SANS LES DENTS

Like many albums by this prolific French artist, Sébastien Gramond's 'Sans Les Dents' ('Without Teeth') is a very mixed bag of treats. On one hand, some of the instrumentation is more technical than anything I've thus heard from the man, but the songwriting often feels a bit rocky, and the sense of album flow even more so. Taking his 'eclectic' label to great lengths here, Gramond cycles through everything between Zeuhl and Elton John-esque piano ballads, creating an album that is throughly enjoyable and entertaining throughout, but a mess in terms of album structure.

From the first two tracks, one can tell that Gramond has really polished up his skills with instruments and recording them. With the keyboard as a note of particular praise, it feels like he really overcomes some of the larger problems facing a one man band and gives a well- balanced performance. It is the songwriting however that is somewhat less balanced. There are recurring musical ideas here like there are in most songs, but few of these take hold of any particularly inspired or powerful hooks. The strength of the music instead lies in how Gramond performs it, and the more experimental dives he takes here and there.

'Sans Les Dents' does feel like a cycle of different styles that would be familiar to many progressive rock fans. On 'Justification' for example, there are some Zappa inflections, and earlier in the album can be heard some of the wails and vocal swells that my ears automatically associate with Vander and the Zeuhl masters Magma. The album can be a very confusing listen when viewed as an entire album, but instead, 'Sans Les Dents' is best looked at as a collection of experiments by an artist focused on seeing how far and diverse he can stretch his musical imagination.