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LE RAT DÉBILE ET L'HOMME DES CHAMPS

Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes

Psychedelic/Space Rock


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Catherine Ribeiro  & Alpes Le Rat Débile Et L'Homme Des Champs album cover
3.94 | 26 ratings | 2 reviews | 19% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1974

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. La Petite Fille Aux Fraises (5:13)
2. L'Ère De La Putréfaction - Concerto Alpin En 4 Mouvements (13:00)
3. Un Regard Clair (Obscur) (4:47)
4. Poème Non Épique - Concerto Alpin En 6 Mouvements (Suite) (25:22)

Total time 48:22

Line-up / Musicians

- Catherine Ribeiro / vocals
AND
- Patrice Moullet / lyre, percussion
- Daniel Motron / Farfisa organ, piano
- Jean-Jacques Leurion / violin
- Gérald Renard / percussion, bass
- Denis Cohen / percussion, timbales

Releases information

Artwork: Victor Michel with Jean-Pierre Leloir (photo)

LP Philips ‎- 9101 003 (1974, France)

CD Mantra ‎- MANTRA 084 (1994, France)
CD Mercury Music Group ‎- 279 506-6 (2012, France)

Thanks to Sean Trane for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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CATHERINE RIBEIRO & ALPES Le Rat Débile Et L'Homme Des Champs ratings distribution


3.94
(26 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(19%)
19%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(62%)
62%
Good, but non-essential (8%)
8%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (4%)
4%

CATHERINE RIBEIRO & ALPES Le Rat Débile Et L'Homme Des Champs reviews


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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
4 stars CR&A's fifth album comes with a catastrophically realized artwork, even if the intention was good as the great title hints, but did they really have to put their faces on the front cover?!?! Anyway, based on a variation of Lafontaine rhyme of Rats Des Villes et Rats Des Champs (town rats and country rats), this album is probably the ultimate statement of CR&A as they openly invoke anarchy to counter the society of pollution. Although CR&A were not the first to have concerns on environment (Spirit with Nature's Way and Fresh Garbage), this is to my knowledge one of the first group to spread all over an album and in successive albums. This is of course relative when you know that Ribeiro was a musical industry singer before this group and will return to more conventional song formats after Alpes' gradual dismissal.

The opening Strawberry Girl is slight a mouth-watering starter for the more interesting stuff coming up, a bit of a zakouski before the first course and the main course. Built over a descending riff the first Poème Non Epique takes its sweet time developing, and it is well over the three-minute mark that Ribeiro starts her mad ramblings, and by the time of its almost 10 minutes length, the group has given you a royal run-around, but you wouldn't notice it much. Un Regard Clair (Obscur) closes the first side of the wax slice over another spacey jam (between Gong and Third Ear Band and Floyd) that bring not much new to the album's overall contents.

The second part of the Poème Non Epique is the real crazy one, clocking at 25 min+ of the full oeuvre. When Ribeiro is not singing/yelling revolution, the rest of the group is doing it over an Indian-raga background, with incredible violin guitar interventions. With over two decades of advance over most Europeans, three over Al Gore and four decades over the rest of the States, Catherine Ribeiro is claiming that violence might just be necessary to save the planet from asphyxiation. With heavy psych dramatics, grandiose finale, the band had developed a form of minimalist raga that in some ways could make you think of Third Ear Band

Not exactly an easily absorbed meal, this album will of course be better digested if a proper mastering of the French language, an affinity for anarchy, a certain "penchant" for ultra-left wing hippy communes (not communism) etc. But most adventurous progheads will love this upon the first listens, but whether any CR&A album stands repeated listens is something I'm not willing to bet. Ribeiro's superb voice is an acquired taste (it an rub the wrong way), her group is fairly repetitive and not exactly looking for complex arrangements, but not shying away from it either. Overall I'd say that progheads looking for intricate arrangements and complex rhythm patterns will not find their happiness, but the most adventurous ones will love the "fresh" (back then it was, it might also sound a little stale) approach to prog.

Review by Dobermensch
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This is the third of five superb albums in a row by Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes. Don't let the front cover put you off - it sounds nothing at all like it looks! If it wasn't for the 'Nurse With Wound' list I'd never have discovered this (or Magma, Franco Battiato and Taj Mahal Travellers come to think of it). Ribeiro has an astounding voice that sounds powerful in a Lisa Gerrard from 'Dead Can Dance' kind of way. Edith Piaf similarities are inevitable.

The band Alpes have a distinctive way of playing, sounding quite dark and sombre which suits Ribeiro's voice perfectly. All their albums sound very European. You'd never hear an album like this originating from the USA. It's really difficult finding any info. or footage of them in the 70's on 'You Tube' when they were undoubtedly at their peak, which is a shame. Anyway, this is a great album and well worthy of four stars

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