Gong - "Camembert Electrique" Vinyl, LP, Album, France, 1971 (BYG Records/Acteul)

My old friend Gary introduced me to this band around 1972, and I couldn't get my head around it.  Just too hippy, crazy, too foreign, and in other words, too odd.  Still, on the same day, he also played me early Kevin Ayers, and that too was a challenging listening experience for me.  Decades later, either out of boredom, my jet-lag sensibility, I purchased this album at Rockaway Records in Silver Lake.  Now, as I listen to Gong's "Camembert Electrique" I think it's a masterpiece.

Daevid Allen started the group (if memory serves me correctly, I was put off by the spelling of his first name as well as disliking the album) and somehow ended up in France.  A band, a cult - I'm not sure.  There is for sure a thought that they live on a planet called 'Gong,' but a world that had instruments, that's certain.   Still, the music is brilliant.  Hypnotic, melodic, and in places, reminds me of David Bowie of the Ziggy period.  There is also touches of The Soft Machine, which should be no surprise because Allen was a founding member of that band.

The other voice beside Daevid is Gilli Smith, who has a sinister whisper and adds a certain intensity to the mix.   For a bunch of French/British/Aussie Hippies, they are very tight and focused.  It's psychedelic for sure but has a robust rock approach to their overall sound. This is my first entrance into the rabbit hole that's Gong.

Gérard Manset - "Rien À Raconter" Vinyl, LP, Album, France, 1976 (EMI)

There is a thrill of discovering an artist that no one in the English language talks or knows about, and I suspect that Gérard Manset is such a songwriter/arranger/singer.   I can find very little information on Manset in English, and according to Discogs, he has at least 23 albums under his name.  From 1968 to this year, 2018.  I have heard his music I think through a drunk period on the Internet, and going through YouTube for music discoveries.   In my collection, I have two albums by Manset, including "Rein À Raconter" (Nothing to Tell).  

Generally speaking, and what I have heard, Manset's songs are all in French (duh!) and feature massive orchestrations, but usually with a loud electric guitar in the mix.  There's nothing pastoral about his sound, both his voice and instrumentation is forceful and not knowing what the songs are about, makes me (or the listener) get an emotional reaction.  I sense anger, and a typical album by him is at the very least eight songs.   So, there's room for the music to build up to tension or a release of some sort. In other words, his music is sexy.  

What impressed me the most is his melody writing, but also his arrangements which is masterful, and more intuned to classical than somewhat a 'wall of sound.'   Manset shares an intensity with Jack Nitzsche, but he doesn't work on a big canvas like Nitzsche.  The music or album sounds like a man alone dealing with a demon or two.  Manset does the production as well as the writing and arrangements, so he's very much a solo artist in that sense.   The sounds that stand out is his vocal delivery which reminds me a bit of Jacques Brel in its intensity, and the sound of his electric guitar against the grain of the lush strings.   A remarkable artist, who I gather is popular in France, due that his releases are on large record labels, and for sure needs to get more attention from the English speaking world.  

Jacno - "Jacno" Vinyl, LP, Reissue, 45 rpm, Mini-Album, 2011/1979 (Celluloid)

Bingo!  I've found the ultimate Techno-pop or Synth-pop music.   I discovered this album through YouTube as well as Apple Music, but finding the actual vinyl is either difficult or expensive.  By luck, I found the record, at a reasonable price and this is clearly a mini-album that needs to be fully reissued to the masses.  Approximately 20 minutes long, it will be the best 20 minutes in one's life.  

There are records that speak to me in a favorable manner, and then there are recordings that hit me like a gentle slap on the cheek, and Jacno's album is such a presence in my life.  I can't possibly fathom someone disliking this record.   Incredibly french whatever that means to the listener, but it conveys such a lightness, but with a tinge of sadness.  Serge Gainsbourg is always sad to me, on the other hand, someone like Jacques Dutronc is happy-go-lucky, until he reached his later years.  Jacno is somewhere between the two artists, and his solo and recordings with Ellie Medeiros (Ms. Brian De Palma) as well as with his early new-wave/punk band Stinky Toys, was a journey through French pop music culture.  

Part of the charm of these recordings is that it's very low-fi in its approach and sound.  One can picture Jacno smoking away ( he did die from cancer) and be working on these tracks by himself.  Most of the record is instrumental, with Ellie singing vocals on one song "Anne Cherchait L' Amour."  It's interesting to note that this mini-album came out at the end of an era (1979) and there is an innocence or the sense of loss.  Still, "Jacno" is a masterpiece.