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Turzi starts out "A," the first song on his album of the same name, with a refined synthesized staccato in the vain of Tangerine Dream and builds over the course of the release into chugging minimalist grooves. In an attempt to make this a conceptual album, each song starts out with the first letter of the alphabet. There's "Afghanistan," a Middle Eastern synth and guitar rocker, "Acid Taste," a driving, mechanical ditty, and the winding, proggish melancholy of "Axis of Good." These songs are all hard-driving, slightly jagged, up-tempo jams that take cues from Kraftwerk side-project Neu!, and French psychedelic artists like Kill for Total Peace and Aqua Nebula Oscillator. As a bonus, this release comes with a code that can be redeemed for a free downloadable compilation of similar-minded artists titled "Voyage: Facing the History of French Modern Psychedelic Music." Despite the fact that psychedelic music is typically loose and free-flowing, modern French psych is extremely clinical and, more often than not, the song foundations are largely instrumental over straight 4/4 beats. When there are lyrics, they are softly uttered through rivers of reverb over the eerie hammering rhythms. Either album would make a perfect soundtrack for a night drive in a Trans Am T-top winding through the cool breezes of a Transylvanian hillside. A distant familiarity and timelessness are abundant throughout A especially when "Attila Blues," a sped up, tom-heavy, Love & Rockets number, explores "another world/in another time/in another place/with another face." At times, parts of the record become monotonous, and sometimes particular sections stretch and drag, but overall this is a strong endeavor that effectively re-creates music from the past with slightly warmer electro updates to make it all seem relevant, and it should be interesting to see what the letter B will bring -- brainy blips and beats that belong in the background of Blade Runner, presumably.
Condition:NEW. Marked UPC.
TRACK LISTINGS
Disc: 1
1. Smokes (One Switch To Collision)
2. Heavy Horse (Lisa Li Lund)
3. Ready to Fly (Aqua Nebulla Oscillator)
4. I Was Down (Wolf Rayet)
5. The Dog (Service)
6. High America (Juan Trip)
7. Sin (Butch McKoy)
8. New Orleans (Chicros)
9. Mantra (Mogadishow)
10. Psychopedestrian (Kill for Total Peace)
11. Beware (Musikasphaera)
12. Tremolo Army (Turzi)
13. The Countess's Smiles (Ulysse)
14. Doudouk (Etienne Jaumet)
15. Improvisation (Rob)
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