LE JOUR OÙ LES VACHES...

After EB's stunning debut album, where the album's cornerstone was based on a remake of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, overseen by Arlo himself, EB's second album is a rather different piece of music miles away from its predecessor, yet many of the facets of that album are still somewhat evident here. Of course, it's been well over three years since the debut album, but Le Jour Où Les Vaches. (the day where the cows.) is such a change that one has to wonder where EB got his musical paws into. EB's vocal style reminds me of beat poets such as Pete Brown and others, which of course necessitates a fairly good command of the French language to get the essence of this album, but you would still find the album rather interesting even if you know one single French word. This album's incredible music is much owed to the strings, arranged by one of Chanson Française's master in the genre, William Sheller, having often arranged Aznavour's superb strings.

It's rather amazing that in 74, EB was right on the dot in predicting the planet's woes, even offering a prophecy of soooo many kg of CO2 versed by your car's engine into our atmosphere some 35 years before it did become a preoccupation. Where EB goes wrong is he figures that mankind will have worried about this in the early 90's, when it wasn't too late. With two ex-Alice members and violin player Ripoche, Booz had chosen some of the best back up musicians, but by having singer extraordinaire William Sheller not only playing piano, but orchestrating the album, EB strikes gold, and adds a great choir section for a memorable (but unfortunately sole) intervention. While the opening side of this concept album had a Zeuhlian feel, the flipside has a more symphonic rock with plenty of strings, but even deeps in opera.

The album starts with a monologue about parental alienation in the first two tracks, then the album plunges into a spacey Zeuhl-type of music (Réveillons-Nous), as if Gong and Magma were sharing the same stage. But the gloomy lyrics sung in a sinister almost declamating tone make the album closer to Vander's tribe and ends fairly abruptly. With a child opening the stunning and grandiose Donne (give), EB takes a completely different dimension, a vast symphonic one where Booz sings like another rare (but outstanding) poet Gerard Manset (and a tad of Tim Buckley), which already is awesome, but with the absolutely delicious strings below enhancing the depth (excellent dramatic drum rolls from Doudou "Alice" Weiss) of the whole track. . The following "Je Ne Peux Pas Te Dire" (can't tell you) and "L'homme au milles clés" are both a bit in the same style, but there is an unsettling madness creeping in the lyrics and vocals, but also musically as the track slowly evolves from symphonic to crescendo to near chaos, which never comes as EB chooses to fade out. Angoulème (a mid-Southwest provincial city) and the title track are still different yet both enjoy Sheller's gifted string arrangements. The closing 8-minutes pastoral Nous Les Enfants (we, the children), starts with Hackettian guitar arpeggios, before soon going operatic, before veering paranoiac ala Buckley-style: you can just feel EB's thick layer of angst-laden madness into the closing section.

It's also amazing that EB's albums are still lacking a proper Cd reissue, and the fact that EB's vinyls are starting to command hefty prices, which is a pure shame because Booz's works merit a full and easily accessible exposition to find its much-deserved spot in the sunshine. Even if your French is not good, this album shouldn't be a deterrent, as the music is astoundingly beautiful, therefore not losing too much, because there isn't another album coming close to this album's strange universe. With your eyes closed.

A bit overlooked,Emmanuel Booz was a French poetic singer/songwriter active around the 70's.He released his first solo album in 1969 entitled ''Au restaurant d'Alice'', based on the obscure work ''Alice's Restaurant'' by Arlo Guthrie from 1967.His second one was a different beast,released in 1974 on Atlantic Records and entitled ''Le jour où les vaches''.For this album Booz was helped by three Alice members, bassist Alain Suzan, drummer Alain "Doudou" Weiss and guitarist Paul Semama along with ex-Zoo violin/sax player Michel Ripoche with also Michel Coeuriot on keyboards and William Sheller on piano.

Starting with a spoken monologue by Booz,the short second track will give an idea for what is going to come with its Zeuhl-ish pounding bass,the dark choirs and the orchestral strings.From this point on begins a haunting journey into Emmanuel Booz'es unique world,a combination of melodramatic theatrical rock with Classical Music and complex Zeuhl.Much- vocal driven,the compositions are based on the thrilling voice of Booz,mixed with a variety of orchestral arrangements in a Classical manner, featuring a mass of string and wind instrumental passages,including the nice violin work of Ripoche.This obscure sound is pretty often supported by his rockin' buddies: A frenetic guitarist like Semama, a strong bassist like Suzan and a furious drummer like Weiss.The tracks have mostly a poetic magic under Booz'es alternating chords,a couple of them still carry the singer/songwriter trademark of the artist with light organ,acoustic guitars and choirs,but the music goes pretty much in a very theatrical and dark mood,with Sheller's arrangement on the last and longest operatic ''Nous les enfants'' being the best example.

