84 & 85 albums: Art Zoyd, Present, Univers Zéro

Keeping this super simple. Three classics of RIO/ Avant Prog, pick your poison.

^ Thanks, Nick.

Such music doesn't have as many fans here as it used to. In 2007 there was a topic about your ten favourite Prog albums by Raff and the only one in this album list that got my nod was the Present (Rock Bottom was I think my number one). As I wrote there:

"Looking for that perfect Present for Valentine's Day? Give him or her "the poison which makes insane." Tainted love; your partner will go crazy for it. I was contemplating whether to include this album or Univers Zero's Heresie, but chose this one since it doesn't get talked about so much (I tend to prefer the more acoustic side so UZ might seem a more obvious choice and I really wish I was including UZ which is fantastic). Anyway, it's jazzy, dark ... and generally fits my mood well...."

A different Art Zoyd album was listed in my top ten there. I would imagine that the Art Zoyd will get the least votes. While I commonly don't vote in my own polls and find all three albums excellent, I will give a vote for the Art Zoyd. Art Zoyd is my favourite of these three acts, and is a particular fave of mine period, even though I have all of the Univers Zero and Present albums and not quite all of the Art Zoyd ones (Art Zoyd has released a lot). Number two would be the Present for me. I like Uzed, but it's not a particular favourite of mine. Anyway, I remain an Art Zoyd fanatic.

Edited by Logan - April 29 2021 at 00:50

Love all three. Going to go with Present. 

Rick1 wrote: I went for the Zoyd but the other two are not far behind - particularly that Present album.  'Uzed' was a bit more of a departure for UZ but excellent all the same.  Three quality albums that never got the attention they deserved (and I was unaware of them at the time of their release - I had heard of UZ due to the RIO festival in 1978 but never saw their albums in UK record shops...)

nick_h_nz wrote: My initial reaction when I saw this post was to hit Present, and if I’d gone with gut instinct (which I almost did), I would have voted that. However, if it were Heresie, there is no way I would have had such a reaction. But I think you were right not to include it, as it was released some years earlier. I like that these are all from the same time period. Can you imagine what it might look like if these bands were more popular, though? We might be voting in the “Have there been too many Art Zoyd polls recently?” poll! 😜

I had forgotten how good this Art Zoyd album is, so I’m thankful for this poll for making me listen to it again. It definitely makes me glad I didn’t go for my initial reaction of Present (though the Present album definitely is a goodie). The UZ is the wooden spooner here, as it’s definitely between AZ and Present for me, at this stage.

Edited by nick_h_nz - April 29 2021 at 04:53

Univers Zero takes my vote.

Tie-breaker.

Hehe, it's a tie now (6 to 6) between the two albums I have a difficulty to choose one or the other. Present always leaves me with the impression that it is a bit too overwrought, but why I don't say that about the other two, I don't know... In the end, I think I go with Art Zoyd if I had to pick one of the three...

This is hard...I'll go with Present.