VAK - Budo get your Zeuhl fix here !

[cannygoodlike]

Listening to this CD for the first time tonight (Xmas present!) and it's bloody great! Initial impression is that its vibe is at the Setna/Xing Sa end of Zeuhl, which is no bad thing in my book.

[NogbadTheBad]

Indeed it is superb, makes my top 5 on the year.

[Poisoned Youth]

Listening to this CD for the first time tonight (Xmas present!) and it's bloody great! Initial impression is that its vibe is at the Setna/Xing Sa end of Zeuhl, which is no bad thing in my book.

I prefer Setna to VAK (which isn’t a put down), but I had a similar reaction.

[Trane]

Listening to this CD for the first time tonight (Xmas present!) and it's bloody great! Initial impression is that its vibe is at the Setna/Xing Sa end of Zeuhl, which is no bad thing in my book.

I prefer Setna to VAK (which isn’t a put down), but I had a similar reaction.

If you draw a line between Setna's Guérison and VAK's Budo, you'll find that Scherzoo's 03 is halfway between them.

Which is why I'm fairly disappointed with 04. It's good in the line of 01 & 02, but a letdown after the hope 03 raised.

[NogbadTheBad]

Initial impression is that its vibe is at the Setna/Xing Sa end of Zeuhl, which is no bad thing in my book.

I prefer Setna to VAK (which isn’t a put down), but I had a similar reaction.

If you draw a line between Setna's Guérison and VAK's Budo, you'll find that Scherzoo's 03 is halfway between them.

Agree with all of this, I'm a big fan of the Xing Sa, Setna, VAK, Scherzoo area of zeuhl.

[Steve F.]

Agree with all of this, I'm a big fan of the Xing Sa, Setna, VAK, Scherzoo area of zeuhl.

Moi aussi!
Lucky us for attending the Soleil Zeuhl Fest in 2013 (?)

[NogbadTheBad]

Moi aussi!
Lucky us for attending the Soleil Zeuhl Fest in 2013 (?)

Indeed, Sept 18th 2013, Unit Wail, Neom, Scherzoo & Setna, that was some week including the RIO festival at the weekend. I was a bit burned out by the end of the day in Paris with 4 bands playing a similar groove (had a similar experience at my only ROSfest)

[Steve F.]

It was a whole lotta zeuhl going on for sure, and I had a similar reaction by the fourth band, but I’m still REALLY happy I got to see these four bands who I all like and who I would never have seen otherwise.
My memory is that I liked Unit Wail the least, but they were still quite good. And everything else was VERY good or better!

[NogbadTheBad]

My memory has my ranking as Setna, Unit Wail, Scherzoo & then Neom but they suffered from being last up rather than anything else. I remember Frank Fromy not being happy with his performance but I loved it.

[cannygoodlike]

If you draw a line between Setna's Guérison and VAK's Budo, you'll find that Scherzoo's 03 is halfway between them.

Interesting. I did get the first two Scherzoos but I haven't kept up with the later ones. Sounds like 03 at least might be right up my street.

[ashratom]

My 2 cents on Scherzoo. I really enjoyed the debut, but wasn't too enthralled with the second one (it's certainly good and I still own it though). I never heard 3, but plunked down for 04 on the basis that it was going to be more of a Canterbury affair. Here were my listening notes:

"When it was announced that Scherzoo 04 was to be a departure from their recent avant prog past, and rather more toward a traditional Canterbury sound, I pounced on the new album first chance. With a quartet that consists of two musicians focused solely on electric piano, organ, and mellotron, I had envisioned a Soft Machine II meets 'Nine Feet Underground' Caravan meets In The Court of the Crimson King. Fuzz organ, gymnastic meters, and lush mellotron. Bzzt. Nope. OK, time to get another beer and try this again...

So what do we have here then? Is it Canterbury at all? Yes, yes it is. The electric piano is the dominant instrument (both keyboardists are credited with it as primary), and the organ plays a key role in the melody lines. Mellotron is definitely relegated to cameo status. The music is quite pleasant, with excellent songwriting, and fine melodies. Most of the tones are played straight, so there's no raucous fuzz solos, or crazy time changes, though it's far from static. Every track is excellent in its own right, though there are no standouts either. It does take a couple of listens to penetrate through, so it takes patience to appreciate for certain. Something akin to Gilgamesh, but more exciting than that may imply.

Scherzoo - and band leader Francois Thollot - are tough to figure out. Thollot has a history that includes Heldon like fierce guitar/electronics, Zeuhl, avant prog, and now Canterbury. Would be most interesting to hear a combination of all the above. And I'm more than fine leaving the squonking sax of album #2 out of the picture, as they have done here."

[Udi Koomran]

I thought the Scherzoo show at the SZ fest was really good
The third one might be my favorite

I find Budo a huge leap forward compared to the debut

Whatever happened to Neom and especially Setna ??

While visiting Frank Fromy in september I heard some new demos and they sounded quite Progy heh heh - found out his favorite band is Gentle Giant
He needs to find some young musicians for his project
I contacted Anthony from Ni but apparently his is “very busy”

[Trane]

Whatever happened to Neom and especially Setna ??

we were hoping you could tell us about Setna (weren't they supposed to be recording with you?)

As for Neom, it's dead since Yannick and Carole joined Setna

Maybe we'll have a chance to ask Yannick at the RIO Fest, since he lives in Lyon and I can't see him not attending at least one afternoon.

[Udi Koomran]

[Udi Koomran]

[Dana5140]

That's good stuff!

[Yves]

Superb album!