JACK DUPON

When I was first approached by Jack Dupon and asked if I would like to review this album I made the incorrect assumption that Jack was a person, when in fact this is a quartet who have been around since 2004 and this is their fourth studio album. Their website is full of information (and thankfully is also available in English as I have forgotten pretty much all of the French I learned at school), and it is interesting to see how they describe themselves:- "There's no need to search for JACK DUPON in the civil registration, because this legendary character doesn't exist! We're talking of a French band here, made of four crazy people, phlegmatic adventurers of the imaginary. Improvisers and storytellers. Polite and rude. Full of oppositions, contradictions? In one Word : Alive. Their music is like their existences: out of styles and boundaries".

The gatefold digipak comes with a poster, and when it is opened up one of the things one can see is are the details of all of the people that this album is about. That's because the album is about the great adventure. Special adventures like Ulysse, small stories like Mata Hari or Laïka, criminal stories like that of Raymond Callemin... One musical walk with the stories of many strange people. The first time I played this album I really didn't like it, and in fact I was relieved when it finally finished as this is RIO/avant-garde that makes Art Zoyd, Zappa, Beefheart, Can and Gong seem quite normal and mainstream in comparison. But, I am no quitter so went back and played it again, and again, and the weird thing was that each time I played it the less it became a chore, and the more I found that it was making some sort of strange musical sense.

This is not music for the faint-hearted, and the vast majority who come across this will run away screaming. But, if you are of an adventurous nature and are willing to put in the effort then I promise that there are hidden delights that only make themselves known when one has listened to this many times. When I first played this I thought that the fault had to be with my own preconceived ideas as opposed to the band, and I am truly glad that I persevered as this is quite some piece of work. www.jack-dupon-rock-progressif.net

French quartet JACK DUPON was formed in 2004, and has since its earliest days been a band subscribing to the Rock In Opposition and avant-garde approach. An active live unit from the onset, but in between concerts and tours one self-released and two label distributed studio albums have been issued too, the most recent of these "Demon Hardi" from 2011. "Bascule a Vif" is their fourth production, a double CD that documents their qualities as a live band.

If you can imagine a vital brew with ingredients provided by the likes of King Crimson, Gong and Frank Zappa given a rather typical French dramatic flavoring, then you're pretty close to what Jack Dupon is all about, enticing on their studio albums, but this double live CD documents rather thoroughly that this is a band that has its very best moments on stage, adding an energy and intensity to their creations that elevates them to a higher level. A production that most likely will have its strongest appeal among followers of avant-garde rock and the Rock In Opposition interested audience, and in particular by those who appreciate strong and well recorded live performances of that nature.

For French band Jack Dupon it all started in 2001, when drummer Thomas Larsen met guitarist Gregory Pozzoli and bassist Arnaud M'Doihoma at college, forming an early jamming trio.2004 sees the addition of another guitarist, Philippe Prebet, and the quartet launches his first ever live appearance in June of the same year.Jack Dupon started gigging at a constant basis both in France and abroad, participating in contests and even came up with a self-production CD in 2006, recorded in their own studio.In 2008 the band signs a contract with Musea and eventually a second, more professional work sees the light the same year on Musea's Zeuhl/Rio/Avant Prog specialized sub-label Gazul, entitled ''L'échelle du désir''.

The album is dominated by two very long compositions, ''La trilogie des mouches'' and ''L'homme à la jambe qui boit'', clocking totally at over 53 minutes (!!!), next to three more shorter cuts.The style of the band is really hard to describe, quite personal, but also very hard to follow.Guitar-dominated mostly instrumental music with over the top aggressive theatrical vocals here and there, characterized by dark grooves, divided into low- and up-tempo rhythms.Both the longer compositions are raw examples of guitar workouts with an evident KING CRIMSON-vibe, offering plenty of breaks, solos, dual interplays and jams, always under a very dark-sounding mood.Bass lines are really heavy along with some powerful and pounding drumming.The shorter cuts do not at all.However the lack of some extra instrumentation along with the similarity of the compositions make this CD quite monotonous along the way.And while the concept of blending these guitar performances with some excessive vocal parts seems decent and far from cliche, the album is too long and repetitive for its own sake.

''L'échelle du désir'' ends up to be a questionable experiment.It will possibly leave satisfied the narrow limited base of KING CRIMSON-alike bands worldwide, but it is difficult to be appreciated by a wider audience due to its one-dimensional sound.

French ensemble JACK DUPON has been around for a few years now, with the roots of this band going back to 2001. The concept behind Jack Dupon developed at a later stage however, and the calendar had turned to 2008 before they released their debut album "L'Echelle du Desir". "Demon Hardi" is their second effort, and was issued by Musea Records in early 2011.

While I wasn't enthralled as such by this album, I'm a hard-to-satisfy customer as far as this type of art rock goes, Progressive rock with a capital P is what the French four-piece Jack Dupon provides on their second album "Demon Hardi". Those who know and love music described as Rock In Opposition and Avant-garde should take notice of this one, and in particular those who have artists like King Crimson, Frank Zappa and Les Claypool side by side in their music collection.

3.5 stars

I don't remember how I first heard of Jack Dupon, a French four piece band consisting of Arnaud M'Doihoma (bass, vocals), Gregory Pozzoli (guitars, vocals), Thomas Larsen (drums, percussion, vocals)
and Philippe Prebet (guitars, vocals). I bought their 2008 debut album, L'Echelle Du Désir, but was not too thrilled with it. It has nice ideas and it is theatrical, quirky and eccentric but I felt the songs were too meandering and lacked direction and focus. But I was still interested in seeing what they'll do on their next album. And so I was happy to be given the opportunity to review it. Well, I think that more than they have changed from the debut album, that I have changed and now perceive them a little differently. They do seem to be more focused this time around with their songs and even more intricate and creative, but they still maintain the same basic characteristics from the first album, which I'll mention below.

