Speed Limit - 1974 - Speed Limit

Speed Limit 

1974 

Speed Limit

01. Sleep walker (11:12)

02. Pava (5:04)

03. Abra (2:57)

04. Spanish Dream (9:16)

05. Ballad To Laura Antonelli (6:31)

06. Ducky (3:58)

Jorge Jinda: drums

Jeff Seffer: wind instruments

JL Bucchi: electric piano

Gerard Curbillon: guitars

Joel "dud" Dugrenot: bass

Shiroc: percussion

Recorded at Alain Français Studio, Paris.

A jazz-rock quintet formed around MAGMA alumni Sheffer, Dugrenot and Top, Speed Limit recorded two albums in the middle of the 70's, the first being closer to Bitches Brew, Body Electric (Weather Report) and Elastic Rock (Nucleus) than Upon The Wings Of Music (Ponty), Elegant Gypsy (DiMeola) and Metheny's Offramp. The second is much more adventurous, mixing early XXth Century classical composers to their proggier sound and adding up a string quartet Their music was never far away from experimental or dissonant music, obviously veered a bit on Zeuhl grounds as well. While Speed Limit wouldn't break new grounds, they had some ambitious tracks, like the sidelong Pastoral Idyl on their second album, which is clearly the group's most outstanding achievement. By the end of the 70's Speed Limit was already forgotten by most of the public and the musicians had turned to other projects.

Speed Limit's debut album is a very interesting collaboration between ex-Magma and ex-Zao Seffer and Bucchi (the other pillar of this group along with bassist Dugrenot), and musically it sounds like a cross between good early 70's jazz-rock (Soft Machine and Nucleus style) and Zeuhl music (more Zao than Magma). Graced with a double-headed parakeet paper collage for artwork, the album takes us into deep early jazz-rock ala Miles or Nucleus, where Bucchi's electric piano gets its share of exposition.

Starting on the 11-mins torrid fusion of Sleep Walker, SL is certainly not going faster than the speed of light, but Seffer's sax intervention drives the group red hot into the groove they chose, while Curbillon's guitar remains mainly rhythmic. The much shorter Pava is a slower builder but manages the same red-hot intensity. The even shorter Abra is more or less full on weird noises that simulates a newborn giggles and groans coming from Seffer's sax squeals and percussions, providing a bit of humor.

A squealy sax opens the flipside and the first few times, you'll check your stylus for dirt and clean the vinyl uselessly, but it's all part of the track's deliria and drama of Spanish Dream. Fundamentally, there aren't many differences between Seffer's material and Bucchi's, they're both fairly similar, stuck somewhere between Bitches Brew, Nucleus and mid-Soft Machine. The following Ballad is a bit of a bore, never getting past the late night or pre-dawn jazz noodlings. Fortunately the closing Ducky recuperates the same superb intensity present throughout most of the album.