POIL

After four years, PoiL returns with another daring, angular, madcap album. 2019's Sus was a fantastic release, and it saw the band both focus its songwriting after the sprawling Brossaklitt and stretch out with a pair of 20-minute suites. On this release, the band has teamed up with biwa player and singer Junko Ueda.

I'm hardly an expert in traditional Japanese music. I knew what a biwa was before writing this review, so I'm probably ahead of most Americans, but not by much. According to Ueda's website, she specializes in "biwa storytelling" and shomyo, a type of Buddhist chant. My primary source of knowledge of Japanese folk music prior to this was Osamu Kitajima's seminal Benzaiten, a sublime synthesis of progressive rock and an array of Japonic styles.

Much like Sus, PoiL Ueda is made up of a pair of large suites, each of which typifies one of Ueda's professed specialities.

Side A of PoiL Ueda is the three-part " Kujô Shakujô", which covers the shomyo style. This suite opens with a reedy organ drone as Ueda stretches out prolonged vocal notes. As this opening movement progresses, weird synth bloops and growls burble. It's a meditative piece that focuses primarily on atmosphere, and I can absolutely see how this composition may have its stylistic roots in monastic mantras.

In its second movement, this suite sees jittery guitar arpeggios join the fray. Ueda's vocals remain drawn-out and deliberate, but the rest of the band has an eager, nervous energy. The bass is bouncy, and keys jump and jitter.

The meditative mood falls apart near the end of part two, with the emergence of  flavors of RIO and zeuhl. There's an underlying sense of tension to this track. It feels like it wants to burst free, but it's somehow restrained. This tension of restraint and exuberance pays great dividends as complex percussion, rubbery bass, twangy guitar, and oddball keyboard arrangements all dance around each other.

Ueda's vocals are restrained but powerful, and the gradual ascent from this epic's quiet opening is immensely satisfying.

The second composition on PoiL Ueda is "Dan No Ura", and it prominently features Ueda's biwa. It kicks off with her unique vocal performance as the biwa and piano cultivate a tense atmosphere.

Twisting, Yes-inspired riffs are paired alongside traditional Japanese modes and plinking chimes. It's a wonderfully artful and natural integration of Western and Japanese musical traditions.The backing riff builds to an impressive intensity, and a metallic aggression is evident as well.

Abrasive, start-stop blasts of guitar and synth lend this composition power and weight.

The second part of this piece features subdued but evocative instrumentation as Ueda weaves enthralling vocal lines. "Dan No Ura" is a bit on the short side, at only about 13 minutes. Despite this runtime, it's an impressive piece which demonstrates great skill at blending disparate musical styles.

PoiL Ueda is an impressive album. The distinctly Japanese and European flavors meld in a natural manner, and this is a cohesive and intelligent record. There are some bold musical decisions on this LP, but they all pay off. This release is an instant contender for my 2023 album of the year.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2023/02/27/album-review-poil-ueda-poil-ueda/

I've written before of France's unique place in the world of progressive rock. Of the countries with distinct national sounds, theirs has always been the most unashamedly weird, fusing progressive rock with jazz and avant-garde music. Zeuhl was an almost-exclusively-French genre for the first twenty or so years of its existence, and two of the five founders of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) scene were Francophone. (Univers Zero were from the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium.) PoiL, the experimental Lyonnais trio, are one of the most prominent contemporary bands carrying on this tradition.

Last year, PoiL fused with the band Ni to become three-sevenths of the supergroup PinioL. Ni's particular brand of experimental rock music has frequently bordered on metal, and on Sus, it sounds as if some of that may have rubbed off on the guys in PoiL. PoiL lacks a guitar player, but that doesn't stop the band from laying down their heaviest music to date. The bass on this album crunches and snarls; the electric piano pounds out weird, dissonant chords; and the drumming is downright virtuosic.

Sus is nominally split into five songs, but functionally, it is more accurately described as a pair of 20-minute suites. "Sus la peìra" opens the first of these two suites with thundering bass and squealing synthesizer while the drums and a steady electric piano arpeggio keep the intro from devolving into an unfocused morass. The lyrics, sung delicately in contrast to the instrumental bombast, draw from Occitan poetry. The gentle vocals eventually become more of a somber chant in between moments of instrumental weirdness that almost sounds like a bizarre, jazzy version of Rage Against the Machine with its sudden starts, stops, and octave-wide oscillations.

