L'ECHELLE DU DESIR released by Jack Dupon
Jack Dupon is a fictional character that names the band, not by any means one of the musicians that compose this French outfit. Well, that’s a way to start it in the right foot: a band that is conceptual to the point of choosing the name based on that exactly! Then I start listening to the music and the second foot is also placed where it belongs: everywhere! I mean, this band really explores and defies, and then it has one of the best (and rarest) attributes : attitude!
This French band dares to be adventurous in a great part of the extension that the word implies: they are heavy and sweet, pragmatic and explorers, funny and horrifying, and so on.
The attitude is also extended by many levels: the listener is constantly challenged in musical and lyrical terms like with Frank Zappa; the guitars are dissonant and aggressive à la Sebkha-Chott (latest album) and from King Crimson to Fractal; the music enthralls in a constant vortex of changes, reminding Etron Fou Leloblanc and (recent) Zomb; the bass playing and its hard jazzy sound is tremendously effective in transporting us to Primus and Les Calypool/Buckethead territories; the strange psychedelic parts are like a (early) Pink Floyd / Gong hybrid; the vocals are insidious and highly personalized, sometimes the character appears sounding like a full alcoholic clown making fun at black metal vocalists and then asking for all its fellow clowns to sing children songs that serve as background choruses for the emphatically chaotic (and sometimes almost circus) music. Other times the singer sounds like a theater character, interpreting the legendary Christian Decamps from Ange’s fame or following the steps of no-less gifted Mr Doctor, de infamous mystery man behind Devil Doll.
The band is heavy but very, very experimental, with a semi-punk and full psychedelic progressive mindset, daring to ignore frontiers and tiers and just messing with the whole dimensions that rock, chamber, RIO, prog and avant-garde provide when put together.
A truly surprising album that, for the right adventurous listeners, should have ended up being in the top list for 2008. Perhaps it was not discovered my most? Well, it should!
