MA BANLIEUE FLASQUE

Monday, 23 July 2018

Ma Banlieue Flasque ‎ “Ma Banlieue Flasque” 1979 France Prog Jazz Rock,Avant Garde,Experimental

Ma Banlieue Flasque ‎ “Ma Banlieue Flasque”1979 France Prog Jazz Rock,Avant Garde,Experimental

Ma Banlieue Flasque sole album is an excellent work that draws from a variety of early 70s sources such as Moving Gelatine Plates, Komintern, and Frank Zappa. The music is complex, yet still melodic, with a bit of a wacky sense of humor thrown in. I’d submit that Ma Banlieue Flasque is perhaps more jazz influenced than the references above, but it I think would go down a storm with the avant prog crowd, plus those who like that European Continental fusion sound, as first pioneered and influenced by Zappa’s Hot Rats…..~

The reprint of this album was announced for some time but at the time of writing nothing has materialized in this sense and it is a real shame, since we are talking about a significant band in the French avant-garde prog that it occupies, with his only LP, the tail of a transgressive musical movement, not devoid of political colors, which started from the early seventies. At the time of the publication of their debut, on the new musical label “Celluloïd” which had also edited the Etron Fou Leloublan’s live press, the group from the northern suburbs of Paris had managed to make its reputation a small one, thanks also to a article signed by Jean-Marc Bailleux for the famous magazine “Rock & Folk”. Moreover, the band, which had existed for some years, he had several tours on his shoulders, including one in Mali. There were therefore expectations on the part of the public that certainly were not betrayed thanks to an eclectic and cheeky work that mixed the crazy insights of Zappa to the irreverence of bands like Lard Free and Mahjun with a touch of refined Canterburyan class. The cover of the album itself, created by Marie Christine Mastrandreas, is shocking and reflects the atmosphere in a certain sensepessimistic that was lived in that period in France, close to the first oil crisis, during the years of presidency of Giscard d'Estaing. A very early incarnation of the Ma Banlieue Flasque included singer G-Lesne, high school friend of the fiatist Philippe Botta, who would later become an important musician in the field of baroque music. Later the role of singer is divided between three members of the group, none of which in truth particularly gifted, and the vocal parts are reduced to bizarre choirs, dialogues and versacci however very apt in the context of a musical ensemble that at times it even appears to be self-ironic. The training does not include keyboards, for the benefit of an essential urban soundfilled entirely from the sax (more rarely from the flute) and a pair of guitars.

The opening track, “13'20 d'happyness”, is a festive and messy explosion, punctuated by a very anarchic rock base on which the notes are dragged freeof the saxophone by Philippe Botta and the disharmonic guitars by Marc Le Devedec and Philippe Maugars. The sung, in an English with a deliberately crippled accent, is irreverent and mocking. The awkward nozzles of the two guitarists and the drummer Chypo recall the style of Zappa, as well as the music, even if in this case the approach is much more rustic and epidermic. The six and a half minutes of “NSK” (abbreviation of Nov Schmoz Kapopk) close the A side in a no less weird way: we still find shrill voices, which now express themselves in French, while the music appears decidedly dynamic, sometimes even Magmatic , with an excellent work of the rhythm section that is completed by the agile and crackling bass of Loïc Gauthier.

Side B is occupied by three pieces. The opening one, “HBHV” (acronym which stands for: Hommes battus-hommes violés), amazes for its Canterburyian contaminations and its symphonic veins that are grafted however in a very animated substratum, with continuous stop & go and change of pace, as always guided by the restless saxophone and the pair of guitars. The instrumental “Aller retour les Grésillons” looks decidedly launched and engaging, with the tools that chase each other frantically and that seem to stumble continuously. The conclusive “Un soir” gives us an incredibly clean and disciplined sound, with well pronounced jazz veins and aggressive winds that can remind the Artman Urban Sax. The recording, which took place at the Auteuil studio, is of good quality and was carried out on a 16-track run in 17 days.

Despite its value, this album has been unfairly relegated to a secondary position and has not circulated much outside of France, perhaps even for the fashions of the era that were changing in favor of punk and the New Wave. The group broke up in June 1979: Loïc Gauthier and Chypo continued to play together without affecting anything with a project called Positiv'O. Philippe Botta also continues to play and in 2006 he shared the stage with Hugh Hopper and John Greaves. As it was said, the album unfortunately has not yet been reprinted, even if contacts had been made with the Musea. In the drawer the group also has some unpublished, one of which has been uploaded to their MySpace. We just have to hope for a nice re-release to which there will be a good bonus track at this point. The original vinyl is not difficult to find, so with a little ‘patience you can do it yours, which I strongly recommend to all lovers of avant-garde rock…..~

A French quintet playing varied music reminiscent of Zappa’s humoristic style, Moving Geltaine Plates and Komintern and genres such as fusion, Canterbury, with a dash of craziness and fooling around. The mix end result makes this a very enjoyable listen. This is why this will appeal to fans of jazz-rock, RIO, Canterbury and to those who like their music to travel between all those.

