UPPSALA

One of the many French acts to follow in the footsteps of Magma but took the zeuhl style into strange new worlds, UPPSALA was formed in Bordeaux in 1976 after founder / guitarist Philippe Cauvin met bassist Danny Marcombe in 1974 and the two played together briefly in an experimental band called Musiques d'Ici. The band's name was a tribute to Sweden's Samla Mammas Manna who came from the Swedish city of UPPSALA. Cauvin had also been in the psychedelic rock band Absinthe (1969 - 1974) and glam rock act Papoose (1972 - 1973) both of which set the stage for what UPPSALA had to offer. After the duo met drummer Didier Lamarque, UPPSALA was born and existed for 10 years despite only releasing one official album and a later cassette only recording. A brief reunion also occurred in 1995.

Although the band formed as far back as 1976, it wouldn't be until 1984 that the first album was released. The pre-album years were dedicated to numerous rehearsals and live settings and by the time the band recorded its self-titled debut it was a well-oiled machine. Originally consisting of seven tracks at over 38 minutes playing time, the Musea reissue CD versions also featured three bonus tracks. UPPSALA developed a style of its own mixing zeuhl rhythms and falsetto vocal utterances with jazz rock and even Talking Heads inspired new wave. UPPSALA's varied ability almost makes the album seem like a completely different band at times with tracks like the opening "Algarade" clearly looking back to the 70s world of zeuhl and jazz fusion while others like "Coup de Folie" sounding like a more frenetic version of David Byrne and a funk-fueled 80s guitar pop band.

Unlike the serious nature of most zeuhl bands, UPPSALA was actually pretty whacky in a Frank Zappa type of way with silly vocal styles (especially over the top falsettos which do evoke the Samla Mammas Manna antics), strange guitar playing methodologies and crazy bursts of energy fortified with extra demanding time signature workouts. The album was actually recorded in 1980 but took required three years to find any label willing to release it. The band ultimately self-released on Cauvin's Ki Records label. While all the tracks are strange with references to Devo, 80s King Crimson, Talking Heads as far as new wave goes and of course Magma and jazz fusion acts of the 70s in terms of prog, the act was quite unique and didn't sound like any other band i can think of with perhaps the closest coming from another French band Super Freego who too engaged in the chimeric hybridization of 80s new wave with 70s prog.

The strangest track of all is the 13-minute track "Uppsala" (gotta love track names that are the same as the band and the album!) which tackles some of the strangest soundscapes on the entire album with seemingly meandering musical aimlessness in myriad directions but yet all held together by accessible fretless bass grooves and pockets of melodic developments that come and go. The three bonus tracks on the Musea releases are actually live recordings of the band's brief reunion in 1995 and although the band went for a more accessible style after the release of this debut album, these tracks are in the spirit of the freaky music presented on this 1984 release and encompass Musea's sales pitch of "a very original, devastating, powerful, and technically perfect music, with a lot of intensity and passion." These words ring true. Extreme in every way possible this band stretched the limits beyond the acceptability range of most traditional proggers.

A true noteworthy addition for any outsider weirdo music lover's collection, UPPSALA truly excelled at crafting a bizarre musical monster all its own. Perhaps the most idiosyncratic of all zeuhl bands, the music is clearly what any lovers of melodic prog would call a complete mess but if whimsy and brash deviations from the norm are what the doctor ordered then this one will surely offer some of the most outrageous displays of unconventionality. It's one of those albums you must surrender to and accept on its own terms as it demands you be sucked into its reality and absorb the new musical language being presented. While zeuhl itself was a wild deviation from the norm, it's amazing how so many bands that followed Magma found clever and unthinkable new ways of expressing the seemingly straightforwardness of its premise. Highly recommended for lover's of the difficult music section at the prog superstore.