LE JOUR OÙ LES VACHES...

A bit overlooked,Emmanuel Booz was a French poetic singer/songwriter active around the 70's.He released his first solo album in 1969 entitled ''Au restaurant d'Alice'', based on the obscure work ''Alice's Restaurant'' by Arlo Guthrie from 1967.His second one was a different beast,released in 1974 on Atlantic Records and entitled ''Le jour où les vaches''.For this album Booz was helped by three Alice members, bassist Alain Suzan, drummer Alain "Doudou" Weiss and guitarist Paul Semama along with ex-Zoo violin/sax player Michel Ripoche with also Michel Coeuriot on keyboards and William Sheller on piano.

Starting with a spoken monologue by Booz,the short second track will give an idea for what is going to come with its Zeuhl-ish pounding bass,the dark choirs and the orchestral strings.From this point on begins a haunting journey into Emmanuel Booz'es unique world,a combination of melodramatic theatrical rock with Classical Music and complex Zeuhl.Much- vocal driven,the compositions are based on the thrilling voice of Booz,mixed with a variety of orchestral arrangements in a Classical manner, featuring a mass of string and wind instrumental passages,including the nice violin work of Ripoche.This obscure sound is pretty often supported by his rockin' buddies: A frenetic guitarist like Semama, a strong bassist like Suzan and a furious drummer like Weiss.The tracks have mostly a poetic magic under Booz'es alternating chords,a couple of them still carry the singer/songwriter trademark of the artist with light organ,acoustic guitars and choirs,but the music goes pretty much in a very theatrical and dark mood,with Sheller's arrangement on the last and longest operatic ''Nous les enfants'' being the best example.

Not everybody's cup of tea,''Le jour où les vaches'' was a pretty daring step by Booz,for most of its time very succesful but be warned for this is much of an artistic work than a Progressive Rock one.An excellent find for the mystified and strongly recommended...3.5 stars.