conventions and arrange them differently. There are elements to the music that as much remind me of early Anekdoten as Magma, bridging symphonic rock and funky edged twisted jazz wonderfully. That aspect also recalls some of the early Peter Frohmader Nekropolis works, but here we have sizzling guitar leads, Mellotron, high flying complex drives that outshine anything that King Crimson has done since THRAKATAK. Stunning stuff indeed.



- from Soleil Zeuhl feature in Audion #58

Soleil Zeuhl titles in stock at the UT Discogs shop