CRÉATION DE L'UNIVERS

Xings Sa have delivered a truly impressive album with their Création De L'Univers debut. The band is a side project of the - equally obscure - French Zeuhl band Setna. Création De L'Univers is basically a progressive jazz-rock album but the steady hypnotizing rhythms and the occasional guest vocals give it just enough Zeuhl credibility to file it as such.

The album feels like a jazzy, more relaxed and spacious version of Guapo's Five Suns. Also Magma's 1001 Centigrades comes to mind. On occasion there are influences from Area (check the Arabian theme halfway in the opening track) and the first part of Metal isn't far removed from the tripping bleakness of Massive Attack's Mezzanine. A couple of tracks feature vocals that chant along with the music. They are quite subtle and certainly not as distressing as Magma's vocals might be to some.

In other words, the band offers a fresh and inspired melting pot of slightly dark avant jazz-rock, created by a trio of drums, bass and organ/mellotron, with the occasional help from guest vocals and sax. The band sounds very confident and keeps their improvisations very focused, never too long or indulging in unnecessary solos. It isn't as dense and dark as Guapo or Nebelnest, but on the plus side it means the music remains fairly accessible and might serve as a good introduction for this type of modern Zeuhl/Avant rock.