Laurent Petitgirard - s/t (1972 France). One of the more interesting instrumental rock albums from early 1970s France is Pop Instrumental de France, which was a pseudonym for Laurent Petitgirard. This album represents the followup. Perhaps a little less “Le Fun GoGo Pop” and a bit more towards serious jazz rock with classical overtones. For soundtrack fans, Petitgirard is a household name, and he’s still scoring films and concertos all these many years later. While PIdF received a legit reissue on Vadim not long ago, his followup has fallen into the deep chasm. Laurent himself seems to have disowned it, as not a word about it appears on his own website. That’s too bad, because this a lovely set of instrumental tunes, perfect for that spring afternoon drive on a winding two lane trek through the mountains. Perhaps Vadim has their eye on this one as well. Let’s hope so.
Alain Renaud - s/t (1975 France).
Alain Renaud - Out of Time (1976 France). Alain Renaud played on some of the early Heldon albums, and his sound is somewhat similar, especially on the first. Long drifting cosmic pieces of electronics and guitar. Not as menacing or as immediate as Pinhas’ works. I’ve had the first Renaud album since the mid 1980s, so I have a sentimental soft spot for it. “Out of Time” is a completely different affair. Here, Renaud mixes instrumental rock fusion with some vocal oriented tracks (extremely ill advised I must add) that have me coiling in despair. There is one longish electronic piece similar to the debut, that’s quite nice. A reissue of the first, with a couple of bonus tracks taken from the second would be ideal.
Jean Le Fennec - Phantastic (1969 France). Le fun Go-Go psych pop, no? Oui! (mademoiselle giggle, giggle). Le Fennec’s sole album is a bit more hokey and exploito than others of his ilk, most notably William Sheller’s Popera Cosmic. It is also very vocal heavy and since it’s all in French (fortunately), perhaps some of the work is lost in translation, though somehow I doubt it. Other than some wonderfully placed fuzz guitar, in that phantastic French tradition of super compression, there’s not much to hold onto here. Musicologists and the Incredibly Strange crowd may disagree. Never been reissued on CD.