70's French Prog Chat

It's close to "Ame son", it can be also described as a cross of PF and Gong, but more amateurish. They have their own sound actually. Very rare indeed.

I suggested some new french additions:

-Joël Dugrenot
-Crium delirium
-Nyl

MattiR wrote: DarioIndjic wrote: Pulsar - Strands Of The Future(one of the best psychedelic/trippy  albums i ever heard) Pulsar - Pollen(great keyboards!!!) Ange - Guet Apens(an essential for mellotron lovers) Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene and Equinoxe(simply two classics of modern music!) Clearlight - Clearlight Symphony What about Atoll?

avestin wrote: Adam, Bryan, Markj and all others, I have a question.   I saw this 2 albums on one cd by Jean Pierre Alarcen on WaySide music for 15$: Alarcen, Jean-Pierre - Tableau No. 1/Jean-Pierre Alarcen $15.00   What do you think of those two albums? Should I buy this? Is this a good purchase in your opinion?

avestin wrote: Adam, Bryan, Markj and all others, I have a question.   I saw this 2 albums on one cd by Jean Pierre Alarcen on WaySide music for 15$: Alarcen, Jean-Pierre - Tableau No. 1/Jean-Pierre Alarcen $15.00   What do you think of those two albums? Should I buy this? Is this a good purchase in your opinion?

I own this, but I have absolutely no idea what it sounds like. I guess I would say it made no impression on me. I'll give it a spin this week and see it that's accurate.

French prog was great in 70s!Quebecer prog also!

The only French-ish band I know from the 1970's is Harmonium.  They were Quebecois anyway, oh my! I have yet to find any of the acts listed here, but I am sure I will some day.

Oui, la musique progressive de France est assez interessante, surtout Vander et Magma, mes favoris! 

Thanks for the help, I have been listening to those sample on his home page, and this is to my liking. I don't know if it is just my tastes but I quite liked first album, but I can see the sedation and refinement of the later works. I can really understand what you were pointing out in the first paragraphy though. This is definately going to be one of those love hate relationship bands . Though this is just listening from samples.

Just as a side note, which label are you with?

Thanks for all that info DB, browsing over Francois Breant reminded me about a band I have heard a lot about but no music to match the name.

Albert Marcoeur. Anyone farmilar with the band? I have heard good things about the first album, styling RIO and chamber rock. I was looking around for reviews and stumbled across this very negative one.

"I feel like I ought to like it. Most of the avant-prog community loves it. Dave Kerman cites it as some of his favorite music. But try as I may, I can't see Albert Marcoeur's debut album as anything other than a big slab of wasted potential. I just don't understand what makes it so special. Yes, Marcoeur can write some really nice proto-RIO chamber-rock grooves -- but he never does anything with them. He'll just repeat them over and over again under some spoken word ("Tu Tapes Trop Fort"), or abandon them too soon for some fragmentary noise that has nothing to do with them ("C'est Raté, C'est Raté"). I have to give him a bit of credit for sounding like Aksak Maboul three years before they were formed, but the compositions here just aren't that good.

Still, the music here would be entertaining, even in its half-formed state, if it weren't for Marcoeur's attempts to be funny. I mean, I'm not going to object to hyperactive French avant-pop like "Mon Père Avait un P'tit Champ d'Pommes," even if it doesn't really develop itself. But goofy noises, abrasive grunts and "raspberry" effects serve only to bring the music down. Worse, the rhythmic gargling sounds in "C'est Raté, C'est Raté" actually stimulate by gag reflex. A similar problem happens with the arrangements; while the shrieking recorders, out-of-tune folk instruments and so on sound pretty good most of the time, sometimes the weird instrumental sounds are detrimental to the music, especially the annoying "clucking" timbre of the otherwise cool demented-circus ending of "Appalderie."

As with any highly problematic record, there are some nice moments scattered around. All the parts that sound like Aksak Maboul, like the very "Cinema"-like first 30 seconds of "Que Le Temps est Long," are pretty good. "Simone" also stands out as much better than the rest of the album, with its funky recorder break and absolutely beautiful, lush instrumental coda (calling Miriodor!). But not only are a few nice passages insufficient to make a good album, they sometimes make the inferior material seem worse by contrast. The ending of "Simone" is excellent, but it's also a harsh reminder that beauty -- and I mean aesthetically moving sounds, not necessarily "pretty" ones -- is something that this overrated album almost completely lacks."

Needless to say this was a little off putting, so I was wondering if anyone here is confident to recommend them to me?