ULTIMATUM

It is said that most great things come in small doses. In France they seem to take that premise literaly: like Asia Minor's "Between Flesh and Divine", Arachnoid's homonymous or Ange's "Au delà du Delire", this is a short album, at just 34 minutes (I am refering to the original, not bonus-added editions).

Un Trop is a typical jazz-fusion track that could be easily confused with a Brand X or Return to Forever track. It is followeed by the short Croisière sur L'Amoco-cadiz, an cello-led track that serves as interlude between the first song and the third, La Vérite au fond du puits ou Narcisse en Palestine. This starts of as a slight bucolic tune but immediatly fades into nothing but an odd colection of sounds, like metal bending and sticks clacking, with a subtle organ sound in the background. Halfway they get back at doing some proper music, getting back to the jazzy sound, ending it with something more likely to be found of King Crimson's "Red". A sombre strings segment links this song to the next, Souvenirs, souvenirs, which is basicly the same segment slightly dominated by cello, more like avant-guarde classical that avant-prog.

Papapluie FUZZ is almost self-explanatory. It basicly a fuzzy keyboard and guitar driven tune, accompanied by a fast beat that makes this song sound a bit like the famous first seconds of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine". Rue Tabaga starts with sounds of telephone conversation, before the guitar bursts out to open yet another jazz-rock piece a la Brand X. It is followed byPicnic à Grigny, another small bucolic piece of acoustic guitar and cello serving as interlude.

A nice guitar riff and beat open Le torero d'alu, but they only last for a while. Part II of this song is absolutely annoying, even for Avantguarde. It is caracterized by this terrible screeching sound that at points almosts seems like a pig being slaughtered. Halfway to the song begins Part III with the same initial riff, this time featuring some tasteful use of electronics. Part IV is an all-instrument section sounding like an improv that slowly fades out into the final track. Mercenaire recaptures previous track's opening riff, acommpanied by a constant drum and bassline, featuring some rough screeming vocals (but that fit greatly into the general agressiveness of this track) between some very distorted guitar parts. It is a really good track, very raw and agressive.

One of the downsides of the album is it's apparent lack of direction, mixing severall styles without really ever settling for one that could make the album cohesive. Still, if you enjoy Jean-Luc Ponty's solo work, as well as some of the more experimental jazz- fusion acts, you'll probably enjoy it greatly. Also, one cannot cease to wonder if modern french avant-guarde bands, like Taal and, to an extent, Noir Désir, have heard this album, seeing that it is so easy to find some similarities in it. Overall, despite quite good, this is not an exceptionaly memorable album, but that will only make you want to hear it more than once. As a representant of a style so complex, it does his job superbly.

MOSAIC were a four piece band out of France led by the Brebion brothers. They had a nice little run in the seventies playing live all over France, and releasing a demo cassette in 1977 before getting a studio album out to the public in 1978 called "Ultimatum". After all that work and finally getting a studio album out they broke up in 1979. Very much an Avant band who within that style created some variety. In fact some bemoan the fact that this album is not more focussed or uniform.

It's about a 34 minute album with nine tracks. MIO Records did a good job with that 2003 re- issue adding those demo tracks from 1977, as well as a couple of live tracks, one from 1976 and one from 1977. We get four short pieces being around the 2 minute mark but they are excellent. Three of the four musicians here are multi-instrumentalists, and there are some french vocals, mostly on that closer. While the brothers had been gigging, doing covers for a couple of years, it was in 1974 that they got serious, adding both a guitarist/ keyboardist and bass player, and naming themselves MOSAIC for the first time.

I love that they did auditions for that bass player and had high expectations, wanting someone who could solo. The last one to audition was Philippe Lemongne aka P.L.M.G.. He must be good! He adds cello, acoustic guitar, synths, and he is a composer. Yeah they got the right one. I like Yves Brebion's description of their music. "Using musical violence, vocal paroxysm, and some frantic and frenzied guitar parts. committed to refined musical developments, MOSAIC was a part of that avant-garde progressive rock with a strong taste for complex, polished, adventerous, aggressive and delirious music!"

That opener "Un Trop" is a highlight for sure. More in the jazz/fusion realm this one with some standout guitar and powerful moments. That third song with the long title contrasts some dark and experimental passages with the more powerful sections. Almost a chamber music vibe here and elsewhere(like the next track) the way they slow it down and go mostly acoustic. My favourite might be "Rue Tabaga" because it's so jazzy sounding. Then there's that four part, almost 9 minute track called "Le Torero Dialu". I like the contrasts of styles on this song with more of that chamber style plus some rocking sections. The closer is a tough one with those punk vocals shouting at us. A post-punk track with plenty of energy. Hey it's 1978.

I had a blast re-visiting this one last week. And it's a solid 4 stars.