ALICE

Alice is a bit of a UFO in the French sky, as they sounded un-French, even if they sang in French, and considering they were among the very first wave of prog group in the country along with Martin Circus and Ame Son. Not only did they record their debut album in London, but their music was very UK- influenced, drawing many comparisons, most due to JP Auffredo's wide array of wind instruments use, violin, guitars and percussion and piano. With a cute montage of band pictures and clothes tissues artwork, Alice's debut album is one of the cornerstone of the psych prog scene of their country.

Starting on a menacing keyboard and sax line accompanied by a descending bass line, Alice's opening of their debut album is one of the most striking one, the group continuing on its inertia, and set out for a superbly fun eastern-sounding instrumental, especially once Auffredo abandons his sax for a lovely flute. A short pastoral Onurb with seagulls in the backgrounds leads us into the great Nouveau Monde (later drawn out as a single and added as a bonus), where over a metronomic percussion, Auffredo's flute takes on Tull proportions. The vocally affected and effected L'Arbre is a great Yardbird-esque and ends in total chaos: absolutely great ending. The short Valse (waltz) is mostly a flute thing, Auffredo double-tracking himself, and Besse's acoustic guitar pulling some nice chords. L'Enfant is another great track with Auffredo now on the violin, we could imagine Family or String Driven Thing.

The 7-mins Cercle seems to indicate that this was only a part of a longer project, here reduced to a duet of movement. Venez Jouer (come and play) takes on another fun pace, with Auffredo always ready to switch between his many instruments. This track also sandwiches the Mexican Song (but the second part is insignificant), which is a little folk ditty, albeit of a lesser and rawer Santana. Turn The Page is a wild prog instrumental that merits its highlight, especially in the end with its impressive stop & go section. Much too short award. .

Coming as bonus tracks are the first few singles released by the group, the first prior to their debut album: De L'Autre Coté Du Miroir is a very 60's sounding French psych pop track, while its original flipside Viens (come) is a fuzzed-out affair, both likely to please psych collectors around the world, both tracks slightly veering prog. Next is a single version of Nouveau Monde (from the album) and it was coupled with a non-album track called Que Pouvons Nous Faire Ensemble (nearing the 5-mins mark), a dreamy hippy blues with a searing guitar in the forefront. Last up is Je Voudrais Habiter Le Soleil (I wish to live on the sun) recorded in 71 as a single (at least I guess), proof that prog could be sold (or at least marketed) as a single and despite a poor recording sound, it is an excellent song; while Il Viendra (he shall come) is again in the same psych/prog vein, sometimes sounding like The Beatles on a very wiold trip, sometimes like a cool Trower-led Procol Harum.

Even though the bonus tracks don't really match the album's sound, the album proper is not exactly a very focused oeuvre (musically, because lyrically it makes a whole)

ALICE along with AME SON were the first Prog bands of their kind to come out of France in 1970 with ALICE releasing their debut and AME SON their first record "Catalyse". Unlike most I much prefer the AME SON album for it's adventerous and difficult style. ALICE recorded their album in England and were very much influenced by English bands. My initial spin had me thinking it was a fairly pedestrian sounding release but this is not the case. A surprising number of instruments involved like oboe, flute, sax, violin, vibes and all five members add percussion at some point. They were originally known as WE FREE before taking the more psychedelic name ALICE.

The opener "Axis" is my favourite by far and that start with the organ leading then the oboe is awesome. There's a lot of short tracks here with 12 songs over 40 minutes and actually the final four tunes are worth a total of seven minutes and it's not a strong finish by any stretch of the imagination especially "Mexican Song".

I'm just not into a lot of these songs like "L'Enfant" with the violin, vocals and quiet sounds. Or "L'Arbre" where I do like the tone of the guitar just not the song. I've written "not into this" beside "Le Nouveau Monde" as well. An uptempo vocal track with flute replacing the vocals on the instrumental sections. The two part "Extrait Du Circle" is pretty good but this record just didn't do a lot for me hence the 3 stars.