A pinnacle of the Rock In Opposition movement. Second and final album from Belgian avant-rock pioneers Aksak Maboul, recorded with ex-Henry Cow members Fred Frith and Chris Cutler. More intense and experimental than their playful 1977 debut Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine, yet no less unpredictable. Reached #3 in NME's top ten European albums of 1980, after Yello and The Nits, before Steve Reich and Faust.
Marc Hollander founded Crammed Discs specifically to release this record - the label that would go on to shape global alternative music for four decades. Recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland in February and August 1979, mixed by Etienne Conod and Frith. The expanded lineup features Frank Wuyts (keyboards), Denis van Hecke (cello) from COS, and Michel Berckmans (bassoon, oboe) from Univers Zero. Co-founder Vincent Kenis arranged two tracks but did not perform.
The music defies any single categorization - complex written sections sit alongside totally improvised ambient pieces, sampling before samplers existed, drum machines, bassoons, Bulgarian and Pygmy and Polynesian and Delta Blues voices, tangos, a Turkish folk tune ("I Viaggi Formano la Gioventú"), crypto-punk ("Inoculating Rabies"), pseudo-Varèse orchestration. The monster 23-minute "Cinema" is the album's centerpiece - abstract chamber rock that builds through free jazz squalls, woodwind cascades, and guitar noise into something genuinely unprecedented. The closing "Age Route Brra! (Radio Sofia)" is an improvised imitation of a Bulgarian radio talk show.
Aksak Maboul joined the RIO movement in April 1979, performing at the festival at Teatro dell'Elfo in Milan alongside Art Bears, Univers Zero, Stormy Six. By 1980, the core merged with Brussels band Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel to form The Honeymoon Killers, featuring vocalist Véronique Vincent - but that's another story.
An extraordinarily wide-ranging album that typifies exactly what RIO is about: twisting baroque and café music on its head, blending everything from Stravinsky to Zappa, getting deep and dark with chamber rock while maintaining a wicked sense of humor. Every track a surprise. Still as fresh as ever.
Japanese mini-LP sleeve edition on high-fidelity SHM-CD. Essential for admirers of Henry Cow, Art Bears, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, Recommended Records, and the whole RIO universe.
