OG MUSIQUE

"oG Musique" is a Crossover Prog project from Belgium founded by a man who wants to keep a low profile, so there is very little information about him or the people involved in the making of the albums. Six studio albums have been released since 2009, the sixth one being called "Water Birds" which was released in June of 2019. The album has 14 tracks which span a total run time of just over 42 minutes, so the tracks are mostly short. The line-up for this album consists of oG on bass, guitars, sitar, steel guitar, piano, synth , organ and vocals; JP Gerard on organ for many of the tracks and guitar on track 5; Quanah Zimmerman on electric guitar, Will Z. on percussion and Alice Artaud on vocals.

The album starts off with one of the longer tracks at almost 5 minutes, "Insects Generated By Plants". The music is a swirling of chimes, synths, and nice effects, plus various other instruments. It is a symphony of spacey and textural sounds and music that flows beautifully under a synth pattern and free-melody. It is a beautiful beginning, one that immerses and transports you to a textural world built upon musical sounds and tonal architecture. "The Pyrallis" has a generated rhythmic pattern that is upbeat and a rolling synth playing in a low register while chords and shimmering sounds surround it. The song builds to a thick wall of sound by the end. "The Golden Fruit" has a soft guitar pattern that is more melodic with support from more synths and wordless vocals. "The Mermecolion" has a moderate rhythm with a chunky bass that churns along heavily while light notes sparkle from the synths and spacey, warbling effects play on the fringe of it all. "The Arimaspians" has a distinct start/stop guitar pattern that creates it's own rhythm while percussion, high chimes and more spacey synths play around the pattern.

So far, this is quite a pleasant collection of smartly thought out soundscape nuggets that take you quickly from one distinct style to another. "The Gold Bee" has a ticking, percussive sound with melodic keys and supported by tonal effects. Listening closely, you can hear the steel guitar in the background and more clicking percussive noises begin later. "Griffins" has a more persistent and distinct rhythm and the music is more pronounced with a heavy bass, guitars and synth passages. A standard melody seems to be on the brink of this track, but other than some passing riffs, it never gets to that point. Still, as is all the music here, it is captivating and nice. "The Blemmyae" has fast moving synth lines providing a bass pattern and other tonal sounds with a strange almost vocal quality to the dissonant chords from the guitar and metallic clanging. There are quite a few layers to pick out here, and they all get more intense as the track continues.

"Perytons" is suddenly quite heavy with hard guitars playing a repeating riff and guitars chiming over the top of the pattern. A shuffling percussive sound builds the intensity a bit and then it returns to the original pattern and melody. "The Kraken" fades in while the previous track fades out, and it is also more guitar based, but with a fast, somewhat subdued drumming effect, probably electronically produced. Various guitars and synths shimmer and sparkle along while the rhythm persists and spacey vibes and squealing guitars give it all a psychedelic feel. A crashing cymbal brings in more intensity and the groove turns it into an almost toe-tapper. "Hydra" breaks down the happiness of the previous track with a dissonant clanging passage and strange wordless vocal sounds with a track that sounds like an unpleasant procession of some kind. This is quite a contrast to the previous track.

"Hyperborean Frogs" is the longest track on the album at almost 7 minutes. Strange guitar and synth effects subtly create a strange atmosphere with a organ that sounds like something from Pink Floyd's early psychedelic meanderings. The bassey guitar provide the image of chaotic frogs and a higher guitar brings up images of frogs hopping around while the sparse organ holds it all together as it meanders along. It all has a strangely pastoral feel to it, but there is nothing normal about the music going on here, but it is definitely psychedelic and without any kind of standard melody as it all seems improvised. This is definitely inspired by Pink Floyd's early work and could have easily fit on "Ummagumma". "The All Ears" takes over as the previous track flow into it with a high pitched tone and then some cool effects, probably created by processed churning guitar, make for some interesting sounds. Later, on top of this, chiming, single notes from the guitar create a melodic line. Very cool. "Water Birds" ends the album with water effects and a steel guitar playing a mournful, yet lovely melody, again with a nice Pink Floyd sound that resolves everything on the album, the dissonant passages and odd effects. Then, a nice wordless vocal comes in over it all while the steel guitar continues. Beautiful ending to a very dynamic and variant journey.