Not everybody's cup of tea,''Le jour où les vaches'' was a pretty daring step by Booz,for most of its time very succesful but be warned for this is much of an artistic work than a Progressive Rock one.An excellent find for the mystified and strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

I wonder if Emmanuel likes to drink ? Sorry someone had to say it. My only experience with Booz (the musician) was his final release from 1979 which is a highly rated affair. The problem was I just couldn't get into it at all. So yes my expectations for this 1974 album were quite low. Well was iIever left surprised and impressed with this one. The atmosphere and mellower sections are contrasted so well with the powerful sections, plus the compositions are fantastic. Just a killer album.

"Samedi 15 Decembre" is a short spoken word intro before "Esperence" takes over with the bass out front as it builds. Horns too in this one but it's way too short. So good. "Reveillons-Nous, Reveillez-Vous" has spoken words to start with some interesting instrumental work. Horns, bass and a beat are prominant. It turns intense 3 1/2 minutes in. "Donne" opens with a child's voice which is replaced by strings, which are replaced by reserved vocals and acoustic guitar. The vocals become theatrical and the sound more powerful. Nice. Check out how the drums build after 3 1/2 minutes. Vocal melodies and chants here too. Amazing sound. "Je Ne Peux Pas Te Dire" has sparse piano and fragile vocals along with bass. It's building after 2 minutes. Great sound a minute later as a beat kicks in.

"L'Homme Aux Mille Cles D'or" is uptempo with passionate vocals. "Angouleme" opens with acoustic guitar as reserved vocals join in. Nice. It does get fuller with violin and drums. Great track. "Le Jour Ou Les Vaches" has vocals, drums and organ standing out early. Powerful stuff. It does setle back with vocal melodies joining in. "Nous Les Enfants" ends it and this is the most unmelodic track and the longest. It's mellow early with vocals and some flute. Theatrical vocals and strings after 3 minutes.

A very solid 4 stars for this one. I'm looking forward to spending more time with Booz in the future.

Emmanuel Booz's debut album was a completely different story than it's follow up "Le Jour où les Vaches...", the music was purely acoustic more in the vein of Bob Dylan or Arlo Guthrie whom he tributed and did a full cover of his most known work Alice's Restaurant, taking up the whole first side, in spite of that it didn't come to me as a shocking surprise of how good this album is, since i could see how talented this guy was, judging by the second side of his debut consisting of original songs. 5 years have past since his debut and that was enough time for him to grow as a musician and a writer, surrounding himself with great musicians Emmanuel Booz has managed to create an amazing album filled with beautiful catchy compositions, great amount of sensibility and overall a good mix between folk rock and progressive rock.

What strikes me the most are the impeccable beautiful orchestrated arrangements done here, taking a quick look of the line up on the album, it's not quite surprising since William Sheller is there by Emmanuel's side taking care of arrangements and playing the piano, Sheller already known for his mix between classical and pop music fits here like a glove and taking Booz's compositions to a higher level, quite resembling George Martin's work with the beatles, truly the work of a genious. The music is symphonic classical orchestrated with no signs of jazz in sight, mixed with eclectic prog and some zehul characteristics. The atmosphere is mostly dark, and always serious it can move through different mood changes, from mellow and quiet to very disturbing and intense, the orchestra is also very varied in style, since it's a big part of the music it can caress with lush symphonic violins or be very creepy and disturbing, phenomenal stuff really. Booz is also varied in his vocals and in his approach reminding me of Tim Buckley, he is doing a great job, very passionate vocals fusing some opera like vocals done by additional vocalists. The music is filled with delicious ideas coming to life with various instruments like horns, violins and more making this all quite interesting and progressive but still mainting a song format, it's always haunting using tension build up and some theatrical elements, i swear sometimes i feel like i'm watching a show. Drums, bass, guitar and some vocals are done by the members of other french band Alice which by that time was close to disband and was only participating in other projects such as this and Alpes for example. Guitar is never heavy but quite subtle, it appears here and there without going to the front but still enjoyable. Production is good and as opposed to other attempts to mix orchestra and a rock band here it doesn't come sounding far off. I very much like the fact that the songs are different from each other, sometimes the orchestra is in the front leading the song and sometimes it's in the back filling out. It is quiet at times but even in those moments you can feel the madness awaits you just around the corner.

Emmanuel Booz took a giant leap here and presented us with a well crafted album that would appeal to many fans of progressive rock across few genres. Vocals are of course in french but certainly that shouldn't bother anybody, since it fits perfectly with the music. I am really tempted to give this the 5 star, but i'm holding my self back, so it's actually 4.3 stars for this masterfull work.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

I studied french for three years, back in school. However, those three years gave me fragments of understanding the language. Listening to music in other languages than english is challenging, if you really want to know the content of the lyrics, but personally I find that's not all that important. Listening to Emmanuel Booz "Le jour óu les vaches" I'm struck by the way he delivers his lyrics, obviously very important to him. That alone is intriguing. The music is what really matters. Emmanuel Booz delivers an angry sort of prog, presumably (in some cases) about the enviroment. The music is quite intricate, if not too avant-garde. I found it to be appealing at an instant. In short it's an album full of good, lovely music which deserves to be heard and appreciated. Great album, which surely is worth 3,5 stars!