After that 12-minute salvo, the brief "Lo potz" acts as breather. It's barely a minute long and a cappella. It's a nice glimpse into just how pretty the Occitan language is, sounding closer to Italian or Spanish than to French. This opening suite ends on "Luses Fadas" and showcases PoiL's most obvious Magma influences. Ostinato bass and hypnotic piano lines undergird chanting vocals. The bass and piano lines gradually grow more complex in the instrumental moments, and the vocals alternate between Spanish-flavored chanting and rapidfire, funky, babbling syllabics.

"Grèu Martire" opens the second suite with off-kilter instrumental interplay. It's something I'd expect from a daring math rock band, with its uneven, jerky rhythm and atonality. That song acts as a setup to the real meat of this suite, "Chin fòu". The vocals are dramatic and once more tinged with Spanish/Moorish influences. Despite a continually-odd rhythm, the song flows well, with the vocals trading the spotlight with some impressive soloing.

With Sus, PoiL have released a challenging, yet engaging, work. The music here lurches and roars in fits and stops, and the harmonized vocals contrast and complement it. They've channeled France's long history of artistic experimentalism and avant-garde leanings in rock music. To that history, they've added a modern, metallic edge, and that intensity is what really makes this such an enthralling album.

Review originally posted here: theeliteextremophile.com/2019/05/19/album-review-poil-sus/

One of the most unexpected collaborative efforts of 2023 so far has to be the hyperactive avant-prog band PoiL who comes from Lyon, France teaming up with the traditional Japanese musical arts master and Tokyo based Junko Ueda who together have released an album simply titled POIL / UEDA. How one of the most spazzed out modern-day brutal prog bands could collaborate with a transcendental medieval Japanese version of a troubadour was something i could not fathom until i finally pushed play and let it all roll out!

PoiL has carved out a unique niche in the world of avant-prog with a zany zolo-esque hyperactivity fortified with Zappa-like quirkiness. Add some heavy brutal bombast and psychedelic excesses and PoiL has taken things to extremes. Each and every album adopts a different approach but there is no denying it is PoiL. Junko Ueda on the other hand is a classical artist who brings the medieval Japanese art forms of heikyoku and shōmyō to the modern world. Heikyoku is one of the oldest Japanese traditional music forms that features a bard who narrates a tale whereas the shōmyō is a type of Buddhist chant used primarily in the Tendai and Shingon sects.

Perhaps nothing should surprise fans regarding PoiL's next musical adventures as the band seems more open-minded than the average prog band but i'd bet no one saw this one coming! The album is on the short side only slinking over the 31-minute mark and basically features two themes with multiple parts. "Kujô shakujô" is a three part build up of musical mojo which is based on a Buddhist shōmyō that is practiced to ward off evil spirits. The two-part "Dan no ura" shifts gears completely and narrates a naval battle which led to the decline of the imperial Heike clan after facing off with the Genji clan. Lyrics are exclusively in the Japanese language.

While PoiL has traditionally been an unhinged untamable and unapologetically wild prog band, on this collaborative effort they seem utterly hypnotized by the soft spoken Japanese lyrics that remind me of European yodeling at times. Likewise Junko Ueda performs on the traditional Japanese instrument called the satsuma biwa which is a short-necked lute used in narrative storytelling in the Japanese culture. Ueda is the star of the show here with PoiL's rock instrumentation firmly adhering to the melodic developments suavely propelled by the chants and accompanying Japanese musical scales. Although confined on a leash so to speak, PoiL still has plenty of room to strut their proggy stuff much like a post-rock band improvises around a cyclical groove.

While such collaborations are not unheard of, it seems that the cross-pollination of cultures continues as do the mixing of the spiritual with the profane much like Ray Charles fusing gospel with American soul back in the 1950s although more of this is happening on a global scale with ever greater complexities. For anyone longing for a frenetic avant-prog display as heard on "Brossaklitt," this is not the album for you. This is an avant-garde take on ancient Japanese musical traditionals unlike anything done before. The music is relaxing and mesmerizing and even when PoiL is allowed to add the rock heft to build up deafening crescendoes, the musical flow is still very much strictly adhered to. An anomaly in the canon of both artists, this one is an amazingly satisfying of the ancient meeting the modern day developments in prog. Brilliant.