I absolutely love this. The album takes you through several styles and textural pieces, never resting too long on any of the soundscapes, but developing everything enough to not sound choppy or disjointed as one might expect with so many short tracks. The music is gorgeous, ugly, strange, lovely, melodic and non-melodic, but it all wonderfully ties together with the final track. This is one that must be heard in it's entirety, because it all fits together. I know a lot of people may not be attracted to it's experimental feel, but it is really easy to listen to since it flows along so well. This is probably one of the most inventive albums I have heard by a band labeled as being Crossover, because this album probably fits better in the Avant-prog category, but then it does wander to different styles, so who knows, maybe that is why it is Crossover because it does cross into different territories. But it all flows so beautifully. I have to say that this is a masterpiece, but it may not appeal to everyone as it definitely is not standard material by any means. It is excellent, dynamic, inventive and immersive and I can easily give it 5 stars. One of the best this year for sure.

Nice ... you have to be in a smooth temper, then just relax and drift away into OG MUSIQUE's special realm. 'La Transformation' is the second album meanwhile, a rather entertaining instrumental excursion with candied melodies - a cool album full of relatively short songs which sometimes seem to be excerpts from longer extended recordings. Here we have a cornucopia of styles included which comprises psych, folk, pop, jazz, rock and classical elements. OG MUSIQUE is the moniker for Belgian musician oG who's the mastermind behind this project and handles guitar, bass and organ, supported by Nicolas Léonard on drums/piano plus some additional string and brass collaborators.

Acoustic guitars and flute serve a strong folk feeling from the beginning - the organ style though reminds me of Bo Hansson on Les Berges Du Ciel, also provided with some trumpet impressions an outstanding composition. Le Combat and the two following songs are much more psych coloured due to oG's electric guitar and spacey organ. L'envol - La Reine Bleue on the other hand appears more jazzy funky in the whole. And finally I would like to point out L'épreuve - La Métamorphose - L'accomplissement - the longest song concerning title and playtime, decorated with excellent multiple guitar appearance - a combination of indo/raga, acoustic and gilmouresque Pink Floyd reminiscence - even experimental in some way because of a weird organ finale.

'La Transformation' showcases noteworthy songwriting and musicianship in general, except the simplistic drum playing somehow - not really disturbing, but a bit left out in the cold as for my impression. All in all you'll listen to relaxed songs which show a 70s retro reference, sometimes provided with a popular sentiment, but this surely is far away from common mainstream productions on the other hand. Obviously nothing for headbangers - so much the more dedicated to lovers of charming music.

3.5 stars really!!!

OG is a one-man project where he writes and produces, but plays guitars, bass and plays the organ. He's assisted by drummer/pianist Nicolas Léonard and a bunch of other musos, including a string section and a horn section - I'm using the "section" word liberally here, because these "sections" are not always used in a "section" way, if you get my drift. Og is from Eastern Belgium and obviously knows other artistes, since the superb artwork was drawn by the famous sci-fi comics drawer Philippe Druillet

Musically the album has a gentle mostly-instrumental rock-jazz feel with some prog overtones, but it's clear that those searching for complicated music will likely be bored out of their skull. Besides the naïve music (especially the first five tracks), the drums are the weak point of the album. It's all too square, never a roll, never a break, just the basic union- minimum (minimum syndical). BTW, whatever few vocals there are, are generally choirs (non-Kobaian) and a spoken few grunts around the end of the album.

Actually you can feel Og is primarily a guitarist, not only in his songwriting, but because it is when the guitars get louder that the music becomes more lively and credible. The bass playing doesn't have the same problem, it actually is mixed loud enough (I hate having to really push my head into the speaker to listen to the bassist), and here it is near-perfect. Sooooo, for me, the album really starts with Le Combat, where the bass & guitars take control and grab your attention and a bit of adrenaline is flowing through our veins, but unfortunately, it ends all too soon. What a contrast with the following L'Ennui, where the piano bores you back, except when the guitar wakes up for a short while. Le Halo is another excellent moment as are a few more further down the album, especially with an enthralling organ (not a Hammond, I think) Matin Triomphant has a good violin intervention, while L'Envol has a good flute and guitar interplay, underlined by AHM-like Floydian choirs. The latter piece is book-ended by short electronic intro and outro. The climax of the album is clearly the early Floyd-ian trilogy Epreuve/Metamorphose/Accomplissement

Overall, an enthusiastic first oeuvre with all the naïve errors of a one-man show (the basic drumming for ex), but a very promising one at that, thus allowing us bright hopes for the future.