|
GROSSO MODO PIERRE VERVLOESEM |
|
1: Hairdressers Go Home (05.01) Vervloesem is living proof that great Prog/Fusion is still alive and well in Europe. Belgium is the home to this band of musicians and has the quirky and powerful appeal of many of the great bands that would have once been labelled EuroRock. Henry Cow, Magma, King Crimson and Hatfield & The North spring most readily to mind, but wait there's more! Opening track "Hairdressers Go Home" kicks in with such a rocking lilt it's fuzzed bass having the trademark appeal of Jannick Top at his best, Charles Hayward's drums are to the foreground as he rolls around with power. Precision and sheer menace. This reminds me very much of This Heat and in places Quiet Suns "Mainstream" album. Fans of the aforementioned bands will be pleased with this release, containing as it does much improvisation from the collected musicians. Track 3 "Anti Caking Agent" is a very heavy abrasive thrash/wall of sound that will assault your ears and senses showing well all that makes this combo such an interesting and refreshing concern. While I am finding many reference points I should also point out that there is more than enough originality to go around. Vervloesem's guitar shrieks and sustains with what sounds to me like a twin bass track embedded in fuzz, just about everything (and probably includes the kitchen sink) seems to be thrown into the mix. Original and refreshing in a disciplined albeit chaotic arrangement. NOT for the feint-hearted. "Amazing Grease" (you gotta love these titles), has some very odd domestic sounds (samples?) and grows into a peaceful reflection through Vervloesem's guitar and Vandenberghe's electric piano figures. Perfect antidote to the preceding track. "Have You Seen Me?", sounds almost totally improvised and has the ensembles signature sound again partnered with a guitar sound that put me in mind of Zappa, complete with freak-out frenzy. "The Terrible Rage Of The Shy" has a funky backbeat, although nothing is safe here either. Vervloesem's off-kilter and wailing guitar lines give the track an eerie atmosphere, crazy sound effects pepper the opening few bars, cheap sounding keyboards patches reminded me of talking Heads/Tom Tom Club. Almost a strange trip through a demented fair ground, just as it gets really weird, the track gets pulled back in line, before spinning back 'Out there'. Imagine for moment thinking mans Dub, and you will not be a million miles away. "Full Metal Carpet" is just that a heavy pounding track that could show some metallurgists out there a thing or two about being really heavy, and incorporate a clarinet without losing the thread. I have found myself playing this album many, many times and still find new twists and turns within the tight and intense arrangements to make me evaluate it again in a different light. But Vervloesem has produced a fine album that will satisfy your thirst for the more bizarre end of Progressive rock, and a welcome addition to the long line of influences Vervloesem carries on his sleeve with complete confidence. Influences that are not a homage but have truly inspired a unique and satisfying album, not without a sense of humour either which is refreshing. Aided and abetted with an excellent band of musicians, which shine on the CD's longest track "Nobody's Listening Anyway", an epic of tight, improvisation and betas, jazz, avant garde, you name it, stunning truly stunning! Recommended!! Review by Chris Christou
|