Cortex - Troupeau Bleu (Mary & Jeff)
The French jazzrock band Cortex ought to be getting a lot of notice in these days of sampling and turntabling as so much of their music is based on definite grooves and as such is more allied to American music than a lot of their contemporaries. The obvious inspiration for this first album is Flora Purim-led Return to Forever vocally, but like many other groups coming out of France in the 70s, there’s a lot of chromaticism and dissonance of the type that instantly reminds me of those early Star Trek soundtracks and, later, Zao and Cos. In fact they definitely share a lot of similarities with Cos as Cortex have the tendency to play it cutesy at times (something increasingly so on later albums), but at least on Troupeau Bleu it’s the original funky jazz rock backbones that take control as the album progresses. I’ve had this for a while and felt it average, but definitely like it better this revisit, enough to ping it to the head of the 9s column with a nod towards a 10.
Chou Pahrot - Live
Scots Chou Pahrot draw a fairly unusual progressive rock. I’ve heard the High Tide comparisons and agree particularly as far as the tone of the violin is concerned and the band’s reliance on some occasionally tricky unison lines. High Tide’s milieu was heavy acid rock where here there’s definitely a concentration on progressive rock, although not of the rare symphonic type that 1979 would imply. The music’s definitely raw, fairly unbridled and ambitious as hell even if the whole band musically sounds like it’s walking the highwire. It’s that sort of fresh and dangerous sound that makes it pretty appealing in the end, although as a listener I’m not as interested in the structural riffing as I would be in a little better songwriting. But anything even this mildly anachronistic is always a fascinating listen.
The Mike Nock Underground - Between or Beyond
A near definitive MPS record, despite Nock’s New Zealand origin, this resembles artists like Volker Kriegel, Association P.C. and the like in a couple tracks, with the squirly ring-modulated Rhodes, but also touches on some post bop as well. Like much of the label it’s all well played and while the entirety might be somewhat inconsistent in terms of flow, almost of the compositions are quite good with influences from Tyner, Hancock, Silver and the like. Nock’s Fourth Way roots are also pretty obvious, although this seems to be leaning away in parts from being too closely associated with that band, especially with the leaner lineup. An album whose rarity is probably strongly associated with the glowing psychedelic snakes on the cover; anyone who ended up with one is likely to be quite happy with it.