Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts

Saturday, August 27, 2022

The Day After The Sabbath 141: Le Démon du Rythme [France #2] French Heavy Psych, Prog and Rock 69-79



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Bienvenue à volume 141 of TDATS: the second comp of all things French, heavy, riffing and fuzzy, 1969-1979. The first one was way back in 2011 with volume 45: La Folle Entreprise (link), so it's about time! I thank TDATS facebook group member Claude Harvey, a French-speaking resident of Alma, Quebec, for bringing to my attention how long it has been since any French themes, and for some pointers to get the rusty old digging machine going again! Since posting this I have asked him to add some comments for each track, which he has now done.

In a similar situation to The Netherlands, it seems that around the '68-'74 period, a large proportion of heavy French bands with the sounds we like at TDATS, never made full albums, and there are many excellent singles to return to one day. I originally intended this to be a selection of album tracks only, but one single has crept in. The previous French volume was largely a thick lysergic soup of fuzz, and  there's still some of that here, but this one also represents mid & late '70s hard rock, and even some of France's early metal sounds. I've decided to do another french comp later on: France really came into its own in the late '70s during the punk years, so I'm considering making a comp of that period. 

This brings together 13 acts that are totally new to the blog, and two that I have already used, Alice and Zoo. We have a varied mix of styles from the heavy prog of Alice & Visitors, to the proto-metal sounds of Hybride, Silvertrain & Volcania, on to the extreme fuzz of Rob Jo Star Band, while encountering various nuggets of unexpected heaviness from pop stars, private-press records and celtic folk. So, another adventure into the weighty, weird and wonderful, as usual...

TRACKS

01. Alice - Le Roseau (1972)
            from album "Arrêtez le Monde"
02. Joël Daydé - Can I Live My Life? (1971)
            from album "Daydé"
03. Peinture Fraiche - Urbains Matins (1979)
            from album "125 Grammes de 33 1/3 Tours"
04. Visitors - Visitors (1974)
            from album "Visitors"
05. Hybride - Mon Pegaze (1977)
            from album "Ça n'a Pas d'Importance"
06. Johnny Hallyday - Réclamation (1969)
            from album "Rivière... Ouvre Ton Lit"
07. Volcania - Les Cris de la Nuit (1977)
            from album "l'Agression"
08. Sorry - Boogie With the Law (1978)
            from album "Sorry"
09. Jacky Chalard - Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard (1977)
            from album "Avec un Pied Dans le Rock 'n Roll"
10. Rob Jo Star Band - Le Démon du Rythme (1975)
            from album "Rob Jo Star Band"
11. Silvertrain - Disappointment Time (1979)
            from album "Which Platform Please?"
12. Michel Maillard + Grandes Vacances - Le Satyre Du Métro (1979)
            from album "Enfla Grand Délire"
13. Alan Stivell - Brezhoneg' Raok (1973)
            from album "Chemins de Terre"
14. Trust - Prends Pas Ton Flingue (1978)
            single
15. Zoo - Hard Times, Good Times (1972)
            from album "Hard Times, Good Times"


Alice -
"Arrêtez le Monde" LP
Alice - Le Roseau (1972)
We open the set with a great guitar riff, which to me sounds like it could be from a band much more recent than 1972. The album this is from has expansive production and is mostly made up of accessible melodic progressive rock, so 'Le Roseau' isn't indicative of the whole album, but I had to use it as I really dig the juxtaposition of the intro riff, which surfaces a few more times in the song, with the other instrumentation of piano, hammond and even some horns. Alice was certainly one of the country's premiere progressive acts in 1972, which was early days for scene there.

Claude Harvey says: Thanks Rich for this amazing French compilation, Part Deux! Alice "Le Roseau" is one of the only heavy tracks on their second album Arrêtez le Monde (which have also been published in English under the name 'All Ice'). The rest of the album is more brass-rock/prog-rock oriented. For more Alice heavy tunes, please check their first album Alice (1970)

"Daydé" LP
(Joël) Daydé - Can I Live My Life? (1971)
Here's a slice of heavy blues with Hendrixy guitar. Joël Daydé was in the early lineup of Zoo, who have appeared in the blog before and will again in this comp. He made a series of solo albums in the '70s and this track is taken from 1971's "Daydé". His albums traverse many styles of electric & acoustic blues. with progressive and hard rock touches. According to FR wikipedia (link) he had his biggest early success with a single called Mamy Blue (yt) and his singing has been compared to other gravel-voiced front men like Joe Cocker and Roger Chapman of Family.

