MEKANÏK DESTRUKTÏW KOMMANDÖH

Man, I am freaking out! All good reviews start with that! I'll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what's going on in this album! It sounds like French opera meets jazz fusion with a bit of minimalist noise rock and a thick coating of "Holy crap this is weird!". Musically it is pretty good. The album relies heavily on repetitive droning piano work and some crazy vocals from both French males and females who sing without fear of embaressment. Some jazz and guitar creep their way subtley into the background behind the insane vocals too. Some good pulsating drum beats, though sometimes they are buried in the mix.

This is my first dip into Zeuhl and it's pretty crazy to make up your own language. They musta been sitting around a piano one day (possibly off their faces), thinking... "You know i've never been a good lyricist, feck it lads! Lets make up our own language!". Well i guess it works, yet I am puzzled at how a French band sound more like they are singing in German. It worked for Sigur Ros too.

The music on this album can get on your nerves yet it is strangely intruiging and really not that bad at all. The vocals are the biggest problem, not technically bad, but rather in your face, overcramped into the songs, often with barely a moment of just instrumental work. Sometimes the music gets very directionless as it doesn't really build to anything, yet there is somehow it seems to work well and keeps the listener (me) listening till the end even at times i start to question why the hell i didn't stop at track one.

The best tracks are 1 and 4. Though each track doesn't really differ vastly, it sounds more like one big concept of craziness. There is weirder stuff out there, namely Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, but this one still leaves you puzzled and thinking, "WTF?". A good listen overall, luckily they album is kept short so it just managed to avoid getting too repetitive. Definitely not for everyone, probably an acquired taste to really enjoy getting lots of Zeuhl albums, but as this is the only one I've heard I say it's a good start. I probably won't be expandiny my Zeuhl collection though. Recommended for those after something different, this album is very well recognised as being a masterpiece but I'll settle for 4 stars. Good but it definitely has flaws.