E = MC²

In the borders of mere good and becoming essential!

This 1976 Teddy Lasry, "E = MC² " is quiet hard to place and rate. Track 2 is its weakest point (it is kind of overly sweet), but the rest of the 7 song album are at least daring and proposing.

Well here I go! For starters even though it is post "Rubycon", it holds no resemblance neither to TD nor Schulze, which oddly is a rarity in this electronic category. People close to Magma and its mastermind, will feel Teddy Lasry's touch deeply and recognizable. He in fact has collaborated with Christian Vander, the mastermind mentioned above.

Perfectly installed in the progressive electronic movement, Lasry's 3th solo work, gets rid off the crutches he showed in his previous efforts. His attention to music rather than the humor or irreverence of his "artist" attitude, makes this work's songwriting fairly creative and more than once truly genial. Of course it is not humorless but the best musical figures come from very distant lands than there.

Shamelessly blending various musical styles, from african percussions to a very French version of electronic Jazz, going through highly progressive electronic synths and guitar counterpointings. He in fact can not hide his Steve Reich's micro-minimalism influences, nevertheless his personal abstract idiom, marks the line between mere ripping off and having been influenced by one of the top figures of the 21st. century's music.

****4 "the kind of prog/electronic album, that any progger can enjoy" PA stars.

3.5 stars. Teddy Lasry came from France, and from a musical family. His parents were in an experimental band that released many albums, with the first being in 1960. In fact Teddy would play on some of those beginning in the late sixties. Lasry also was a horn/flute player for MAGMA. Playing on their first three records before quitting and going solo. This 1976 release is one of Teddy's solo records, and many are tagged with Library music by RYM, including this one.

While Lasry does it all pretty much, he did get a drummer and a bass player to help out. The drummer is on two tracks, and that bass player happens to be Janick Top and he also plays on two tracks. Neither guest really stands out, rather they are part of the sound. It's a 38 minute record with 8 tracks. The opener and closer are really the same song with minimal keyboard sounds over 1 1/2 minutes. The intro and outro you could say. So yes, Lasry is all over this record playing clavinet, marimba, soprano sax, clarinet and adding electronics and effects.

While this album did grow on me, I really am on the fence with it. I didn't even like it at first, but after 4 spins I was feeling like it was actually pretty good. Still, it's too inconsistent for me to go 4 stars. The one song that stands out is "Quasar". A dizzying array of sounds on this one, but it's the last 2 minutes where the we get the best section of the whole album. They just step it up a notch, and it's great. "Earth" is another good one with a fair amount of piano.

It's odd that on the song "Nebular", before the 5 minute mark, we get sax coming out both speakers but playing different melodies. This happened with the piano on "Earth" as well. I'm not big on a lot of the high pitched electronic sounds on this record, like to start "Birth Of Galaxy" for example. And then "Birds Of Space" features chirping birds for over 3 1/2 minutes. Way too long! And even when we do get soprano sax like to start "Nonsense" it just sounds so old school. It's brief, but the drum and percussion section that follows goes on for far too long.

There is this attention to detail here that I admire, but this is a recording that I have trouble enjoying.