NOUS SAVONS TOUT

The final gasp of genuine progressive electronics from Space Art (before the band contracted the techno-pop virus of the 1980s) made a virtue of its Janus-faced stylistic schizophrenia. The A-Side of the single, "Nous Savons Tout" (translation: We Know Everything) was firmly aligned with the dance floor fads of the latter 1970s, but with a strength that bordered on psychotic aggression. Imagine Richard Pinhas of HELDON, flaunting gaudy platform shoes and flared bell-bottom pants, strutting his stuff at some heavy industrial discothèque, and you'll have a fairly accurate idea of its sound.

The flipside ("Mélodie Moderne") was another ball of wires entirely, looking backward to an era of synth-rock romanticism already disappearing below the event horizon of changing times. It's a lush, lyrical farewell to old-school symphonic keyboard artistry, but with the added impact of real drumming, and (thankfully) closer in style to the catchy Jarre- and Vangelis-influenced electronic prog of the band's first two underrated albums.

Space Art never quite reached its full potential, and I doubt their claim to being "Le Premier Groupe de Vulgarisation Scientifique" was anything more than a tongue-in-cheek PR motto. But on the evidence of these two sides of vinyl (mine is the extended 12" Maxi-Single) the band was more than capable of competing against a crowded line-up of better remembered synthheads.

[Consumer note: both cuts, but with an abbreviated version of "Nous Savons Tout", were included as bonus tracks on the 1997 CD re-issue of the Space Art album "Trip to the Center Head"]