Troc - 1972 - Troc

Troc

1972

Troc

01. Kali Lo 6:40

02. Truth Verite 6:32

03. Old Man River 6:25

04. Did You Ever 4:12

05. Plum 3:30

06. Sticktime 10:23

Alex Ligertwood — vocals

Henri Giordano — grand piano, Fender piano

André Ceccarelli — drums

Jannick Top — bass (1, 2, 4, 6, 8)

Jacky Giraudo — guitar (1, 2, 4, 6, 8)

Françis Moze — bass (3, 5, 7)

Claude Engel — guitar (3, 7)

In the tradition of Miles Davis, Weather Report and others taking jazz to new shores in the early Seventies, “Troc” was a legendary yet short-lived quintet whose only album was issued in 1972 – a rough diamond from the seams of jazz/ rock and other hallucinatory experiments…

Drummer André Ceccarelli recently reformed the group to record “Troc 2011” for Universal and its success leads to this Frémeaux reissue of the band’s epic first album

Once you get past the strange vocals it's actually fairly decent. Actually the vocals aren't nearly as annoying, because often they're utilised more in a rhythmical fashion to propel the instrumental work. The awkward moments do arrive on "Plum" where lines like "my baby loves me for sure..." or "my baby's name is Plum..." hover over an obscure fusion lick generated by Rhodes. You just can't combine some stuff guys - it's like mixing syrup with salt or something.

Vocals aside, it's stylistically closer to something like early Zao or a random obscure US fusion band that likes to ramble in rhythms and warped harmonic settings. I don't hear any Embryo here as that band took a much more streamlined sound after about '74 and was more looser in their work before that. These Frenchmen are instrumentally gifted guys and they can groove or swing pretty hard on some of these stronger tracks such as "Kali Lo", "Truth Verite" and "Did You Ever".