PLACEBO — Ball Of Eyes

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3.90 | 6 ratings | 2 reviews
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Album · 1971

Filed under Fusion
By PLACEBO

Tracklist

A1 Inner City Blues 6:09
A2 Planes 2:56
A3 You Got Me Hummin' 6:15
A4 Humpty Dumpty 2:31
B1 Aria 5:02
B2 Showbiz Suite 7:28
B3 Ball Of Eyes 2:03
B4 Oh La La 0:59

Line-up/Musicians

Baritone Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Percussion – Johnny Dover
Bass – Nick Kletchkovsky
Drums, Percussion – Freddie Rottier
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Alex Scorier
Trumpet – Nicolas Fissette
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Richard Rousselet

About this release

CBS – S 64625 (Belgium)

Recorded on August 23, 24, 25 & 26, 1971

Thanks to snobb for the addition



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FunkFreak75
An interesting album from creative composer and keyboard experimentalist Marc Moulin on which he surrounds himself with a group of competent musicians--including a full "big band" contingent of horn players--in order to manifest the full blown, three-dimensional explorations of his compositions--many of which feel like outward explorations of his own mental musical brain-teasers.

1. "Inner City Blues" (5:10) an awesome cover (and tribute) to one of the greatest artists and albums of the 1970s. The piano is not recorded very well, but the instrumental palette and unusual vocal performances (and engineering) by Guy Theisen are worth every penny spent on recording this one. (9.125/10)

2. "Planes" (3:01) jazzy and creative instrumental jazz-rock with interesting structure and experimental keyboard sounds and solo styling. Perhaps a little too mathematical and, therefore, simplistic in its construct, it is still quite interesting. (8.75/10)

3. "You Got Me Hummin'" (6:12) piano musings and mental (mathematical) experimentations accompanied by metronomic horns, drums, and bass. Again, this is interesting from a mathematical perspective. The sudden appearance of Guy Theisen's David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat & Tears)-like scratchy male vocal at 2:20 comes as quite an unexpected surprise. The bass and horn accents get a little funkier after Guy's first go-round, but the song plays out quite like a B,S & Tears song. (8.75/10)

4. "Humpty Dumpty" (2:35) this one has the lightness and sound palette of an early Canterbury Style song (shades of future COS) while the horn section provides accents and counterpoint to Marc's treated electric piano musings. (8.875/10)

5. "Aria" (4:48) This sounds very much like a continuation or variation on the music and theme of the previous song-- using the exact same instrumental sound palette with perhaps a little more creative freedom and volume given to Nick Kletchkovski's excellent bass play and a different timbre coming from the now-reed/woodwind-dominated horn section. Marc's electric piano is still ubiquitous--and he plays a wicked clavinet solo in the fourth and fifth minutes--but I like the dominance of the horns as the presenters of the main melody and several of the front-and-center solos. (9/10)

6. "Showbiz Suite" (7:28) more explorations of the typical Dave Stewart Canterbury sound palette with pretty cool horn arrangements jumping off of Marc and Nick's fairly constant one-chord bass anchor. Here Marc is definitely experimenting with several synthesizer sounds as well as a variety of effects applied to his electric piano. The thing that makes this special--exciting and interesting--is the looser, freer expression coming from all directions: Freddy Rottier's drumming is more enthusiastic and creative, as is Nick's bass play and several of the brass and reeds corps. The three movements of the suite are quite distinctive from one another: each driven by Marc's left hand chord play on his warm electric piano. Too bad the recording of the horns is so scratchy (bad mics?: all of the plug-in instruments seem fine). The group horn arrangement in the final movement is very similar to the style American band Chicago was (13.25/15)

7. "Balls Of Eyes" (2:02) Marc's solo piano musing here sounding like something Thelonious Monk might do just for practice or amusement. (4.25/5)

8. "Oh La La" (1:01) sounds like an excerpt from a live performance in which some full choir is singing over the band's Latin-infused big band Rockabilly. (4/5)

Total time: 32:17

B/four stars; a nice display of musical musings that are imitative variations on common Jazz-Rock and early Canterbury Style sounds, songs, and structures.
Sean Trane
The first album of Placebo was a real shock in Belgium, and nobody was really prepared for it. All that had come about before was a few proto-prog groups such as Waterloo, Wallace Collection (actually a pop outfit) and a few others. So 71 saw Arkham (who never released an album per se) and Placebo (Lagger Blues Machine was to follow the year after). Leader Marc Moulin was already a veteran by the time of this album, but this was his first project. The sound on this album oscillates between Bitches Brew and Nucleus's debut on one side and Chicago Transit Authority on the other. If there are some really superb tracks on this album, it is also somewhat uneven with some rather surprising (and clumsy) covers of Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes, but clearly the highlights are the self-penned tracks. From the superb Aria with an infectious groove greatly underlined by Moulin's electric piano, to Planes with its superb semi-free jazz intro and impeccable crescendo, and Humpty Dumpty's haunting slow pace, this album is a slap in the face to most historians not knowing of this group. Showbiz Suite being another highlight, it is clear that Moulin was a bandleader in the jazz style, providing a great platform for the other musicians - the four-man horn section is plenty of frontman - so he stays content of providing the solid base (rarely taking the spotlight to himself at this point), but he is the chief composer and pulls of some real stunts in making his role quite interesting.

This album was released on the historical jazz CBS label and unfortunately there has never been a CD re-issue from them, but exists from Brit label Counterpoint a compilation that really takes the best tracks available on this Lp

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