Etron Fou Leloublan: Les Sillons De La Terre (Turbo)
I think I bought this at new at Tower Records in downtown Manhattan
A lot's happened since I last checked in. I don't need to write about most of it. My daughter's birthday was Monday, that eclipses most things globally.
I guess this album had been on my mind to spin, another "comfort music" choice from my younger days. This was a band I probably read about in Op magazine, an essential zine from the 80s covering independent music. Lost Music Network's OP (LMNOP). There were 26 issues, each thematically for each letter of the alphabet, though not limited to the theme. Op, on its dissolution, broke into two factions: Sound Choice (the more radical and shorter lived spin off) and Option (the more commercial byproduct, still ultimately doomed). I subscribed in the last year or two of Op, even had an Op tshirt.
Somewhere....maybe in Op?...I read a description of Etron Fou Leloublan as being being like Captain Beefheart with all of the blues drained from it. That's not far from the mark. The music is jerky and twists, but also grooves at times. I might have guessed they were French without listening to the vocals. Without understanding a word of French, I get a sense that it's a bit on the absurd side.
The lineup on this album is a quartet (bass/voice, saxophone, organ/vocals, drums), though an earlier live album is saxophone/bass/drums. My favorite configuration. The center of this band is clearly Ferdinand Richard, the bassist/vocalist. He often strums the bass chordally, which in part defines the sound of this band.
This was the first album by this band I heard, which is probably in part why I enjoy it the most. For as much as I like my saxophone/bass/drums trios, organist Jo Thirion adds an additional layer to this band sonically, as well as putting a female voice into the mix.
I suggest you find this album and I ask one thing: is this prog rock? I mean, such labels are limiters, not expanders. In some ways this is stripped down like punk rock, and yet the music is no less complex than most Yes songs, sometimes moreso. The execution is tight, this was a great playing band.
Maybe, when I checking over every prog rock recording I could lay my hands on as a high schooler, this was what I was actually looking for.
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