On this collaborative album PoiL joins forces with Japanese vocalist and satsuma-biwa player Junko Ueda. Is avant- prog and traditional Japanese court music an awkward mix? In lesser hands, maybe, but somehow PoiL and Ueda seem to make it work seamlessly from the off. For their part, PoiL pull no punches here, serving up an instrumental backdrop that veers between sinister, abstracted soundscapes and the kind of gutsy, gleefully contorted avant-rock we've come to expect from them. Meanwhile Ueda's powerful, throaty vocals and biwa seem to glide over and seep into every nook and cranny left by the band. The result is music that is at times ethereal and enchanting, at others aggressive and alien, but consistently engaging and bursting with detail.

At barely over 30 minutes, you'd be forgiven for feeling a little shortchanged, but there is so much densely packed music within that runtime that I'm personally quite thankful that this album doesn't push its luck and risk tipping over from exhilarating to exhausting. Mind you, a second release from this collaboration would certainly not be unwelcome.

IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS. For three, painfully long years, I've been waiting for this record to drop. Indeed, PoiL still remains my favourite music act of all time, and there's no one from whom I'd anticipate new music more than these guys. For this album PoiL joins forces with traditional Japanese singer/satsuma-biwa player Junko Ueda, as well as ni's bass player Benoit Lecomte. The album is finally here, my long wait is over - but does it deliver to my expectations?

Well... yes and no. To be honest, I feel quite disappointed - not by the music, mind you, but rather by the lack of it. Let me explain.

If you attended PoiL Ueda live shows or watched some of them online, you might be aware that the band has prepared at least an hour of new material. Meanwhile, this album lasts for 30 minutes and includes just two tracks - one of which being a single released almost two years ago. So, before listening to the album, I already knew almost half of it!

So where is the rest of the material? There were at least three more 10+ minutes compositions that did not make it on the album. What happened? I can only speculate, but at the end of the day, it is really saddening to not see them on the tracklist - especially since these three omitted tracks contained a lot of fun, experimental madness I love the band for.

The music that DID make it to the record however is excellent nonetheless. Kuj' Shakuj' is an energetic, yet soothing jazz fusion-like take on a buddhist chant that's supposed to eliminate any evil spirits. Even though the level of crazyness is not though the roof, I still like this track very much. There's almost a celestial feel to it - very relaxing and full of fun at the same time. There's also a lot of phenomenal sound design thoughout the track - most likely the courtesy of Guilhem Meier's extended drum kit. Excellent!

Dan No Ura has been teased (as a demo version) all the way back in 2021, and now can be heard in a more polished, detailed version. Another excellent track, full of solid grooves and bombastic energy. I'm really impressed by how well Junko's voice is incorporated into the avant-prog sound of the band - amazing stuff!

Overall - this album would easily make for a masterpiece and my personal AOTY, had the remaining compositions made it to the tracklist. Instead, all I'm left with is a hunger for MOREEEE. I really hope that the rest of the material will get recorded and released eventually - losing it would truly be a shame.

Consider my ranking as incomplete 5 stars for an incomplete 5 star album.

What a weird but impressive combination POIL UEDA are! This project were formed as a musical novelty by a French avantgarde frontlines POIL and a singer / satsuma-biwa player Junko UEDA. In their debut creation, innovative extra- eccentric soundscape by POIL and eerie Japanese traditional mysticism by Junko both are great supporters for each other, and such a fascinating combo can launch one of the most incredible atmospheric effects you have ever heard. POIL's play might be more sensitive and more chamber-ish for encouraging Junko's magnificent individuality (it's said that they are impressed in Japanese traditional folk music) but they should keep their positive vibes and massive creativity even under the circumstance. How fantastic.

The first 'protective ritual' "Kujo-Shakujo" is excessively solemn. Part 1 has a bombastic energy deeply in Junko's flexible go-up voices and POIL's heavy, stabilized sound emission. The following Part 2 is structured with repetitive melodic wonder and dignified spelling. Not so complicated nor polyrhythmic the song is, but such a serious aspect through their blow-up performance must catch your inner mind, for better or worse. Finally in the last part you can hear POIL's authentic avantgarde timbre. It's another pleasure. Part 3 is the final spurt along with ultimate vital movements and dark nebura power from them all. Excellent climax.