Claude Harvey says: Joël Daydé's first solo album is an honest blues/psychedelic rock album with lots of soul! If you liked "Can I live my life?", be sure to check his amazing cover of Paperback Writer on his "Only a Man" single (1971)

125 Grammes de 33 1/3 Tours
Punk rock sampler
Peinture Fraiche - Urbains Matins (1979)
This is a track that doesn't sound anything like punk, I found on a punk rock sampler. It's a great blues riff all the way. The 12" sampler of bands on the Paris "Ile De France" region record label 'Oxygène', was possibly the first French example of such a thing, and has some good tracks which I have filed away for more potential TDATS volumes. 

Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything about the band 'Peinture Fraiche' {eng: 'Fresh Paint'} as this seems to be the only time they ever had any music published, so far I have been unable to find any web presence for them at all, I can't even find a good enough back cover scan to read the band member's names.

Incidentally, the Oxygène label, which existed from 1977 to '81, has a good catalogue to find some heavy French singles of the period, and certainly punk bands too. 

Claude Harvey says: Peinture Fraiche "Urbains Matins" is a hard-rock oriented song by a punk band in the same vein than Cible, which great single "L'homme a la moto" can be found on the same label "Oxygene". Also on this label, you can find amazing heavy rock singles by Olaf (Rue du Désespoir) and Zeugma (Témoignage)

Visitors - Visitors (1974)
Visitors - Visitors (1974)
Visitors - Visitors (1974)
I saw this album mentioned frequently while looking up French prog, and how could you not want to hear a "heavy" 1974 space rock prog album called Visitors, with that cover?! Well, the LP didn't quite match my expectations, but don't let my opinion put you off checking it out, as many people like this record, and good condition Decca originals sell for hefty prices. It does indeed have plenty of theatrical, ominous space rock pomp, and some heavy parts, but for me it never quite manages to reach escape velocity. I still elected to include a cut from this for the fun of it, and this mainly instrumental track makes a fitting segue in a collection of '70s rock.

Visitors was the creation of prolific musician and producer Jean-Pierre Massiera, who masterminded countless one-off albums ranging from symphonic prog to electronica & disco funk. He has been called "the French Joe Meek". The Guardian news paper called his work "a fetid miasma of sick humour, sound effects and unexpectedly first-rate musicianship", and reviewer William Rauscher described him as "a freewheeling auteur whose outrageous forays in trashy pop culture mix low-brow sensuality with oddball experimentation".

Claude Harvey says: Visitors is a great Space-Rock album which can be considered as France's answer to Hawkwind. Other heavy rock songs on this album are "Dies Irae" and the amazing "Le Retour Des Dieux"

Hybride - "Ça n'a Pas d'Importance" LP
Hybride -
"Ça n'a Pas d'Importance" LP
Hybride - Mon Pegaze (1977)

Aside from a few exceptions like Les Variations and Chico's Magnetic Band (neither of which were started by French natives), it's not easy finding full albums of  '70s French hard rock which had evolved beyond standard boogie RnR.

Those who have looked will have encountered many Zeuhl, fusion, experimental and symphonic prog acts, but when it comes to decent, meat & potatoes hard rock, it was rare in France until the end of the decade. Those more knowledgeable than me will have opinions on why this is (or may even disagree with me entirely), but I can say with certainty that it's much easier to find early hard rock in other major European countries like Germany, and even in more exotic places like South America.

That elevates finds like this record in importance. If this was a private-press EP by some midwest US band in the late '70s, it would be one of many similar things, but the fact this is French makes it stand out.

Hybride
The music itself is good, hard jam-rock with hints of prog, metal, even punk, and the music is enjoyable all the way through. The downside is the song-writing, which definitely takes a back seat to the technical ability, and I genuinely think Hybride could have come up with something exceptional, with a bit more sculpting.

When I first listened to the LP, I made the mistake of judging it on the quality and variety of each individual track, and I thought it didn't quite meet the grade to be included in this comp. I have now reconsidered, and the way to look at this record is as one long jam of heavy rock. In that respect it works a lot better, and as I mentioned before, this is still quite a unique record to come from France at the time, so for that reason alone it's worth checking out.

