Sunday, August 17, 2008

LES CHATS RENAISSANCE-HERMAPHRODITES, LP, 1972, FRANCE







With an aesthetic remit that's taken in everything from acid psych to dadaist kitsch to avant prog to cosmic disco over the years (the last of which he can pretty much claim to have originated), I for one would be willing to nominate producer/arranger/ instigator Jean-Pierre Massiera as the patron saint of this blog. This French mad hatter has been the guiding hand behind some of the most inspired pieces of audio dementia to have emerged from France during the 70's (Les Maledictus Sound, Horrific Child, Visitors and Venus Gang, to name but a few). Here's one of his rarest. The material on Les Chats Renaissance is more analogous with the psych/prog dimension of his work found on the first Visitors album, but Hermaphrodites' thrust operates in a rather more raw proto-prog, glam trashy and raucous dimension than the finely honed psychotropic prog machinations he'd go on to pioneer with Visitors. The wildly fun rock histrionics are often pitched sky high here, with massed choruses keening and wailing through the bombast while somehow managing to keep their tongues firmly wedged into their cheeks. This is some really jaw dropping work my friends, and though this might go a tad lighter on the wild grotesquerie usually found in Massiera's work, this is still rife with the wonderfully bent strategies that are his hallmark.


***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here   


***NOTE: THERE'S A MIRRORED MEDIAFIRE LINK IN THE COMMENT FIELD*** 

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, I was wondering if you could repost Martin Circus Acte II with both discs. It appears your original post only has the first disc. Thanks for all the great music.

Anonymous said...

nice blog and thank you for all the mp3
http://musicalementvotres.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

nice blog and thank you for all the mp3
http://musicalementvotres.blogspot.com/

vdoandsound said...

kevin-alas, the post of that Martin Circus was a big snafu on my part. That one I only have as a CDR that was burned for me long ago (can't even recall who I got it from), and they never included a second disc. I was actually wholly unaware (silly me!) there WAS a second disc until it was pointed out to me a while back. I'm just gonna pull the post for now. If anyone out there has the complete version and wants to contribute it, I'd be happy to re-post it later in it's entirety. Sorry for the fuck up...

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this. After all this years digging info about various prog albums it occured to me I should be close to a quantity that is defined in a way, that is, there is finitely many releases out there. Now it again seems there are infinitely many. But how many are really out there still not known to majority of prog fans?

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

thanks for this one!

Anonymous said...

Loved Horrific Child and would love to hear this. For some reason I can't unzip the files. Hasn't happened with any of my other downloads. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks for an essential music resource. Tremendous work!

somogyvari said...

Great stuff you're posting here!
Thanks.

blouson said...

hello after download this file (all perfect) i get amazed with that record, i found a copy in ebay (not very expensive) i´m so nervous for hear it at home..you help so much discovering us new music to listen, thanks

Anonymous said...

offline
is possibele an re-up please
thank you

al66 said...

Mediafire link for this album:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mb42ef690ceu29q