"Dan No Ura", previously released as a demo track, has come back with deeper and wilder texture in an official manner. You can be charmed by a perfect sound maturation by them regardless of difference of musical history or origin. POIL's eccentricity of playing and Junko's weirdness of singing / fiddling are smoothly and strikingly merged and adhered to. Explosive sound extension with synthesizer-based electronika that is called as one of their characteristics can invade into your brain and muscle in the latter phase of Part 1, followed by Part 2, another hard heart-attacking tragedy. The last episode is too lonely and too tragic really. The melodic stream is crucial.

In conclusion, I'm afraid it could be difficult for every progressive rock fan to accept and appreciate this mystical album so easily, but on the other hand, some chamber avantgarde freaks should be immersed in the magical mystery tour provided by them. I'm very curious how you feel and what you think. Would you give it a listen and let me know? :)

(P.S. This review was published by permission of Dur et Doux.)

Kinda weird but brilliant combination, just like Roquefort and Sauternes sweet wine.

This digital single was released as a joint session by a French avantgarde superieur POIL and a Japanese singer / biwa player Junko UEDA. "Dan No Ura" is pretty renowned in Japan as a historical place where was a big and important battle in 1185, and there are lots of dramas or songs memorialized for the historical fact. According to their words, this composition is based on this traditional epic singing accompanied by the satsuma-biwa and Buddhist Shomyo chant, and the fantastic unit POIL UEDA beautifully and vividly express the heroic and tragic situation. POIL's play is quirky but thrilling and enthusiastic as well, as if we were looking through the battle there. Junko's voices are very energetic and serious like Japanese noh play. Such an impressive unification of an avantgarde rock and a Japanese traditional instrument with traditional voices completely catches minds of non-art progressive rock fans sincerely.

Anyway I guess this kind of Japanese-flavoured music would be appreciated by lots of people all over the world except Japan, where not many guys can get fond of such a mystic song.

Interesting one.

Following from their coming together with ni in 2018 as PiNioL, 2019 saw both bands independently releasing new albums. For PoiL that meant their fourth studio album, 'Sus', which was the first since 2014's 'BrossaKlitt'. The line-up is of course the same as it has been throughout their history, namely Antoine Arnera (keyboards, vocals), Boris Cassone (bass, vocals) and Guilhem Meier (drums, vocals). I have often felt that in terms of having no place to hide, trios are the perfect combination, in that each musician needs to have major chops, and be ready to take on the lead or support their companions at any moment. A really good trio stands out due to the innate ability of each musician to do this at all times, and it perhaps is no surprise that very few trios have managed to reach the heights of quartets.

In PoiL we have three guys who are taking pronk into new areas, mixing the punkish approach of bands like Cardiacs with the eclecticism of King Crimson, and then throwing in krautrock and Art Zoyd to create something which is aggressive and attacking the listener. I have seen the term brutal prog being used to describe PoiL, and while we already have more than enough sub genres around, I fully understand where that term comes from. This music is ferocious, and there are times when the listener really does feel under siege as the drums crash all over the place, the bass is there in the mix threatening anyone who comes near and then the organ is equally strident. Compare this ferociousness with the a capella harmonious "La Potz", and the listener's brain literally starts to explode. Dangerous and aggressive music always needs contrast, something which many bands don't ever manage to really understand, but to understand the dark we need to know the light, and to really get the impression of anger we need the kindness, and with the smooth comes the sharp. PoiL do not need to have this explained to them, and have no problem with mixing all these styles together to create something which is compelling and inviting while also attempting to frighten the listener away.

When it comes to avant prog there are few creating music as important and dynamic as PoiL.

PoiL is this off the wall RIO/Avant Prog band from France that was founded in 2005 The band was founded by Antoine Arnera (keyboards, voices), Boris Cassone (bass, voices), and Guihem Meier (drums, voices). "Sus" is the band's 4th album, released in April of 2019. The album consists of 5 tracks with a total run time of just short of 41 minutes.

"Sus la peira" starts things off with an obvious melodic element that actually stays down to earth for a few minutes before things quiet a bit and then odd layered vocals come in and things move to a definite art rock style, with ever-changing mood swings and meter shifts. Thematic elements come and go, and these are presented by all three band members, not just leaving it all up to the keyboards, but allowing the crazy bass to lead at times, and the drums also churn out mad rhythmic patterns When vocals come back the 2nd time, the vocalizations are kooky and then real chaotic punk attitude comes in with every instrument going wild, but still actually improvising around a single thematic element.