Claude Harvey says: "Hybride LP "Ca n'a pas d'importance" was released as an independent LP in 1977 and re-released officially a few years later in 1980 by the FLVM label..."

Jacky Chalard - Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard (1977)
Johnny Hallyday -
"Rivière... Ouvre Ton Lit" 1969
Johnny Hallyday - Réclamation (1969)
He's a well-known rock'n'roll and pop star in France. As is the case with these pop stars who made a ton of singles, jumping on many styles and using a lot of different backing musicians, Johnny appears to have sung on the occasional heavy nugget. In this case, his 1969 album "Rivière... Ouvre Ton Lit" offers four rocking tracks, the best of which is this absolute belter, 'Réclamation'.

Who knows if Johnny himself actually wanted to make a hard rocker that's about as heavy as anything you can expect to hear from 1969? Often in these cases I think the contracted session musicians may have just felt like injecting some of what they were listening to at the time, and I don't know about this particular album, but it's mentioned on Discogs that Jimmy Page was one of those session players on some of Johnny's records....

Claude Harvey says: Johnny Hallyday is THE French rock legend and "Riviere Ouvre Ton Lit" is his first incursion on heavy rock territories, my favorite album which has been released on a 4 CD box set in 2020 under the title "Johnny 69".

Volcania - l'Agression LP
Volcania - "l'Agression" LP
Volcania - Les Cris de la Nuit (1977)
This track has a crunchy, grinding, head-nodding groove going on, which is something I always like straight away. Like Hybride, we have another rough 'n ready album of early French hard rock from a short-lived band, this time it's less prog and more blues. Export copies of this LP had a punxploitation sticker saying "The Leading French Punk Group", but punk this most certainly is not. Bluesy hard rock with a soupçon of metal is the order of the day, and that's fine with TDATS!

Volcania was a starting point for guys that would go on to be in better-known bands including Shakin' Street (a favourite of Lemmy no less), Trash, and one of France's best-known heavy bands, Trust, so they were a small but important part in the country's evolution of hard rock. l'Agression is a consistent album so if you like what you hear, it's certainly worth checking this one out.

Claude Harvey says: Volcania is a great French Hard Rock band labeled as "The Leading French Punk Group" by their label company... sure it didn't help if people were expecting a punk band on their shows! 😉

Sorry - back cover
Sorry - Boogie With the Law (1978)
This track is carried by the dexterous guitar of Dominique Ruiz. Ruiz is French and previously played in Mammouth, and Stratagème. Paul Ives is credited as singer, keys-man, producer and other main guy of Sorry. He was born in London UK, and after performing in bands and musicals like Hair (according to Discogs), relocated to France where he worked as a writer and producer, and recorded three solo albums. He wrote film scores and lyrics for bands like Century, who had a french number 1 hit in 1985. Other players on the LP included names from Alice (in this comp) and fusion band, Surya.

Sorry's self-titled LP is a well-produced FM rock affair, the sound is at odds with the new-wave / post-punk stylings of the album cover, with at least three heavy tracks which are all worth hearing, the others being "Too Fast To Know" and "One Eyed Can". Track A3 "Moonshine" is missing from my album files, so I'd like to see if that's a rocker too, if I can find it! [EDIT 2023: I found Moonshine! It's now on my youtube channel (link)] More on Sorry can be read at rockmadeinfrance.com (link).

Claude Harvey says: Sorry "Boogie With the Law" is a fantastic song I was supposed to post on the facebook group next week haha, I really love this song which is a great well produced boogie-rock song with a really catchy chorus!

Jacky Chalard -
Avec Un Pied Dans Le Rock 'N Roll
Jacky Chalard - Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard (1977)
Here we have a bass player who was at one time in Dynastie Crisis (used in previous french volume) and other bands such as Trust (the '60s prog band, not the hard rock band) and Magnum, both of which I have checked out. He was a producer and session player for a scattering of bands and singles also, but in 1977 he made a solo album, which is mostly some solid if unremarkable boogie / RnR type stuff, except for one mystifying track, which is included here. 

