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| Placebo Years: 1971-1974 |
| Marc Moulin |
| első megjelenés éve: 1974 |
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CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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Jazz / Jazz-Funk; Electronica
For more than 30 years, the pianist and keyboard-player Marc Moulin has been recording stainless steel albums that resist the assaults of time. The recipe: sure-fingered intuition, a taste for synthesis and an interest in new technologies that led him to cross different experiences and blend organic and electronic music. Not so much a star, he is a reference. His name is dropped from London to Tokyo and from Paris to New York, in the record cases of trendy DJs. Whether it be in jazz (his roots) with the recently re-released "Sam Suffy", or "Top Secret", his first album for Blue Note, or electro-pop with the pioneers Telex; everything that he touched turned out to be memorable. Which is why we are now delving into the first recorded traces of his discography.
But lets go back to the roots of the story. In the 60s, Marc Moulin the pianist was noted as a jazz sideman alongside passing American musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Clark Terry, Johnny Griffin and even Slide Hampton. In the early 70s, Marc had but one goal, to cook up a jazz that would attract young rock fans. With an immense musical culture, the young jazzman was no stranger to rock, to which he added an inordinate love for soul and funk. The idea: to dip into his triple culture of rock-R&B-jazz so as to rejuvenate the latter. This was also the period when the first electric pianos and synthesizers began to appear, directly associated to the development of fusion jazz.
Armed with his new keyboards, Moulin brought together a gang of varying numbers whose aim was to tend towards the ideal fusion. 'Unlike many people that were into fundamental research and serious experimentation, we preferred applied research with the sole goal of having fun. We wanted to inject groove elements into jazz.' This is how Placebo came about (ages before Brian Molko's band). The group name is already a joke on themselves. 'As well as its pharmaceutical definition as a 'neutral substance that replaces medication, it also means 'I will please' in Latin, our objective being deliberately to amuse'.
So between 1971 and 1974, 3 albums by Placebo were released. The sessions for a 4th were recorded but never released. Placebo played its last concert in 1976.
Typically, the themes of Telex, the cult trio that Marc founded in 1978 with the sound engineer Dan Lacksman and the singer Michel Moers, can already be found here: budding technology (electric pianos, synthesisers and above all the first Moog available in Belgium) ; humour and Belgicisms as well, with lots of references to Brussels and local characters; and lastly, comic strips.
The anthology opens with "Balek" ('attention!' in Arabic, and a reference to 'Blake & Mortimer' by Edgar P. Jacobs). In the vein of the fusion jazz groups of the time that started out as fun before trying to become a new elite. One of the first jazz racks to be entirely built on a synth sequence.
"Humpty Dumpty" is a nod in the direction of Humpty Dumpty from "Through the Looking Glass". It is one of the first sessions to be recorded at the mythical studio of Marc Aryan, "Belgium's Charles Aznavour", where Marvin Gaye would later record 'Sexual Healing'.
"N.W." is a homage to Norman Whitfield, the mythical Motown producer, soul-psychedelic period and the embodiment of the modern compser. 'We were inspired by the Temptations that went on delirious excursions based on two modal chords.' The track features Philip Catherine. The noted guitar player would become a recurring figure in Marc's musical world, present on nearly every record so far, 'a little by superstition' jokes Moulin.
"Polk", a classical funky variation on two chords, is a homage to Pol, an incredible Brussels character that ran a jazz club on the Grand'Place, was a partisan of an everyman approach, a fervent lover of old jazz and famous for his angry outbursts.
"Showbiz Suite" is Placebo's tribute to "progressive jazz-rock" (ouch), directly inspired by Soft Machine and the saxophone/varitone of Eddie Harris as played at the Montreux Festival in 1971. 'An ambitious track, full of ruptures and time codes in 6/4, 7/4, 9/4 and 11/4. We did versions of more than 20 minutes on stage'.
"S.U.S", the Brussels pet name of Francis Goya, now known for his style of 'easy guitar'.
"Aria" is inspired by early Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago, a sophisticated blend of rock and RnB in which you can hear the sound of the city.
"Stomp" is THE funky track from Placebo, built on a pretty deadly synthetic bass riff.
"Red Net", lastly, is a UFO in Placebo's production, the 'slow' of the album influenced by a rare electric ballad by Miles Davis.
The producer DJ Kirk Degiorgio remembers the period: 'The sound was unique, edgy and strangely modern, full of depth and intelligence. You can feel the inspirations of the street, finely tuned studio technique and above all, serious funkiness! Funk music with horn arrangements worthy of the best American cop shows, pre-Hip-Hop breaks and beats, deadly Fender Rhodes solos, and synths. All this recorded in Brussels by a gang of unknown white nutcases: how could you resist it?' Indeed, how could you resist it?!
---Fabrice Desprez
The 70s: "no limits"
It's my feeling that we'll never see the 70s again. Some fashion designers will re-use bits for a collection and rock guitarists will eternally refer to it. But globally, the 70s are like the pyramids: they were there, but nobody in their right mind would try to make new ones.
Everything was unlimited. The horizon was further away, the sky higher, the view so much broader, the nights much longer and the dreams far deeper. The keyword was: freedom. Everyone had a right to everything. Total freedom of mind and body. The same went for fusions: bodies, spirits, matter, genres and manners. Consequently, there was no style, no heritage, just a jumble of senses, a white page stained with random spots and colours that we won't see again in a hurry. The "doors of perception" were opening wide onto a "new level of consciousness".
It's while trying to put things back in order that we invented the 80s, and the liberal-libertarian mindset that has kept us running since then. The recuperation of this "no limits" of enjoyment by consumption founded the token bar-code freedom, relatively little bothered by others, to which we have been reduced for the past 25 years.
For music in the 70s, nothing was ever too experimental. All you had to do was step outside the format to be part of it. We were miles away from marketing and media formats. Songs of 20 minutes or more were not rare, on record or in concert. We mixed everything: folk with rock, funk with jazz, electronic music and pop, classical and unusual instruments with new born inventions; all this with a healthy dose of electricity. Sound became monumental and deafening. We became imprisoned, almost like a cocoon. Music replaced conversation. And above all, music largely dominated all other forms of art and communication.
Put simply, it was over the top. I have no desire to go through that again. But when compared to what came afterwards, it makes me almost nostalgic - which I am not as a general rule. But nostalgic for what, exactly? The artist Topor said to me at the time, "The problem with freedom of expression is the expression". He was being provocative. But deep down, he was right.
---Marc Moulin
1 Balek
2 Humpty Dumpty
3 N. W.
4 Polk
5 Showbizz Suite
6 S.U.S.
7 Aria
8 Stomp
9 Red Net |
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