The lineup consists of Philippe Maugars on guitar and vocals, Marc Ledevedec on guitar, Loic Gautier on bass, Christian “Chypo” Cheype on drumms and vocals, and Philippe Botta on flute and saxophone. The vocals themselves are sometimes sang and sometimes more in a narrative style and always playful or with good mood.

They only released one s/t album in 1979 and there were rumors of Musea re-issuing it in 2005, but nothing came out of it, but it is worth to be on the lookout for it.

Good humor, cheerful atmosphere, uplifting and amusing. That can pretty much sum this up but still not give it proper credit for the band’s creativeness.

It would seem they were having fun while recording this. I can picture them smiling while playing this. The singer sounds as if he’s about to laugh at certain points, and the different vocals he’s employing, some of them deliberately odd and squeaky, emphasize the good mood and humour embedded in this album. Not only the vocals and lyrics, but the music itself tells you that this album is about goofiness, having a good time, and enjoying the tunes, and not at the expense of the music. This attitude towards the music, not entirely bereft of the theatrical aspect that I often hear in French rock-progressif though not as prominent, reminds me a but of the deliberate foolishness of Komintern’s Le Bal Du Rat Mort and of course one can hear the Zappa-esque characteristics and influences as well. Moreover, the first track is called 13’20 d’happiness; what more evidence do you need?

But don’t think the humor comes at the expense of the music; not at all. There are fabulous melodies, great rhythm and good musicianship and instrumentation. The sax and flute bring a nice contrast to the frisky guitars which seem to have a ball. There is good variation in terms of style; from rock forms (whether progressive or not) to fusion, avant-rock/experimental and even some blues thrown in there and the ever present French charm and theatrical style. It is happy, joyous and fun - A great listening experience. It may not be the most original, but the way they mix all their influences is efficient.

While not a straightforward avant-rock album, this is quite the experimental album that would please listeners of avant-rock/RIO and also those who like Jazz-rock and Canterbury or alternatively fans of Frank Zappa, Komintern, Moving Gelatine Plates and other like-minded eccentric, experimental and humorous bands and musicians.

Protocol has it, if a band exults a work till the point of artistry (and, to embrace the warm idea, produces a splendid spark of progressive rock), that band is either rare and obscure, either a popular group with a very unusual and unexpected release - it can also have a special sound or rather contemplate an overdoze of a musical vision, fit a peculiar/particular frame of styles or swipe the floor with the competition.

Ma Banlieue Flasque is typical for the first category (in each case). However of a rare goody, an atypical flavor, an insensible grandeur and an unspectacular energy their music would appear, it is still a well-spotted, heavy, curious and upside-down trendy act, close to perfect for those who see in prog rock a hobby of sizes, a real treat and a place for pure art trying to be born out of rock. Their fizzy and snappy moment is not even part of prog rock’s beginning cult, but rather of its ending years of classic jubilation, performing with much of the expanded, vulturous, emphasized or honest progressiveness, while a second style of post-modern sounds or strange jamming is also part of their view. There’s only one album to prove their worthiness, and despite that the rock quintet didn’t start nor ended their rock life with it, everything focuses on the album and how it can enchant. Ma Banlieue Flasque pretty much play all their cards with this short one-off project.

Even if a rather bolted choice of heavy music, Ma Banlieue Flasque is yet far from a mash of emotions and unbearable rock, the same thing going for the pleasure of listening what looks like a more critic-oriented composition. Admirable, at least for me, is that the influence taken from the RIO/Avant classic courses (apparently Zappa was a great inspiration and a musician to be improvised for them) doesn’t trim the feeling of a prog rock classic beat, meaning, on one hand, that there are other artists doing a more extorted or impossible to describe art out of their music (most being RIO-ists or crazy Zeuhlists), and that, on the other hand, a few elements (like the ragged dark-bass tone or the cool-headed improvisation of symphonic, art rock, avant and jazzy chords) keep the album’s special warmth inside the culture of pure and artistic, only dependent on difficulty and curiosity rock. For such a reason the links with Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator sound promising, even if it doesn’t mean a proper comparison. The music is, essentially, a lot freer and unbounded upon listening, it only stays of a fuzzy virtuosity.

