CARDEILHAC

Sole album from this proto-prog Swiss group, which came with a standard prog quartet plus a singer. Along with the bluesier Krokodil, Cardeilhac was one of the first Swiss progressive groups. From the looks of their names, they seem to be from the Latin part of the country but the group's name would hint a more Alemanic Swiss origin.

If you can picture The Nice or ELP with a heavy guitar (but not like The Nice's debut with O'List), you might get a good idea of what they sound like (and their drummer is called Balmer ;-), even if the strange alien B&W artwork is a bit misleading about the album's content. You can also think of Quartemass with a guitar (or for that matter many organ- driven hr'ad rock of the era), but in the end, it is keyboardist André Locher that gets the most exposure, and he's clearly the better musician in this group. Although the album is off to a poor start (the hard Pick Up Your Gun), it reaches fairly quickly cruising speed with a bunch of good tracks (but with perfectible vocals), but always remain fairly unrefined production-wise.

Not always fascinating (especially in the Emersonian moments), and with a few weaker tracks (the opening track and Nightmare come to mind), Cardeilhac remains acceptable for discerning fans to the two afore-mentioned groups. But I doubt you will be spinning this album often.

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