VAISSEAU MONDE

Another grand slam (aka grand sbam) of the year 2019, and at the same time one of fantastic, fanatical debut opuses in avantgarde- progressive scene. Le GRAND SBAM's debut album "Vaisseau Monde", much-awaited by every avantgarde-progressive rock fan, has been launched in the last month of 2019, and surprisingly appreciated for only a month. No more expression needed because lots of Lyon-oriented avantgarde warriors like ni., PoiL, Chromb!, and so on. And of course, massive energetic, powerful sound connotation you can hear all through this creation.

Plenty of sound approaches and technical appearances come up to your ears. The first shot "Dins O Sbam" is a killer. Sarcastic, deeply heavy, incredibly complicated melodic / rhythmic movements with female voice / shout madness should absorb your brain and inner mind without breath. Oh God. Not only guitar heaviness nor dissected percussion / drumming salad, but also Japanese shakuhachi (amazing) or quirky synthesizer dances will invade deeply in. Quite enjoyable is a chase of female voices and heavy fuzzy guitar sounds in "Kouia" ... in such a melodic confusion, you would find something methodical and methodological. Weird really.

And imho my favourite is the fourth turf "Woubit" featuring hippy spacey ghostly Kraut-y psychedelia. Reminds me like Fille Qui Mousse meet Mahogany Brain. Always feel I would drive myself deeply beneath the sea of the track. In the last one "Vishnu Foutr'line" addictive combination of beautiful lines and adherent complexity can be received here and there. But hey as their sound compilation this track can be felt, methinks.

In conclusion, cannot call this creation as diverse nor colourful easily but for every avant-prog or Zeuhl fan this opus should be of much pleasure. And let me say thanks to Dur et Doux for recommending such a fine production.

Back in the Nineties, there is no doubt in my mind that the most important alternative musical magazine was the mighty Organ. It's anarchic layout, the way they raved over bands (they made the decision only to write about music they liked), the in-depth knowledge and the way Sean and Marina were seemingly at every gig in London, made it invaluable. I used to swap copies of Feedback for it, and then take it home and try to make sense of what they were writing about. Needless to say, I am always intrigued when Sean recommends a band to me, given their predilection to bands such as Cardiacs and Poisoned Electrick Head, and he pointed me towards a video of Le Grand Sbam in concert. I watched the clip, then watched it again, but my brain still could not comprehend what on earth it had witnessed. The only thing to do was of course track down the debut album, and now my ears have joined the club, and they have no- one to blame but themselves this time, as at least last time around they could say it was the eyes which were at fault.

I should list the guilty parties, namely Jessica Martin Maresco and Marie Nachury who are the singers at the front of the stage. Obviously professional trained, they stand there in readiness to give virtuoso performances which indeed they do, but I have never heard anything like this as they perform vocal gymnastics and bounce all over the place. The supporting musicians, Mélissa Acchiardi (vibraphone, percussion), Antoine Arnera (keyboards), Boris Cassone (bass) and Guilhem Meier (drums) are also here for the fun, moving between simplicity and complexity and often seemingly at odds with each other, yet somehow it makes musical sense. This is RIO/avant music in the extreme, music which the vast majority of listeners will switch off as it is such a noise, but I believe this is progressive music in its truest sense, pushing boundaries and refusing to accept norms. The percussion can be in control, sometimes the voices, whereas at others it is total anarchy, but anarchy with a purpose. This is music which is jagged, designed to make the listener think, as far away from being a warm comforter as anyone can imagine. Bleak and harsh, it is a work of some importance.

4.5 stars. This is the debut of LE GRAND SBAM out of France. They are a six piece and include the band POIL who are a trio and the composers here. They are a drum/keys/bass setup with a female vibes/perussionist and she adds so much. She's all over it and it all works so well. Finally we get the two female singers who are the stars of the show you could say. The arranger of the vocal parts deserves an award for how varied, interesting and innovative the arrangements are. The girls then "on point" and absolutely nail it. I would have loved to have heard the rehearsals for this recording. This is truly a vocal display unlike anything I have heard. The vocals match the music here in every way. Complex and challenging music with excellent contrasts and they take us places unexpectant, as do the vocals in the same ways.

Surprisingly spacey this record but there's also that Japanese Zeuhl style that POIL do so well featured here at times. This trio is obsessed with Japanese music including their two albums this year with Ueda. And certainly the way the album opens with that explosion of hard and fast outbursts brings the Japanese to mind. Thankfully this album isn't all like this as impressive as all that is they don't over do it. This was released in 2019 and clocks in at 37 1/2 minutes far shorter than their followup album "Furvent" at 60 minutes. I do prefer this debut to the second one for what it's worth.

Man this is a lot to describe and honestly it has to be heard to be believed at times. Again the vocals match the intensity and scope of the music which is saying something. Such an entertaining record and we get five tracks of which four are around the same length of 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 minutes then we get that 12 minute second song. I am blown away by this record! It goes right into my "best of" Avant pile. POIL just seem to come up with these ideas no one else thinks of and then proceeds to compose this incredible music of which the vocals are often key and certainly not an afterthought to their prodigy-like playing. Not perfect but I'm bumping this up to 5 stars for their incredible ideas.