The five musicians impress not by a cleansing emotion, but by a staggering energy (called “fooling around” whenever it lacks rigorousness), leaving the music a bit impure, yet more loaded. The thrills of a special sound, like the mellow one created by the saxophone or the flute, alternates with the pressured high strung of the usual instruments, like the firing drums, the serious drums or the well-dozed bass. A bit of the sound and the music is hard to categorize, otherwise there is a lively special approach of music, rock and post-modern tensions. Ledevedec’s and Maugars’s electric guitar spectacle is one thing, whilst the delicacy of a few acoustic hidden harmonies is touching. The vocals are not stunning (nor too important), but give an air to the rest of the whirlpool jam.

Ma Banlieue Flasque lasts under 40 minutes, with a treacherous and unequal epic being anyway supreme in comparison with the rest of the album (the four pieces left are from light to dissonant and clothed), is intense and creative, and proves a pleasant model in combining the more unusual prog rock with the complex character of an artistic sensibility and the cold ambiance of a dynamic chromatic.

This band’s rare pearl isn’t perfect, neither sensational (for the masses), but feels a lot like an obscure record with an authentic sound of hard-worked rock. Turning a harsh strip of difficult listening into impressive music, solid art and veracious prog, Ma Banlieue Flasque’s fumigating underground realization is, nolens volens……~

It is often a meeting or a chance reading that reactivates memories that might have been thought to have finally vanished in the mists of the past. Familiar beings or long-cherished objects can thus gradually fade from memories. And then one day, on a forum, a message, modest and catchy, arouses the attention, retains the interest. It is about a group, a record and, suddenly, at the same time, we immerse ourselves in our memories, seek to see clearly in the flow of these and there, when we expected the least, resurgence of images, bits of sound and a sudden desire to re-hear what for the moment we can only imagine. Fortunately, a Spaceis dedicated to the group where we had the good idea to make available to the curious, nostalgic and amateur, the entire album (as well as unpublished). Immediately we start looking for the album on the shelves … But the years that passed were sometimes destructive and the album has also faded during some unknown incident. So we get it urgently, in its original format - no CD edition available at the moment - and we make the decision to devote a little of his time to repeated and attentive listening of the album.

When, in 1979, appeared the album of Ma Banlieue Flasque (on a new label which is called to grow, Celluloïd LTM 1021), the group already has a reputation with some lucky ones who could see them playing and who hope a lot of their first record production.

Some echoes in music magazines ( Rock & Folk in the column “Basque Beret”, under the signature of Jean-Marc Bailleux, for example) suggest an album impatiently awaited. This one is recorded in March 1979 and is published a few months later. For my part, it was at the end of the same year that I was able to get it and, if my memories are trustworthy, I immediately liked this album for a number of reasons.

The first is obviously that it was part of a kind of musical tradition that could be identified immediately and that corresponded to my own path - I would quote, in bulk, Hatfield & the North or National Health, Zappa (several passages from 13 '20 of Happiness inevitably refer to it), Magma and Potemkin (for the French) and Henry Cow . Convenient landmarks that can be oriented but do not say everything about the disc.

Because it is an artistically ambitious and original record to which we are attached here. Because it’s creative that’s about it. With some humor (the words are deliciously strange and sometimes surreal) and a fierce will to touch just without being confused by the fashions of the time and imperatives of the news (the tone is given by the punk already in regression path and the conquering new wave).

But let’s talk about music Which is not the least argument. It is enough to say that the musicians play excellently and that the composers are bold and do not neglect any element of surprise. The guitars work in different registers depending on the pieces, the sax is incisive and playful, adding throughout the album this little color that Didier Malherbe knew to make so essential to the music of Gong. Each one contributes to the blossoming of a music that plays with the contrasts, the breaks, the sudden accelerations and that spares spaces so that each musician contributes his stone to the building which, from listening to listening, consolidates itself of small details, more sustained notes, inventive rhythmic figures and bass patterns (see NSK) that revive the ensemble.

No doubt there was a record which again proved that in France it was also a time when French musicians could rise to a level of creativity that had nothing to envy to that of their English elders. It only took a few additional conditions for the music produced in France to be the subject of a more enthusiastic public reception (better distribution, less reluctance in record stores and more support from the press specialized) and especially wider because, enthusiasm, some had for all others …..~

Credits
Bass [Basse] – Loïc Gauthier
Drums [Batterie], Voice [Chant] – Chypo
Flute, Saxophone [Saxo] – Philippe Botta
Guitar [Guitare], Voice [Chant] – Marc Le Devedec, Philippe Maugars