'Coupe d'Europe À G. Guichard' does not sound like anything else on the record, and it has fantastic drumming from Jean-Pierre Prévotat, who was in Triangle and Magnum. Maybe it just came out of the band during some studio down-time, when they had just sparked-up a fat one and turned on the television, as it's a groovy stoner jam which bizarrely has what sounds like TV football commentary over the top.  

The clue is in the name of the track of course, so maybe Jacky and friends were celebrating the '77 European Cup 1-0 victory for Saint-Etienne over the UK's Liverpool, at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium (link), with a doobie? Probably, and who can blame them?

Claude Harvey says: Jacky Chalard's Coupe D'Europe is a really groovy song, the only heavy inclusion on the pop-rock oriented album Avec Un Pied Dans Le Rock'n Roll...

Rob Jo Star Band
Rob Jo Star Band - Le Démon du Rythme (1975)
Here's another rare find, a french record which sounds like nothing else from the country in 1975. Now i'll be honest and admit that the majority of this album is not in TDATS territory. Even though there's quite a lot of fuzz employed, it's got more in common with a private-press loner-psych record you might read about in the Acid Archives. The random, unconnected encounters with electronic knob-twiddling also make it sound like some very lost, very early demo that Dave Brock might have made after coming home from high school.

The track I used here wasn't even included on the original album, and was added as a bonus track when Frenchies "Born Bad Records" (link) re-issued the record in 2013, with help from the band themselves. 

So, "Le Démon du Rythme" starts inauspiciously, but when it gets going, it's a wild trip which just about manages to keep itself together. Just be careful with your speakers, as this baby comes complete with some cone-shredding distortion / clipping.

Claude Harvey says: Rob Jo Star Band "Le Démon du Rythme" is a great song with lots of fuzz, and is also one of their only songs recorded in French (the other being "La Cigale" both released on a single)

Silvertrain -
"Which Platform Please?" album
Silvertrain - Disappointment Time (1979)
This is a mid-paced grinder that has elements of hard rock and metal. Strasbourg's Silvertrain made an album and a unique single in 1979 and they were one of France's earliest bands to make records aimed at the metal scene, although their sound is equal parts melodic hard rock, Sabbath, and later-'70s metal, which fits in well to any set of '70s rock. This actually makes for a good album that's worth hearing in entirety! 

According to some useful info over at france.metal.museum.free.fr (link) they even opened for acts like Motörhead and Rose Tattoo at the time. I first discovered this band a few years ago when there was very scant information but i'm pleased to see at least one original member is playing again and has made at least three new Silvertrain CDs.

Claude Harvey says: Silvertrain is a fantastic Hard Rock band, their first album Which Platform Please? is highly recommended!

Michel Maillard + Grandes Vacances
Michel Maillard +
 Grandes Vacances
Michel Maillard + Grandes Vacances - Le Satyre Du Métro (1979)
Here's an excellent slab of hard rock from an obscure album. The production is top notch and you would never guess it's a privately-pressed LP from the sounds.

I have taken some information from the excellent French rock resource francerock70.centerblog.net (link). "Originally from the Paris region, Michel Maillard studied in Rennes where he met the future members of Grandes Vacances, and recorded this unique self-produced album in 1979: "Enfla Grand Délire". With Michel Maillard (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar), Hervé Brault and Jean Pol Colin (Electric Guitars), Robert Le Gall (Bass), Gilbert Sonna (Drums) and guest Daniel Paboeuf (Saxophone)." 

I have only been able to source two tracks from the record so far but on the strength of  'Le Satyre Du Métro' i'd certainly like to hear more, although I don't know how much more hard rock is contained as the album is described as a mixture of rock, reggae and spoken-word humour. 

Claude Harvey says: Le satyre du Métro by Michel Maillaire et Grandes Vacances is a really fun heavy rock song, I would really like to hear the rest of the album... hope some songs are as good as that one! I heard "HLM Rock" is pretty good too...

Alan Stivell - Brezhoneg' Raok (1973)
Here's a unique track which mixes traditional Celtic music sung in the Breton language, with psych guitars, and it works because the musicianship is superb. Since discovering Alan Stivell for this comp, i've found his music to be very refreshing, especially this track's album 'Chemins de Terre', and the track 'Pop Plinn' from his live at Olympia 1972 LP (yt). 

