PLACEBO — 1973

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PLACEBO - 1973 cover
3.50 | 5 ratings | 2 reviews
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Album · 1973

Filed under Fusion
By PLACEBO

Tracklist

A1 Bolkwush
A2 Temse
A3 Phalène
A4 Balek
B1 Polk
B2 Only Nineteen
B3 Red Net
B4 Re-Union

Line-up/Musicians

Bass – Francis Weyer, Nick Kletchkovsky
Drums – Freddy Rottier
Flute – Alex Scorier
Guitar – Francis Weyer
Horns – Johnny Dover
Keyboards – Marc Moulin
Percussion – Freddy Rottier
Saxophone – Alex Scorier
Trombone – Frans Van Dijk
Trumpet – Nick Fissette, Richard Rousselet

About this release

CBS – S 65683 (Belgium)

all titles, except - phalène - were recorded on April 24th & 25th, 1973, at Start studio

Thanks to snobb for the updates



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FunkFreak75
Marc Moulin's second studio album release of his keyboard-centric compositions while using the same trio of jazz-rock support musicians and an expanded horn & reed section to help express his funky jazz-rock bordering on Jazz-Rock Fusion musings.

1. "Bolkwush" (4:40) continuing where he left off on 1971's Balls of Eyes, Marc combines Canterbury sounds and stylings with the horn-expanded jazz-rock of American bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears. While the left- hand of his electric piano continues to be the main driver in his compositions, the complexity of the arrangements offered his complementary instrumentalists has increased. I still like very much his horn arrangements as well as the drumming and bass play of Nick Kletchkovski and Freddy Rottier, respectively. (8.875/10)

2. "Temse" (4:40) Again, an increase/improvement in compositional complexity is here--as well as Marc's signature synthesizer experimentations (he and Herbie Hancock's Pat Gleeson would've been fast friends!)--but the dominance of the fast repeating two-chord left-hand electric piano playing becomes quite annoying quite quickly: it's too loud, distracting and detracting from the performances of the other musicians! (8.75/10)

3. "Phalène" (7:50) the crowd noises (and sound quality of the recording) betray the possibility (fact?) that this is a live recording. Once again I find myself feeling quite strongly that this song is an experimental working out of one of Marc's mental mathematical problems--one of what I imagine were dozens (for each problem). Were the herd bells really necessary? The horn play is really the most redeeming element of this one. (13/15)

4. "Balek" (4:20) fast-pulsing synthesizer bass open this one, expressing in a two-note pattern, followed by standard, metronomic rock drums. Synthesizer, horn blasts, and electric piano join in along the way with some soloing done by Marc (using several keyboard sounds) and a saxophone. Yet another execution of a possible solution to one of Marc's math-musical ideations. (8.75/10)

5. "Polk" (3:20) finally a fairly loose and predominantly funk-marinated Jazz-Rock Fusion song. Motile electric piano, dynamic drums, congas, and rhythm electric guitar lend themselves to a much more lively, vibrant, and full core over which the offerings of the horn section and other solos (predominantly coming from Marc's keys) can shine. (8.875/10)

6. "Only Nineteen" (3:50) using the same sound palette of instruments (and sounds) as the previous song, the motif explored here feels like a variation on a riff from Paul Desmond's "Take Five" or Billy and Gene Page's "The 'In' Crowd" (or a combination of the two). Though it is lively and uptempo, Marc's electric piano is the dominant instrument throughout--which makes it, for me, get a little boring. (8.75/10)

7. "Red Net" (5:40) a slowed-down variation on the structure and melodies of Frank Sinatra's version of Ervin Drake's 1961 composition, "It Was a Very Good Year." Frank Rottier's drums are so far in the background and the horn section's inputs so minimal that this might as well have been a solo electric piano piece--and I'm just not that big of a fan of keyboard soloing. (8.6667/10)

8. "Re-union" (5:20) a single droning bass synth note opens this one before Marc adds a few more keys to create chord movements to the drone. By the time we're knee-deep into the second minute I'm convinced this is like a TANGERINE DREAM exploration of a BACH organ prelude. Interesting but, I have to repeat a complaint that I registered with another one of Marc's albums: couldn't these experimental explorations of possible solutions to the personal mental musical problems that Marc is obviously inundated (and fixated) with be left to his own private, in-home sessions? I mean, this is exactly the kind of playing around that my brother and I used to do with analog and computer keyboards we began acquiring in the 1980s--but we never felt we needed to publish them as a means to filling out a full album's worth of music! (8/10)

Total time: 39:40

I'm beginning to feel a little cheated by Marc Moulin--genius that he is--for making the public suffer unto his musical musings and experimental explorations to solutions of his mathematical quandaries. Most of the time, the performances of his supplemental musicians seems relegated to expression or extensions of things he himself could do (and would have done)--they feel that superfluous and expendable!

C/three stars; an inconsistent and often filler-feeling collection of renderings of Marc Moulin songs that leave me feeling sorry for the wasted time of the contingent of excellent supplemental musicians hired to deliver them.

Sean Trane
As you might guess, this album is named after the year it came out (this does not mean that all tracks taken after Orwell's theme of 1984 were recorded that year;-), Placebo is taking the beat were it left it at the end of their debut album. With a relatively unchanged line-up but with a few guests that appear also in the next album, Moulin is going a step further with his research into electronic sounds induced by KB, although leaving all the room for the horn section to move. Unlike the debut, on this album, Moulin is definitely taking the forefront and really shines all the way through, while still providing a great backtrack for the horn section. Balek starts out with a then-revolutionary loop dominating the background and the group just surfs throughout the track's 4 min while Moulin switches from Moogs to Rhodes and back, great stuff. Only Nineteen is another track where Moulin shows us his savoir-faire and here the horn section plays the faire-valoir. Phalene (recorded live) is a rather lenghty piece (a relative 8 min) that takes great pride in being slowly developing itself, content on following Rottier's great drumming and the brass clearly influenced by Nucleus's Ian Carr. Temse is also the occasion for Moulin to extend his electronic KBs to the max, while remaining at the service of the song - un très grand monsieur - meanwhile the funky horns and no less enthralling rhythm section just take you to hell and back. Polk is another sizzling funky jazz-rock track induced by a great guitar, which makes you love every second of its short life.

Maybe their better albums and certainly the most even, this gatefold album (the debut was too) is one of those seminal albums for the Belgian jazz scene, and it is rather hard to understand how and why it never got a Cd release (outside the compilation) because this album was much sampled for acid-jazz and techno.

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