Red Noise - 1970 - Sorcelles-Lochères

Red Noise 

1970 

Sorcelles-Lochères

01. Cosmic Toilet Ditty 0:40

02. Caka Slow / Vertebrate Twist 4:25

03. Obsession Sexuelle N°1 0:30

04. Galactic Sewer-Song 4:05

05. Obsession Sexuelle N°2 0:15

06. Red Noise Live Au Café Des Sports 2:05

07. Existential-Import Of The Screw-Driver Eternity Twist 2:05

08. 20 Mirror Mozarts Composing On Tea Bag And 1/2 Cup Bra 2:30

09. Red Noise En Direct Du Buffet De La Gare - 2e partie 2:20

10. À La Mémoire Du Rockeur Inconnu 0:35

11. Petit Précis D'Instruction Civique 0:35

12. Sarcelles C'Est L'Avenir 20:00

Philip Barry / guitar, drums, voices

Austin Blue / percussion

Jean Claude Cencu / flute, saxophone, voices, wind

Daniel Geoffroy / bass, electric bass, voices

John Livengood / organ, hammond organ

Patrick Vian / guitar, voices

PATRICK VIAN, a son of Boris Vian (a French poet / writer / jazz musician), was born on Apr. 12, 1942 in Angoulême, France. Obviously influenced by his father Boris, he had been much interested in music and joined various rock projects including RED NOISE as a guitarist in his student days. After Red Noise disbanded, he composed and offered some of the music for the film named Hu-Man (produced by Jérôme Laperrousaz) in 1975. And finally in the following year, as a synthesizer player, Patrick recorded his solo work "Bruits Et Temps Analogues" (1976), produced by Jérôme Laperrousaz and released via Egg label, owned by Barclay Records (lots of promising musicians like Vangelis or Tim Blake were under contract with this company).

RED NOISE were formed as a French anarchic outfit in late 1960s by Patrick VIAN (guitar), a son of a French poet / writer / jazz musician Boris Vian. It's said they've played on stage defended in barricades in Université Sorbonne. They released one and only album "Sarcelles Lochères" in 1970 and soon were disbanded in the same year. Their indomitable spirit for rock music could be taken over by another French project named KOMINTERN.

Anyway, Patrick Vian should be a tremendous talent methinks. Later he released a solo album as a synthesizer player (not a guitarist), and in his solo work, we can find another gem slightly different from This RED NOISE's interesting noises, named "Sarcelles-Locheres".

Starting off with a man making his way to the toilet having a nice little wee, a certain style emerges pretty quickly with this band...

More than once I was reminded of early Frank Zappa - both humour-wise but also in the peculiar fusion that is scattered all through this little rascal of an album. Apart from the second cut Caka Slow / Vertebrate Twist (whatever that means) most of this album consists of small ditties akin to the likes you'd find on The Who's Sell Out - yet infinitely more Zappaesque in nature. These twaddle about somewhere between the feel of the early Mothers to some wonderfully executed psych mantraing, which often steams up like rising sauce bearnaise - much credited to the fantastic see sawing guitar work.

Although short lived Red Noise deserve to be remembered for what they were, which was a rebellious musical unit that much in the spirit of the times - played at the University of Sorbonne, back when make love not war turned into flip 'em the bloody bird and occupy the land, if they don't get it and aren't attuned in to the great big socialistic movement. There's a good portion of theatrics from the times that soak through in this band - and you literally feel transported back on those walls protesting, shouting - smoking till your knees grow backwards, whenever this record starts mumbling from your speakers...

Some tracks here have that late 60s momentum harking back to the feel of The Pretty Things - others take their inspiration from back-alley cool jazz that waft on by you like a Parisiènne black cat - straight out of that old Van Gogh painting. The mixture is fun, charming and mad like a rhubarb.

Then we get to the last cut, and all hell breaks loose! The bubbling unbridled and unchecked rage lurking just beneath the surface suddenly decides that it can no longer be held back. It erupts into a flaming bonfire of lunacy - and we get exploding lava streams of free jazz and fiery guitar rivers that egg each other on like a poisonous married couple that feed off anger and angst - funnelling all of the hurt and madness - all of that goo into one huge catapulting hail Mary - GO WIDE Honey!!!

Brute drumming with emphasis on the bass drum, booming growling walking bass, confused flute flutters, disorientated organs that creep up the walls like big black centipedes of sound and the tormented presence of the guitar that rambles along like an anti-hero on amphetamine and coffee.

Is it rock, is it jazz, is it jazz-rock, is it free, is it rock in opposition ? Who cares ... It was certainly improvised in part, it has flute in it, funny songs titles, songs durations going from 12 seconds to almost 19 minutes, and it still sounds nice and modern 50 years later.