Stivell's father built a Celtic harp, something which had not been seen or used for so long that he had to research history books to work out how to make it. Then Alan (Stivell jr) grew up learning to play it, and many other medieval instruments into the bargain. Stivell has for a long time since been a famous name in Celtic folk music.

Claude Harvey says: Alan Stivell's "Brezhoneg' Raok" is a nice heavy rock song, and also the only heavy rock inclusion on the celtic-folk oriented album Chemins de Terre.

Trust -
Prends Pas Ton Flingue 45
Trust - Prends Pas Ton Flingue (1978)
To a French person, using Trust in an obscure rock compilation probably makes about as much sense as including AC/DC.

Also, Iron Maiden fans will probably be aware of them as they counted Nicko McBrain and Clive Burr briefly in their ranks, and thrash fans too, as Anthrax covered Trust's "Anti-social" on their State Of Euphoria album, but I think there's probably a lot of listeners who won't know them.

Here's a great track from their their first ever single, which also wasn't on an original studio album, so maybe even a few French people have never heard this one. The quality of this single shows that they were a fully fledged heavy band right out of the gate, and the album that came a year after this contains some tracks which are still live standards, as they reform from time to time to play live and make new records.

Claude Harvey says: Trust's first single "Prends Pas Ton Flingue" (1978) also contains a French cover of an AC/DC song "Love at First Feel", renamed "Paris by Night" for the occasion...


Zoo - Hard Times, Good Times (1972)
Zoo have appeared before in volume 99, the violin special (link). They were a quirky band that had elements of psych, soul, prog and jazz but are not easy to describe, having a unique sound over all. They mixed violins and a brass section in with some-times hard rock, but at all times there was a sense of fun and unpredictability. Original vocalist Joël Daydé (also in this volume) had left to start a solo career by the time of the album from which I have taken the track here, the title track from their 1972 album. By now they had taken on English singer Ian Bellamy, to compete in a scene where they were sharing stages with the likes of Pink Floyd and The Nice.

By 1975, due to a lack of the success they had worked hard for, Zoo were finished. Brothers André Hervé (keyboards) and Michel Hervé (bass) started Z.O.U. with two further brothers Joel Hervé, Stephan Hervé, along with singer Maria Popkiewicz. After this André, Michel and Maria all had a spell in Magma.

Claude Harvey says: Zoo "Hard Times Good Times" is one of their best and heaviest albums. If you liked the eponymous track, check out the explosive opening heavy track "Captain"!

---------------------------------------------------------

Merci pour l'écoute!
Rich

Further listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 61:   Belgium special
The Day After The Sabbath 45:   First French special



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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The Day After The Sabbath 99: Isolation Waltz (violins)

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pass:  tdats



Welcome to The Day After The Sabbath volume 99, approaching the full century! This episode brings you heavy rock and prog that uses violins. Hearing that, some of you may be thinking of making a quick exit, expecting a lot of country and folk. While there is some classical and folk influence here, I have looked also for tracks where the riffs are rock-styled, but played on violins. Showing the international appeal of the instrument, this set includes a wide spread of nationalities, including the UK, The US, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and even Argentina.

What has the violin brought to rock music? It is certainly an instrument famed for conveying emotion, especially those of a maudlin or introspective nature. Conversely, one of the stirring qualities of violins is how they can promote speed and vitality. A versatile instrument indeed, with many available techniques like picking, bowing and strumming. Some violin runs are played so fast that they can compare easily to the most technical parts in progressive rock, or even the fastest of technical and thrash metal. Let's get fiddlin!

TRACKS
01. Saint-Preux - Le Gouffre Amer (1972)
       from album 'le piano sous la mer'
02. Sinto - Things I See (1972)
       from album 'right on brother'
03. Darryl Way's Wolf - Isolation Waltz (1973)
       from album 'canis lupus'
04. Asgærd - In The Realm Of Asgard (1972)
       from album 'in the realm of asgaerd'
05. It's a Beautiful Day - Creed Of Love (1971)
       from album 'choice quality stuff / anytime'
06. Esperanto - The Duel (1974)
       from album 'danse macabre'
07. Ñu - Profecia (1978)
       from album 'cuentos de ayer y de hoy'
08. Jud's Gallery - Catch The Fly (1972)
       from album 'swf-sessions volume 1'
09. Joe Soap - Get Out From Under (1973)
       from album 'keep it clean'
10. Zoo - Four Strings (Single version) (1972)
       from album 'i shall be free'
11. Raymond Vincent - Do It Now While You Can (1972)
       from album 'metronomics'
12. Miguel Cantilo y Grupo Sur - La Leyenda del Retorno (1975)
       from album 'miguel cantilo y grupo sur'
13. String Driven Thing - Heartfeeder (1973)
       from album 'the machine that cried'

