As we all know (absolutely every single one of us), much of what's persistenly weirdo in progressive rock seems to somehow emannate in France. They started off (post-Gainsbourg, Brassens, Ferré et al.) by handing Soft Machine the annual prize from L'Academie Francaise for Volume Two in 1969 (an album ca. thrice as altogether radical than the debut King Crimson), then proceeded to generate such firmly bizarro acts as Ame Son, Fille Qui Mousse, Red Noise, Coeur Magique, Gong, Komintern, Igor Wakhevitch, Maajun, Lard Free, Moving Gelatine Plates, Catherine Ribeiro et Alpes, Travelling, Catharsis, Wapassou etc.
This was also the cultural mentality which triggered an imagined 'market' for conceptual pinnacles like Gerard Manset's La Mort D'Orion, Jean Claude Vannier's L'Enfant Assasin des Mouches, Ilous & Decuyper and the legendary Melody Nelson album by Serge Gainsbourg himself, not to mention the whole endeavour that was Magma and their Zeuhl following.
Then, when nearing the end of the decade, French Weirdo produced fringe attachments in the shape of Albert Marcoeur, Etron Fou Leloublan, Philippe Besombes, ZNR (Zazou & Racaille), Heldon/Pinhas, Flamen Dialis, Art Zoyd, Mosaïc, Forgas, Pascal Comelade, Pataphonie, Vortex, Art Moulu Trefin, Dün, and countless others - most if not all of them dedicated through motivations of originality and idiosyncracy more than blandly following heel on someone tracking before them.
Today this 'alternative' vision of what could probably or arguably be deemed progressive contemporary rock lingers on down there, prompting artists to seek a musical language and identity through effervescent flushes of sincere and non-conformist, non-limiting self-insights of oddbally nature.
So I'll be taking in Jack Dupon, Ghost Rhythms, Ulan Bator, Rien, PoiL, Aquaserge, Ni, Rhûn, XhohX (half Belgian, I know), Syrinx, Stabat Akish, Caillou, Vialka, Camembert, Jac Berrocal, We Insist!, Scherzoo, Sebkha-Chott, Alco Frisbass, Athanor, Jean Louis, Unit Wail and maybe more.
It's gonna smash.
Bookmarks