C'ÉTAIENT DE TRÈS GRANDS VENTS

Zeuhl Music ? Of course not. This record is only dark and freak noises. Maybe "Avant-Garde" music but boring one. I can't feel with this record that I feel with reel Zeuhl Music. Fan of gore and Lovecraft's creatures this record is for you (not for depressed people !).

3.5 stars really!!!

This album is the proof that Musea record was an adventurous label right from the start, not just re-issuing 70's albums or releasing early 90's French neo-prog, but to have taken a chance on such an incredibly dark and experimental album is quite a feat in itself.

This is probably one of the most slowly moving album included in the archives (a sort of Univers Zero meets Henry Cow or Art Zoyd) , but it has a sort of solemnity that makes it unique in its genre. The music is never truly dissonant, never truly abstract, and never really "concrete" and that is really its strengths as this unlikely quintet (actually two drummers were used in this album) is using a trombone as one of its lead instrument if not the only one. Sounds intriguing? Even after a few listens, the album still holds a mystery and a sort of fascination that makes you hang on to the end even if this kind of music is not your cup of tea. Actually, to the end is maybe is one too far, as everything that I told you about this album holds for all tracks until the last one when this one actually breaks all the rules set for the previous tracks. This last track is called (in English) It Was Very Big Winds Indeed, and it might give you an idea of what a hurricane might sound like if you were stuck in the middle of it , with almost every stage represented even with the calm of the eye of the storm passing over your head in the quieter moments of the tracks. The rest of it is pure mayhem.

Not the easiest album, but if ever your nosy and daft neighbour wants to invade your living room trying to get acquainted better, you might want to give him a listen at "your favourite album" (this one) , and the man will surely get the urge to mow his lawn for the second time today. Mission accomplished , this album is an excellent pest-repeller and should be always be kept next to the fly-tox. Accessorily it might also fit in your RIO collection if the mood sets you for this kind of music ;-)

The second "not-only-in-cassette" album of this French adventurous band having such kind of Lovecraftian name. Compared to their first great album Les Morts Vont Vite this one seems unfortunately a bit "unfinished" and not very "monumental". We can listen seven "slowly-moving trips to hell" with dark and "looking-for-something"-sounds. This music sounds fortunately more interesting than usual rock band because of using trombone and harmonium here. In addition we can listen female "dramatic" vocals in one tune as well. 3,5 stars really!

Zeuhl ? Make it avant-garde.

I applaud Musea for releasing this album, first of all. It is as anti-commercial as an album can get. And that is even in a anti-commercial scene. Unfortunate, this album is not in the same standard as their self titled demo (later re-released on CD as Introduction) and their genre defining debut album Les Morts Vont Vite. Only Promethee falls within the Zeuhl genre here with some dark vocals. The rest of this albums varies between dissonant avant-garde and Tibetan monks dissonant trombone use.

So, why do I think this is a good album ? First of all, Shub Niggurath manages to create a dark, dark place with this album. The mood is the likes of total damnation no black metal bands has ever managed to replicate. Welcome to hell.

The use of trombone and harmonium throughout this album is excellent. So is the drums and the bass. This album is nowhere near a Zeuhl album and is clearly on the avant-garde end of the avant-garde genre. But I still think this is a good album. But it is nowhere near as good as both the demo and the brilliant Les Morts Vont Vite album. But give it a try, anyway.

3 stars

The first question I asked myself when listening to this album was "does C'Étaient De Très Grands Vents possess "shubbage"? Does it take you to that dark and eerie realm where malevolent trombones batter you with their slides, and concepts like 'sunshine' and 'puppies' seem insane and from another dimension? The answer was 'yes'. This album has shubbage. I was suitably shubbed. Does that make this creation an automatic personal favorite, considering that their previous album is beyond incredible and the very essence of shubbage in which all other albums possessing some form of shubbage are measured against? Not really.

The creepy dissonance remains intact. The vibe is oppressive, lonely and dreary. This time, though, the structure is often lacking, causing the tunes to spread thin like a cloud. Without a base structure, some of these pieces sound like the band mistakenly recorded themselves tuning their instruments and then stopped recording just before playing the actual song. Atmospheric but meandering.