references


le piano sous la mer'
Saint-Preux - 'le piano sous la mer'
The comp begins with an instrumental from the second Saint-Preux album. Saint-Preux (real name Christian Langlade - born 1950) is a composer of contemporary classical music and on his 1972 album he invited some guest musicians who added a hint of rock. On three of the tracks Claude Engel, who was in between stints of playing with Zeuhl legends Magma, played some great heavy guitar, and on Le Gouffre Amer (trans: “The Bitter Chasm”) it was accompanied by the violins of Michel Guyot and Patrice Mondon.


Sinto
Sinto - Right On Brother LP

We move on to Sinto. They were a German (München) fusion band fronted by jazz violinist Hannes Beckmann that started in 1971. They included members of krautrockers The Rattles (see Vol49), Embryo and Between. With a diverse mix of ethnicities in the band, German to African to Cuban members that Hannes met while playing in a Brazilian ballet orchestra, they made fast music with the violin taking a leading role in the riffs. “Things I See” is a great example with it’s violin shredding right up front.

Darryl Way
Violinist Darryl Way was a founding member of UK prog band Curved Air. His post-CA band “Darryl Way's Wolf” included drummer Ian Mosley who was later a member of UK 'neo prog' band Marillion, and guitarist John Etheridge who went on to join Soft Machine. Wolf made three albums of accessible prog, all lead by Way's considerable fiddling skills, and in the later '70s he made contributions on Jethro Tull's "Heavy Horses" and Gong's "Expresso II". Darryl has continued to make solo albums and his most recent was last year. This compilation's namesake, "Isolation Waltz", is noteworthy as Darryl plays a viola, which is larger than a violin and has a deeper sound. The constantly descending riff stomps it's way along to a heavy ending.

Asgaerd were one of the first bands to be signed by the Moody Blues' label Threshold. The "Asgard" of ancient North European mythology means 'castle of the gods'. The band consisted of guitarist/vocalist Rod Harrison (ex-Please and Bulldog Breed - see Vol74), vocalist James Smith and drummer Ian Snow (who were both in the excellent 'Stonehouse' - Vol29), vocalist Ted Bartlett, bassist Dave Cook and violinist Peter Orgil. One of Rod Harrison's songs, "Austin Osman Spare'', was actually recorded separately by Bulldog Breed and Asgaerd.

In The Realm of Asgærd LP (1972)
They released a 45 in 1972 containing 4 tracks, and then a year later Threshold produced their one and only LP, entitled "In the Realm of Asgaerd", which has been likened to the early sounds of US bands Kansas and Styx. The track I have selected, "In The Realm of Asgard", is an epic tale of Thor and Asgard, and the music matches this grandueur with a powerfully-orchestrated, sweeping progressive rock ballad.

It's a Beautiful Day
It's a Beautiful Day - David LaFlamme (L)
David LaFlamme was the violinist in It's a beautiful Day. Since then he's has a sideline career as a character actor "the Annoying Fiddler", appearing in Frazier, Ellen and Wings, among other shows, as the strolling musician who stands right at your table in a restaurant, sawing away on his violin. David grew up to be a soloist for the Utah Symphony.  After serving in the army he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and became an icon in the underground scene performing with people like Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin. After his short-lived Electric Chamber Orkustra, he joined It's a Beautiful Day in 1967. The their biggest hit was "White Bird" from the 1969 debut LP.

While being a very commercial sounding band, they rocked now and again, the best example being some tunes on side one of their third album called 'Choice Quality Stuff / Anytime". This is where "Creed Of Love" is taken from, David LeFlamme's roaring distorted violin sounds great over the funky riffs of guitarist Billy Gregory and the rest of the band.

