When I first met one of my good friend's we were attempting to out weird each other with the bands we liked, swapping tapes and CD's in one of the sad ways males try to get on. I had already passed him a tape of some mad Japanese racket and his retort was a tape of a Japanese grind torture opus that made the room close in on me. Maybe another time I thought and switched the tape over. [This has been slightly contentious over the years between my friend and I but as far as I remember he didnt recommend the other side. A friend had taped it for him and he had never played it].

The LP begins with a pleasant accoustic picked guitar but my initial memory is of what comes immediately after; BANG, CRASH, wild guitar, drums and vocals jumping from one rhythm to another with fast tempo and precision timing. The vocals especially grabbed my attention straight away, a shouting,screeching but also gruff female voice that sounded angry, derisory, satirising and leapt all over the place with the music, almost ecstatic at times in its accusing. That fact that the voice was in French and I didn't have a clue what this person said didn't matter to me at all, just the sheer nerve and feeling had me hooked. And then the music easing down and the singing turning into a beautiful sympathetic melody for a minute or so, then onto an angry voice again but this time spoken with cymbols crashing in the background. More little melodies then the band comes in fully again, this time with bass and saxophone playing the same Arabic type melody and the drummer using the kit all sorts of strange ways.

The rest of the LP didnt quite make it onto my memory banks first time around but after playing it to my friend we became well acquainted with it within several days. So we did some research and found out that the band was called Etron Fou Leloublan which translates as Crazy shit, the white wolf. It was their first LP and it was recorded in 1976. They were the main French representatives of a western European music collective called Rock In Opposition fronted by English band Henry Cow. Basically the collective attempted to challenge the commercial, creative and sociopolitical aims of mass market popular music. I haven't read much about Rock in opposition so whether they managed to bring down popular music you will have to research yourself dear reader.

Also what I found out was that the vocalist was in fact a man, one Chris Chanet, aka Eulalie Ruynat. Unfortunately for Etron Fou he left them before Batelages was even released. He also played the saxophone which manages to get wilder as the LP progresses. The music I described above turned out to the first song, 18 minutes of jazz, punk avant guard mayhem with what seems like some sort of mixture of French music hall and comedy satire. Apparently its about the Lewd adventures of a short Rabbi. I did once ask a French friend to translate but she said that, although it was in a French dialect and she could just about get her head around repeating, it would embarress her too much.

As much craziness abounds on the remainder of the LP, both humorous and unsettling in tone. The final track starts with a tuneful four note repetitive bass line and authoritative vocal that eventually turns into something a lot more dark and angry, with shrieking saxophone and whipping sounds. The song plays out like an ancient Shaman telling a story to the assembled tribe, at first painting a pleasant homorous scene. But it was just a ruse into lulling his audience before scaring the hell out of them with warnings of approaching demons and devils. Eventually the music abates and returns to the safety of the four note bass line, just like the Shaman knowing when to bring calm to his audience. This Lp delights and excels in being serious about its humour and joking about anything serious. Chris Lee

 

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