NON-FICTION

The 2nd album of Christian Boulé is funkier than his first one, he obviously seems to be influenced by the experiments Steve Hillage, in whose band he played, made with funk at about the same time. The funk influence is especially notable in "Chance", "Magic Fanfare" and "L.I.F.E.". "Psychedelik" is exactly what the title suggests, with "psychedelic" sounding solos from guitar and keyboards. "Viva da New Sound" is an interesting experiment of letting people sing in different languages (I recognize German, French, English, Italian and probably Japanese; there seem to be two African languages too). "Glissader Aquarian" has a very jazzy feeling. All in all not as good as his first album, but still solid 3 stars.

This is very much an album of it's time, in fact it probably sounded dated in 1979 when it came out, as it really belongs firmly in the mid-70's. The first few songs are pure pop, and don't really display the guitar style for which Christian was more well-known, namely glissando. Think of that and think of Gong, and Christian did tour with Steve Hillage for a while as second guitarist (and can be heard on 'Live Herald').

While numbers such as "Psychedlik" are much more jazz-oriented and interesting from a prog point of view, the overall feel is of an album that while fairly enjoyable isn't one to be rushed out and purchased immediately. Accessible, with lyrics in English the reissue also contains two songs that were recorded in 1999.

Originally appeared in Feedback #69, Aug 02