But first let me make a point.

Jack Dupon's music seems to me to fit much better a live setting. In fact, it would probably benefit from having some kind of theatrics associated with the music, some visualization attached to the music. Their music is theatrical and veers from the dramatic to the silly or humorous side. This theatrical aspect of theirs is reminiscent of other French progressive bands such as Ange, Arachnoid, Mona Lisa, Etron Fou Leloublan and even the more current Sebkha Chott etc. I don't mean that Jack Dupon sounds like any these, rather that they share this characteristic of theatrics, of an ambition to add a visual side to their music. Jack Dupon's music sounds much less serious than these, much more cheeky and upbeat, and not half as dark. One can also draw lines of similarity in sound to others such as Frank Zappa (on all songs) and even King Crimson (Oppression for instance).

They are also quite jam-based, and they tend to have sections in their rather long songs in which the music lingers on while the guitar noodles over it or have a singing part dominate it. But this varies, as at times the music can be more abstract allowing for the vocals to take charge, while at other times the melody is leading the way, supported by the whole lineup. When I mention the jamming, I don't mean there is monotony or that it is boring. Their antics, which include the singing, and their occasional change of direction in the songs, keep matters interesting. But at times it can seem to linger on a bit longer than I would have liked. It sounds to me as if for the most part they don't intend so much on developing a theme, rather on creating a story and they do this by creating an atmosphere and introducing into it their quirkiness, their humorous lyrics, employment of various types of voices and their dramatic theatrical presentation.

And while that is their forte, this is also the downside for me. Many times it feels that they don't develop themes or ideas too much and rather linger with the theme on. They certainly have a penchant for long song with not much variety within it, keeping the same pace while the guitar is the instrument being given the most independence to roam free; at times it sounds more like jams.

All this makes me think that this group is much better experienced live than through an album. And given the responses I read for some of their shows, this may very well be the case.

I would have loved to hear more of what they did on the middle part of the opening song, "Le Labyrinthe", where they spice up matters and introduce some intricacy and development to the song structure and deviate a bit from the main theme. Another song I liked in particular was the closing song, "Oppression", with its Crimsonesque rhythm guitar a-la Red painting the main thread throughout the first section of the song and the embellishments of the second guitar. The music itself, while repetitive, has a hypnotic characteristic to it and few lyrics that are repeated as well. The song itself is split into very different sounding sections: the opening harsh sounding rock part, a second jazzy part that develops into quite a different sounding instrumental rock segment than the rest of the album. This then develops very naturally and eventually, in a very intricate manner, returns to the original theme.

In summary, I find this album to be an improvement from their first release. It still demonstrates their basic penchant for theatrics, humour and jamming while exhibiting their creative, eccentric and progressive side. Do check it out.

A fantastic band of French madmen who worship at the altar of Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Gong, Etron Fou Leloublan and others of that particular genre of progressive/experimental/ RIO music, Jack Dupon have delivered a master piece of sound and music.Featuring non- sensical lyrics sung in French and multiple time signatures and polyrhythms, the real main focus when listening tio this CD is its instrumental passages, showing a prowress and knowledge of instrument not heard in many of today's bands. I can't say enough about the quality of music that is showcased on Demon Hardi. I have listened to it over and over, and the seven classic songs never fail to interest me. Pick up a copy and see for yourself!

2.5 stars.

I'm sorry to say that, to my ears at least, Jack Dupon are not much of an avant-prog band. Whilst this album displays touches of dissonance and a few quirky moments, the vast majority of this album is straight-up Progressive Rock, albeit with a rawness and directness that easily sets it apart from the keyboard-drenched likes of Yes and many of their contemporaries. The yowling guitar solos, pounding drums and throbbing bass which drive this album are far more reminiscent of King Crimson than Henry Cow or Thinking Plague. And as if that wasn't enough, surely the fact that this album kicks off with an "epic" song that's just shy of thirty minutes should make it abundantly clear that this rock with a capital Prog?

Whilst I could never accuse this album of being musically dull or unadventurous, it's certainly not the most exciting or original thing I've ever heard. It probably doesn't help that it's all so guitar-orientated - after thirty minutes of relentless electric guitar, bass and drums with a few theatrical Etron Fou-esque vocals thrown in for good measure I was pretty knackered and wanted something different. But that was only one song out of the way, and the remaining four (including another epic of 23 minutes) offered nothing new in the way of instrumentation or musical style (save for a few token psych-y moments here and there). Really, for such a limited range of sounds, an album of half this length would suffice, and probably pack a much better punch in the process.

There are also a few attempts at humour to be found on this album. The majority of the vocals are in French so I wouldn't like to say for certain but their delivery suggests a definite tongue-in-cheek approach, and the arrangements occasionally descend into sub-Samla musical japery. I've nothing against humour in music (far from it - my username here is a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band reference, after all!) but it doesn't always sit well alongside long-form proggy jams which seem intent on "rocking out" wherever possible.

This isn't a bad album by any means, and would certainly appeal to anyone looking for some quirky, playful prog with strong rock focus. Anyone hoping for something really new or challenging may well be better off looking elsewhere.

Still, this is a debut album from a new band so I don't wish to be too harsh. There's a lot of potential here, but much of it remains untapped for now.

On a final, and more universally positive note - the packaging and artwork for this album is lovely. The inside images are of a host of superbly costumed figures (which may or may not relate to the lyrical content of the album) in a variety of posed scenarios, perfectly emphasising the theatrical nature of Jack Dupon's music.