EGARÉS

The fourth installment in the universe of French zeuhl / heavy avant-proggers UNIT WAIL offers surprises for the first time in the band's complex and noisy career. Escaping the colorful psychedelic album cover art that the previous album "Beyond Space Edges" offered, UNIT WAIL once again reengages the black and white abstruse business of the album covers that began its career. ÉGARÉS has numerous meanings in French ranging from lost, missing, distraught and wild-eyed to simply referring to an ashtray! However i think the definition that fits best is "haunted" as UNIT WAIL's musical approach has always taken on a spookier than average mix of sonic experiments designed to startle and titillate as well as just pummel your senses with unceasing chaos and discord.

There has been a major disruption of the band at this point with ex-Shu-Niggurath founder Franck Fromy being relegated to a mere two tracks (designated merely as the soloist) on the album with keyboardist and main songwriter Vincent Sicot-Vantalon picking up the vacant guitar slot only not really performing up to Fromy's high energy standards. In addition ÉGARÉS finds the surprise addition of ex-Art Zoyd trumpet player Jean-Pierre Soarez The album features nine tracks that clock in at around 46 minutes and despite the continuation of the basically stylistic approach laid down on "Pangaea Proxima" which showcases the band's unique mix of Shub-Niggurath, Univers Zero, heavy 70s King Crimson varying traces of zeuhl inspired rhythms, ÉGARÉS is a noticeably less impactful album in relation to the excessive wildness the previous three efforts.

Noticeably absent are the excellent guitar contributions of Fromy and while Vantalon can get the job done as far as keeping the rhythmic aspects going, his forte clearly isn't in the guitar playing department. It's clear the band is giving it their all in crafting an album as worthy of soaking in as the previous three but the quality marker has clearly fallen a few notches despite a noble effort to spice things up with more clever moments of psychedelic keyboard events, moments of super funky bass and excursions into where the sonic textures of the trumpet can lead but none of it seems as satisfying as the unabashed noisy skronk-fest that constituted the band's first three albums. While not inherently bad per se, ÉGARÉS very much feels like a band that lost a key member and is grasping at straws in how to fill the void. Unfortunately the void wasn't filled. The album is noticeably tamer with less freneticism and more moments of just straight forward avant-prog moments. The guitar tones that Vantalon implements are also much softer and tame in comparison which makes the album feel like its lost that edge.

OK, i see that perhaps i had it all wrong and that the title ÉGARÉS actually refers to LOST after all as the band truly does sound like it lost some ground and is struggling to regroup. It could be that the band's formulaic run has simply run its course and Fromy lost interest as any particular band sound especially of the instrumental ilk does become stale after a while if considerable effort into reviving and infusing new creative efforts aren't pursued. On ÉGARÉS the members of UNIT WAIL seem like they're all basically performing business as usual and the moral has been upset in a major way. This is definitely the least compelling album of the band's four album run in their canon and more easily understood once it becomes clear of the crack in the chemistry that made UNIT WAIL an extremely well-oiled machine. It's an OK album that is perfectly listenable but in comparison to its predecessors seems like the band has lost its footing in many ways.