That's not always the case. "D'un Seul Et Meme Souffle" has a melodic pattern, and it's amazingly dark. Music to conjure nightmares. Also, "Promethee" has signature vocals from their previous album to reel in the track to a cohesive tightness. As an entire opus though, it's quite difficult to listen to this album after a period of time...there's a lot of quiet moments that seem to drag on with no theme except possibly wandering a wasteland at night. As background music for a haunted house amusement ride, it has more than enough shubbage to be the most memorable aspect, disturbing adults while their kids look at themselves through warped mirrors. As a recommendation, it's good, but not the first place to start with this band. That would be Les Morts Vont Vite, which is shubtastic.

After the excellent debut Shub Niggurath are back with a work even more dark and evily than the previous one. It's ambient music, slowly progressing, with noisy accents.

"Glaciations" takes five minutes of ambient sounds similar to the darkest parts of Vangelis Heaven and Hell before becoming noisy and chaotic, with strings crying like somebody is killing them over a frenetic drum. When the drums stop we are in a realm of deadly bells with strings, guitar and trombone slowly dying. From the track title I think the music represents the extintion. And it does it very well.

"Ocean" is more grotesque. The guitar plays a major chord on which the other instruments build what apparently is chaos but is I think perfectly planned. The trombone is the lead instrument and the guitar crescendo seems to announce an emerging Cthulhu from the abyss. Effectively after a short pause the second part of the track is heavily and evily chaotic. A sonic tsunami. Like a tsunami, when the chaos is gone what remains is desolation, for the last 20 seconds of the track.

"Promethee " (or Prometeus) has lyrics. It's incredible how Sylvette Claudet sings with her soprano voice just a quarter of tone out of tune in order to increase the weirdness of the track. The impression is like a follow-up of the dark hymn to Yog-Sototh on their first album, but this time more than a hymn is an elegy.

"D'un Seul Et Meme Souffle" (A single identical breathe) is again very cemeterial. One has to be in the right mood for this music, but this time the link to classical music is more evident. Even with fulfilled of darkness I hear a bit of Stravinskij. It's classical contemporary more than Zeuhl. The album's highlight. "La Nef De Fous" (The Ship Of Fools) is a chaotic crescendo over a heavily distorted bass, like in death metal. Differently from the other tracks this has a jazz mood with a touch of psychedelia. The chaos of this track is not too different from the most acid Floyd.

"Contrincante" start with trombone and bass. A bit of relax after all the chaos, but the sounds are sinister and one can expect everything. Some bass passages appear to be melodic, surely a mistake of the bassist...the guitar joins and now we have three instruments apparently going on their own, but this is jazz, I can't tell what chord they play, but they are playing on the same chords.

The title track closes the album with the longest piece. It starts with percussions and noises just enhanced by trombone and bass. After a couple of minutes Edward Perraud shows what he can do with drums: a jazz base on which the other instrumentists put their dark effort. The track takes about 6 minutes to become more chaotic, thanks to the distorted bass, but it's the drums which lead it until the end, with the guitar crying pain on the high pitches. The last minutes are a return to the ambient of the first track.

A step back respect to the debut but still a good album for who likes spending some time in the hell.

I don't think I'll ever fully get into Shub, but I can still appreciate what they manage to achieve. This album is dark, evil, ambient and concrete all rolled together.

Glaciations - 5 minutes of ambient dark sound before major drumming chaos and screeching strings before the bell tolls over a guitar tuning

Ocean - Lead by the trombone, dark and foreboding from the start, evoking imagery of a ghost ship floating in dark and still waters. Guitar slowly builds up, based on a single chord, with a sense that something dramatic is about to happen as it picks up pace and the trombone gets louder. Giant squid attack!! A battle ensues, signified by the drums and guitar crescendo. The ship is destroyed. Fade to black.

Promethee - Sylvette Claudet sings opera-style over dissonant percussive noise, consistently and deliberately ever so slightly out of tune to put you on edge.

D'un seul et même souffle - Not called 'The Seal and the Souffle'. Graveyard music. The Trombone from Hell. Again, ambient and evil.

La nef des fous - Just a bit of chaos

Contrincante - Sinister trombone and bass and irregular guitar plinking.

C'étaient de très grands vents - Starts off ambient and percussive for a couple of minutes before some nice drum rolls which sets a background for more dissonant and grating trombone and guitars

I'd pick out the first two tracks as good examples , but I could never say its anything other than 'fans only'