"Lo potz" is basically an acapella track with the three members singing in harmony, with some interesting intervals. This is quite short. "Luses Fades" follows and begins with a tense and warbling sound created by all three members including processed vocal sounds. Soon, the voices and the instruments start playing against each other, then the instruments are allowed to play on in a progressive and complex manner. Vocal harmonies return from time to time in their odd and humorous ways. At times things go quite chaotic and at others you get an avant-garde style jazz sound. Don't rely on things to stabilize for too long or even settle on a single texture or melody for any length of time, it's all just crazy, yet well thought out musical escapades. Even with no guitar, per se, the bass seems to create sounds that make you think there is a fourth member as he sometimes plays it like a regular electric guitar.

"Greu Martire" starts off quite dissonant and loud, immediately just immersing you in a harsh and abrasive musical collage that seems to have no melodical values except for a quick riff that keeps repeating. Things finally quiet down a bit as dissonant harmonies and contradicting melodic lines swirl around. Soon the harsh music starts again with only short interruptions, usually involving strange vocal harmonies. All of the tracks are inaccessible, but this one is the harshest of them all.

The last track "Chin fou" is the longest at over 14 minutes. An atmospheric drone takes you into a darker space, and chanting vocals that revolve around single harmonized notes keep things mysterious. Tempo speeds up a bit later as a start/stop instrumentation backs up more melodious vocals and these sounds clash quite effectively. After 2 minutes, things settle in to an improvised synth solo based around a middle Eastern dance style, but very staccato and jumping around in crazy intervals. This track actually takes on more of a melodic feel, especially in the vocal lines. Don't expect it to be accessible however, it's still quite quirky. Later, there is a strange sound that sounds like a singing cow, but the theme ascends for a while, then suddenly turns to a thick and heavy riff that drives the track in a direction that sounds like Primus on acid, except the synths are involved again. Even later on in the track, the band follows a strange chord progression that is led by repetitive notes from the keyboards, then we return to the quirkiness of it all again.

The overall sound of this album is quite harsh and brutal. It is definitely avant-prog and not meant to be accessible. The sound is quite relentless in it's inaccessibility, there isn't anything here you should expect to hear in the local grocery store anytime soon. The "words" in this music (and the titles) are in Occitan which is a regional dialect, an odd mixture of French, Spanish and Italian. The music is quite technical and brilliant, however, the one flaw that this album has can be in its heaviness. Just because it is avant-prog doesn't mean that it can't still have some softer sides. But that doesn't take away the fact that the music is still enjoyable and brilliant, just a little variety could have made it rise to the next level.

Let me say, sounds like they always play authentic, acceptable avantgarde progressive filled with wit, and such an authenticity has been justified perfectly also via their newest album "Sus" released in April 2019. Regardless of their ludicrous, nasty appearance (sorry), their musical diversity and variation - like joke, sarcasm, irony, seriousness, sincerity, or humanism - can be heard all around the creation. And amazingly their various elements above mentioned is not put in fragments but unified with other ones. Their attitude to construct one musical collective with lots of sound approaches should be certificated through every album they've released. Ah of course, I do not say kinda difficult methodological issue but that they play in a pleasant, enjoyable manner. That's all for them. ;)

They create everything they can create without hesitation. Listen to such a contorted, dissected sound explosion with artfully stabilized music balance in the opening track "Sus La Pe'ra". The very first tip reminds you of tech / extreme metallic polarity, that belongs to their extensive soundscape definitely. Beautiful melody lines here and there amongst violent sound / noise structures, or mellow chorus with meaningless phrases, should be fantastic too. In "Luses Fadas" you can hear something like boiling melodic anxiety beneath the sea, but in front of their funky performance. Such a unique song should be enjoyed upon a gig, I think strongly.

"Gr'u Martire" is one of the most complex tracks in this album and slight psychedelic moments tinged with Krautrock- ish flavour can be found here and there ... it's apparently of comfort. Their sound essence notifies you of much more attraction as the audience. The longest epilogue "Chin F'u" is greatly seasoned with ethnic spice and complicated rhythmic basis. Aggressively destroyed melodic phrases and sticky repetitive mass of notes can be mysteriously digested into our inner brain in a normalized, naturalized way. You cannot dance nor do headbanging to the music needless to say, but their weird work sounds not weird but addictive. That is the reason they play every material without any suffering from production.

Guess I've mentioned everywhere but again said that I wish I could attend their gig in Lyon or ... Japan. Seriously.