Outer Music Diary

Maajun - Vivre La Mort Du Vieux Monde. 1971. As I’ve stated in a couple of places already, two words that go so well together are Wacky and French. Mix in 1971 and Underground Rock and you have the perfect Champagne Cocktail. There’s the expected juxtapositions that match the anguished French tantrums with the delicate flute, the heavy electric guitar with the spacey voice, the menacing violin with the soft acoustic guitar, the screeching sax with the chanting monks. Well, we could go all day here. It’s what you would expect from an album that translates more or less to “Long Live the Death of the Old World”. This unabashed creativeness defines the time and place. Makes you almost want to riot at La Sorbonne, just as a raison d’etre. VDGG fans, listen for the French Peter Hammill-like vocals interspersed throughout here. Really a great release that is begging for a CD reissue.

Horrific Child – L’Etrange Mr. Whinster. 1976. Where would the music world be without Jean-Pierre Massiera? It certainly would be a more dull place without him. Everything he was involved with can only be described as OBSCURE. And now he’s the undisputed king of the 1970’s Euro oddball chase. And of all the albums he did, Horrific Child remains his most sought after, and arguably most eccentric release ever. The musical realization of a psychotronic B-Movie classic. If this were a movie, it would be on at 3:00 in the morning, on your cities’ last standing VHF local station. “L’Etrange Mr. Whinster” defines Massiera’s niche in life. Insanely great cover is begging for a Japanese mini-LP release.

Verto – Reel 1936. 1978. Verto is the one man guitar/electronic pseudonym of Jean-Pierre Grasset with multiple guests that seems to be modeled directly after Richard Pinhas and Heldon. And the results are similar, though less structured and more amateurish. If “Krig Volubilis” is Verto’s “Electronique Guerilla”, then “Reel 1936″ is the “Interface” except far more experimental, that reckless expression is sometimes to its detriment. There are a couple of monster cuts on here, especially the opener, but a lot of twiddly noise too.

Klockwerk Orange – Abacadabra. 1975. This is one of those albums that I’ve had on cassette tape forever. I finally managed to get a fresh CD-R of it earlier in the year and took it with me on a business trip to Detroit in June. No time like the present to get a blurb in, eh? I think one reason I have little musical memory of this album, is that it’s a pretty typical slow moving Germanic symphonic album with organ – similar to bands like Agamemnon, Faithful Breath, Indigo, Madison Dyke… that type. Now they do throw in some trumpet, and it’s played more like Herb Alpert than Miles Davis! In fact, you can almost hear a combination of ‘Tijuana Taxi’ and ELP’s ‘Manticore’. Ha-ha fun stuff. In the end, it’s a good record with a cool cover – perfect for a mini-LP reissue. But it’s not worth the $1k it sells for as an original.

Orchestra Njervudarov - Con le Orecchie di Eros. 1979. Ya know, I had this with me on that same Detroit trip. Hmm…. Anyway, this is another one of those crazy late 70’s Italian acts, mixing in rock, jazz, humor, punk, Zappa, and whatever else pops in their nutty heads. Not too far off from Roberto Colombo, Ultima Spiaggia and Gramigna. Definitely has that original RIO spirit ala the second Picchio dal Pozzo album.

Gramigna - Gran Disordine Sotto il Cielo. 1977. Wow, good thing I had some notes on this one…. it’s probably been 7 months since I heard it. This isn’t an easy one to describe. Quirky, like all on the Ultima Spiaggia label. Some chamber rock, some pop, some fusion. Female vocals. In some ways it reminds me bands like Noetra. You know it’s a good album, but you don’t get too excited about it either.