Esperanto
Esperanto 
Esperanto was the band that followed on from the earlier solo efforts of violinist Raymond Vincent, who's background will be filled in later when his track appears. His band Esperanto was a unique and complex symphonic prog band but that description does not do them service as they don't really sound like anything else I know. Their music is accessible but displays great technicality, with strings always at the forefront and musicianship to compare to any of the progressive greats of the '70s, as "The Duel" deftly shows. The track effortlessly turns on a dime from totally manic layered strings to enigmatic interludes with the ethereal backing vocals of Brigette Du Doit. The full-frontal violin attack is performed by no less than three fiddlers, with Tony Harris and Godfrey Salmon backing up Raymond Vincent.

Cuentos de ayer y de hoy
Cuentos de ayer y de hoy LP
Ñu started in Madrid in 1974, and had an adventurous outlook, incorporating flute, violin and folk influences into hard rock that had a hint of Sabbath heaviness too. On the first album, 1978's "Cuentos de ayer y de hoy"  (Trans: "Stories of Yesterday and Today"), from which I have used the opener 'Profecia', the violinist credited is Frenchman Jean François André. He is also credited on the second Ñu LP, after which it seems he left the band. Unfortunately he died in 2002.

Carlos Molina José
Carlos Molina José
The band still performs but with just one founding member, singer/flute player Carlos Molina José. In their early years the band's progress was stifled by label problems and other difficulties of maintaining a rock band in Spain at the time. I used an earlier Ñu single on the first Spanish comp (Vol39) and since then have discovered that the original guitarist Rosendo Mercado was annoyed to find he'd been replaced after returning to the band from military service in 1977, so he quit and formed Leño, another great Spanish band that I used on Vol39.

Ñu - Jean François André
The track 'Profecia' is a stunner, sounding like Tull and Sabbath on stage together. Alas, by all accounts, Ñu did not make another album like this and although becoming technically better they lost the heaviness on record and became a vehicle for Carlos Molina José. For their recent re-appearances however, their image seems to be cashing in on the huge heavy metal market that now exists.

Jud's Gallery
Jud's Gallery
We pass the halfway mark now and move on to some krautrock. Jud's Gallery came from Offenburg near Strasbourg. They formed in 1971 as a vehicle for singer/bassist Jürgen "Judy" Winter, with a revolving door line-up. During their three plus year history only one other member, guitarist Peter Oehler, was constant. The only music available is an archival release from Longhair records, which collects sessions that were recorded at Southwest German SWF Radio (now SWR) in Baden-Baden, 1972.

An interesting side story regarding this band is that Jurgen Winter successfully sued Gary Moore for plagiarism, accusing him of copying the guitar solo from their "Nordrach" track and using it on his 1990 hit "Still Got The Blues". The justification for this claim was that Gary's roadie, live-mixer and good friend at the time William Hindmarsh, did work with Jud's back on live shows in the seventies.

The Jud's Gallery violinist was Hannes Greminger, he was also in a band called Open Voice which made an album in 1984. On 'Catch The Fly' he does an amazing job of creating all kinds of spacey sounds over the band's hard krautrock, with different techniques like picking, this tune is a real trip.

John Tennent and David Morrison
Tennent & Morrison
Joe Soap
On to some more conventional rocking with a Stonesy number from Joe Soap. This band was a project of singer/guitarists John Tennent and David Morrison, who had released an album the year before as the duo 'Tennent & Morrison', which included a lot of musicians from Stone the Crows. Along for the ride came guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (Thunderclap Newman, Stone The Crows, Wings), violinist Mik Kaminski (ELO), drummer Gerry Conway (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, The Pentangle) and Jeff Pearce on bass.

The folk influences from some of this impressive lineup come through, but mostly the album is upbeat, fun and immediately likable rock, and rock it does in many places. Mik Kaminski's violin is not mainly at the forefront, but grooves away in perfect unison with McCulloch's cocky riffs to make it impossible to sit still listening to tracks like "Come Out From Under", which integrates the violin in a similar way to East of Eden on tracks like "Northern Hemisphere" (See Vol74).

Zoo - Hard Times, Good Times
single (1972)
Zoo was a quirky band that had elements of psych, soul, prog and jazz but is not easy to describe, having a unique sound over all. They mixed violins and a brass section in with some-times hard rock, but at all times there was a sense of fun and unpredictability. Original vocalist Joël Daydé ('68-'70) had left to start a solo career by the time of the album from which I have taken the instrumental here, "Four Strings". By now they had taken on English singer Ian Bellamy, to compete in a scene where they were sharing stages with the likes of Pink Floyd and The Nice. The violinists on Four Strings were Daniel Carlet and Michel Ripoche, and they battle it out over some heavy prog-jazz from the rest of the band.

