QUAND LE SON DEVIENT AIGU, JETER LA GIRAFE A LA MER.

First album from now-experimental instrumentalist (but mostly drummer/percussionist) Jacques Thollot, but this early 70's album is not representative of his classic phase second half of 70's era. This strangely titled album (roughly translating to throw the giraffe in the sea water, if the sound is too high-pitched) was released on the rare and experimental Futura label known for some very obscure and free form music coming from France. While the artwork gracing the cover is enticing and intriguing enough, the music is not exactly reflecting the hope raised by its cover, with some 15 instrumental tracks ranging from the short to the mid-length, a good deal of them featuring a sole instrument, but if often the drums, not necessarily a percussion instrument either, but piano and other keyboards as well.. There are some electronic noises and other bizarrenesses on some tracks, some can be a bit intriguing, others only interesting if you're a musician yourself.

It's hard to recommend this album to anyone, unless he's a fan to the musician's works, but even then such unbridled and totally unconventional music experiments, even if many or countless others albums sounds much more dissonant is impossible to take much. Anyway, this Giraffe album doesn't sound much like his more Zeuhlian mid-70's albums, which are much more recommendable.

The album' title is so long that if I typed it in here, you'd all have hit the 'escape' button to read something more interesting before arriving at this second sentence.

'Quand Le Son?blah, blah' sounds like a one man band with everything being played at the same time by 'Mr Thollot'. The bloke was a decent jazz drummer, but his piano work is equally as impressive. Impressive in that way where there's little or no tune or rhythm that only Jazz musicians seem to pull off without any criticism forthcoming.

Jacques appears to be one guy that loved flanger effects over drums and he goes off on a rampaging 'Captain Caveman' solo drum attack on 'track 6'

There's not much humming and singing going on in my head whilst listening to this. It's all a bit free-form, directionless and avant-garde jazz for my liking. Jacques Thollot has a bizarre and unique approach the RIO genre. At times it sounds like a whole load of Bowling balls being thrown down a flight of stairs without any regular beat or semblance of tune, but the shrieked vocals add an odd dimension to this otherwise forgettable album.

This is mostly an acoustic drum based album with some wacky piano work with subtle electronic effects riddled throughout. It's quite a difficult listen and an even more awkward album to review due to it's non-linear approach.

It's tough.