I FORGIVE YOU FOR ALL MY UNHAPPINESS

Calling on the collective conscience of the worldwide prog community - it's high time we paid attention to the great music that has been and continues to be written and recorded in the avant areas of the USA!! In this particular occasion I am referring to the latest release by French TV, the combo led and maintained by bassist Mike Sary. For this 2010 offering "I Forgive You For All My Unhappiness", Sary has teamed up with drummer Jeff Gard and keyboardist/saxophonist Steve Katsikas, plus collaborations from others (especially guitarist Shawn Persinger, who also happens to be his colleague in The Distinguished Panel Of Experts). "I Forgive You For All My Happiness" is a catalogue of real reinvigorating musical experiences ruled by the laws of surprise and challenge - something that is so typically FTV. The opener starts with a sarcastic 1-2-3-4, which serves the listener with an agile, warmth main body, in many ways related to National Health and 70s Bruford (you can tell that Master Bill is a big paradigm for Gard's own drumming style). This track also includes some dissonant adventures that seem pretty coincidental with Miriodor and other similar contemporary RIO acts. 'Conversational Paradigms' receives and re-elaborates a big part of the opener's extroverted vibe, developing a bigger dose of melodic extravagance while retaining a similarly warmth mood. You can reasonably suspect at this point that this album is not going to be as dark as "This Is What We Do" or as overtly genius as "The Violence Of Amateurs" (FTV's ultimate masterpiece so far, to my ears at least), but it is not mandatory for an experimental progressive album to be dark or magnificent in order to have great quality. FTV still rules big time and can trace musical roads of uneasiness and tension at any given time: 'March Of The Cookie Cutters' is solid proof of that. This is piece # 3 and now the band feels it's time to explore the avant-garde nuances further with an iron will and coherent finesse. The bold series of dissonant developments and twisted dynamics is totally Zappaesque. Near the end, a slow passage develops a mysterious aura that is somewhat close to Francophone RIO (Univers Zero, so to speak), really creepy, but right before the moment of deadly implosion, things dramatically shift toward vivacious colors of funny artsy extroversion. 'You Got To Run It Out, Dawson!' starts with another sarcastic 1-2-3-4: more room for sonic surprises, no surprises here. This track's particular feature is the presence of hard rocking nuances in the guitar parts and the rhythm duo's dynamics; there are also some trends inspired by However and Happy The Man (two bands that I have always felt as crucial references for FTV's sound). 'With Grim Determination, Terrell Dons the Bow Tie' is the calmest and least ornamented piece in the album, but never getting at a condescending level. It includes a beautiful synth solo starting around the 1 ½ minute mark (Jan Hammer-style, perhaps). For the last 90 seconds, the track shifts toward grayish atmospheres that outline a chamber-rock element in a powerful, yet delicate fashion: the resulting density serves then as a psychedelic catharsis built with total finesse. That is where the playful 'Mosquito Massacre' settles in for the album's closure; witty, agile and capricious, it almost sounds as the soundtrack to a climatic scene in a surrealistic satiric movie. Even the rough guitar parts and spacey synth ornaments bring themselves fluidly into the overall mood, while the drummer works successfully at gluing the whole sounds together within a proper framework. "I Forgive You For All My Unhappiness", in a general balance, means the reaffirmation of French TV as a relevant voice of contemporary USA's progressive rock. It's high time the worldwide prog community paid due attention to them - haven't I said this before?

Wait! What is this? It is the 9th album by French TV! Six amazing tracks with musicians doing feats of daring-do unlike anything you've ever heard ... well, maybe.

But when did that take place? 2010, the year that you were absent, silly!

Seven Rusty Nails - Starts off innocently enough, but soon goes off into fusion territory with a guitar wailing away all layers of other instruments play along. As with a lot of French TV's tracks, it's not long before it becomes unhinged, but this time in a nice and somewhat gentle way slipping between normalcy and oddness as easy as sliding on the ice will inevitably make you fall on your butt eventually. The gentleness ends after a while as things get more intense, yet also more fun.

Conversational Paradigms - Complex and totally nuts, but amazing how everyone in the band is right there with it. How do you write this stuff? This is what makes this band so great, it's unpredictable to say the lease, even with those weird vocalizations that seem to come out of nowhere. The music easily slips from one feeling to the next as if its all natural. This is music for the easily distracted that loves everything in some kind of strange organization that only makes sense to them. Is that me? It must be because I love it. Take everything you love about all of the instrumental prog bands you know and then but it all in a blender, and this is what you would come up with (a bit lumpy, though).

March of the Cookie Cutters - Spooky beginning, yet it manages to morph into a cartoon-ish march of sorts, but beware the horns as they are trying to turn it all into a free-form craziness, which they do, and the guitars just sit there complaining about it all. By the time you get to the 3 minute mark, forget about marching completely, unless you've been drinking, then maybe you can trip to the beat? Wait until you get to the progressive Dixieland jazz section. Has your mind been blown yet? Well, don't feel left out if you are one of the last ones with your head still intact, you'll soon join the crowd.

You Got to Run It Out, Dawson! - Dreamy and creepy beginning again flows into calliope style weirdness and then some killer bass. There is a returning motif that keeps showing up, but in between it all, you can expect pretty much everything from soundtrack-like sections to crazy guitar solos against a spacey electronic fiasco. Nice!

With Grim Determination, Terrell Dons the Bow Tie - Everything including the kitchen sink. Almost ridiculous instrumental lunacy. Wait, here's an idea! Yeah, but what about this one? Besides, who can say no to a bow tie?

Mosquito Massacre - Whirling around your head, their incessant buzzing can drive you crazy, but you can't quite catch them as they seem like they are anticipating your every move, you just can't slap them fast enough. If only they would stop long enough to listen to this track. But wait! There's a squirrel!! And it's a big one!

What can I say? How about "Yes!" to French TV. (I was going to say "Oui!" but these guys are from Kentucky. "So that explains it" she says, now understanding it all.)