By 1975, due to a lack of the success they had worked for, Zoo had been finished for a while. Brothers André Hervé (keyboards) and Michel Hervé (bass) started Z.O.U. with two further brothers Joel Hervé, Stephan Hervé, along with singer Maria Popkiewicz. After this André, Michel and Maria all had a spell in the afore-mentioned Magma.

Raymond Vincent
Raymond Vincent
The Belgian violinist Raymond Vincent appears twice in this volume, firstly as part of Esperanto, and here with a track from his solo album 'Metronomics'. Before both these efforts he was in the London-based Belgian pop troup "Wallace Collection". After WC split he played for a short period with Dany Lademacher and Roger Wollaert (who had both left Kleptomania), then with Waterloo's Dirk Bogaert. See the Belgian Vol61 to hear all three of these bands.

Metronomics
Metronomics LP
Metronomics was to signal the sound that he and keys man Bruno Libert would take further with Esperanto. Unusually, Metronomics was funded by, and used to promote, an alcoholic drink called Izarra, which is a popular sweet liqueur in French Basque Country and elsewhere in Europe. Metronomics is generally upbeat, and often likened to the Cantebury prog sound. "Do It Now While You Can" has lots of frantic fiddling, which is put through various effects and sounds really cool.


Miguel Cantilo y Grupo Sur
LP
Nearing the end now and the penultimate track is from an album called “Miguel Cantilo y Grupo Sur” (trans: Miguel Cantilo and South Group). The first thing that struck me about it was the mesmerising psychedelic cover art. Something with a cover like that, from Argentina in 1975, was bound to be at least interesting. I wasn't disappointed, and I was surprised that the album doesn't seem to be one of the more talked-about from Argentina, a country with a great reputation for kick-ass ‘70s rock.

Miguel Cantilo
Miguel Cantilo & ‘El Bolsón’
commune
Band leader Miguel Cantilo had been around since the ‘60s, starting out in a pop duo called “Pedro y Pablo” and continues to make music to this day. In 1975 he released the album that he was unable to realise while in the duo, making bombastic rock that he says was influenced by Led Zep and Deep Purple. As the LP’s inner sleeve pictures show, Miguel was involved with a Patagonian hippie commune called ‘El Bolsón’ at the time, and there are also lots of communally-sung folk tunes that seem to fit the imagery. In reality, only the last three tracks really rock out, but they are great! The track I have chosen, “La Leyenda Del Retorno” is one of those. It begins in rip-roaring fashion with the violin-lead riff right up front, starting as it means to go on and it does indeed have the bravado of an immediate Deep Purple track like Speed King. It reminds me strongly of another album from Argentina, "Miguel Abuelo & Nada", which I used a track from on the Latin Vol43. The Argentinian violinist was Jorge Pinchevsky. Just after this he would join Gong (there's that name again) during their Shamal LP era.

String Driven Thing
String Driven Thing - Heartfeeder LP inside
String Driven Thing is a well-known folk rock band, possibly a little too much so for TDATS, but this tune is perfect as a closer for the set. It is a dark, emotional and powerful track. The reason for this is said to be that it was written by leader Chris Adams while he was in hospital, recuperating from surgery for a collapsed lung, during which he says he was conscious while the surgeon was drilling into his breast plate.

The violinist of String Driven Thing is Graham Smith, who was also in a brief incarnation of Van der Graaf Generator simply called ‘Van der Graaf’, and contributed on the UK folk-prog Greenslade album “Spyglass Guest”.

Taken from the band’s third album, our closing track is called ‘Heartfeeder’, and that was what Chris intended the name for the album to be too. It is a harrowing track, that uses the skills of Graham Smith to beautiful, emotional effect with the ever-longing pathos of the violin. Unfortunately the record label were not happy with the disturbing direction that the music had taken compared to previous work, and the LP's title was changed to “The Machine That Cried”. They also insisted that the longer track's play times were edited down. There is an interview with Chris Adams and Graham Smith here at psychedelic baby webzine: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/01/string-driven-thing-interview.html


Thanks for listening! Rich


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