RIO 2015 reviews

Surprised no-one started a thread about how good this edition was.

I mean, I'm probably the last one to get back home (except for Debbie Pooh 73), as I did many detours via the hills and mountains of Southern France.

 Just got back early this morning, so I'll post my thoughts later on.... But this is where it will happen.

Will post later, swamped since I got home.

I look forward to reading the reviews (and I'm sure they will make me curse at missing the event).

Saturday Sept 19th

Rêve General : This is a project between two bands, including 3/4 of the « dying » Volapük (? says Guigou anyways) and all of Metamorphosis. Featuring only strings & drums (no kb or wind instruments), they made me think of a Post-rock band, and I quite enjoyed it. I supposed they played all of their only album, which was recorded live over three nights in late 2014.  In some ways, this was about as close as chamber rock as it got in this year’s festival. To my knowledge, this was the first appearance of Guigou Chevenier (Etron Fou Leloublan)  in the RIO Festival, and in the following interview, he showed no interest whatsoever in reforming his old band.

 

Art Zoyd : What to say ?? Actually, I wasn’t thinking of coming down to Carmaux this year, until I heard that the band was going to do a 44 ½ birthday celebration with almost all of their most representative members (the only major absence was Patricia Dallio) and do a full retrospective. This event simply could not be missed, as AZ is usually never revisting its old works, always forging ahead. The band played a two-hour very emotional set (for the audience anyways), and to be honest, i got goose bumps many times throughout the show. What a pleasure  to see Zaboitzeff back at the helm of the band. Backed by a second row made of three drummers (Daniel Denis as a guest, but he’d played with them during the UZ hiatus of the 90’s), the concert was the biggest (or second biggest) musical slap I’ve received in all of the RIO fest I’ve attended (I missed three of them).

My only regret is not to have participated to their crowdfunding to build up this gig. I hope to make it up, by trying to find them a gig in Belgium ASAP, because it would be a shame that this project doesn’t get a fourth gig (Lyon and Lilles are foreseen in the near-future).

 

Mats & Morgan : Well, one couldn’t go one bigger than AZ, so organizer Michel Besset opted to go diametrically different for the next gig. The swedish M&M turned in a bizarre set that I believe was not appreciated by a large part of the crowd (can’t speak of audience, since a lot of us left throughout their set). You’d have sworn you were in the first half of the 80’s, with their goofy Kraftwerk robotic moves and silly Devo-like attire and attitude, and backed by a very 80’sish sonic attack were Synclavier-sounding sonics dominated. If there wasn’t a real drummer, I would’ve sworn that a time-travel ellipse had happened to us all. OK, these guys are beast at their respective instruments, but this did not win me over. I guess that AZ drained me from my emotions, and I probably wouldn’t have been receptive to many groups.

 

Pryapisme : Part of the French wave of bands that are explicit about their sexual obsession (like POiL), these guys played in the smaller hall and were apparently locals, draining some of their following with them. The comfort of the smaller hall is more Spartian, and there is much space for a standing crowd, therefore annoying the sitting audience in the first four of five rows of seats. And the ventilation also sucks in that room. As for the band, though all members were quite virtuosi at their respective instruments, this doesn’t mean that they play music (said two music teachers in the attendance), and their humour is really not funny. They could rename themselves as « Les Petits Cons », and it would be just as fitting… even more than the state of their little dicks they seem to obsessed by. Obviously, they’re out there for the chicks, but I didn’t even see that many of them.

 

Difficult to sum up my feeling of Saturday’s RIO-fest line-up, because this day included the Everest and the Marianna Trench within a few hours. I know it took me a few hours to come back down to earth after AZ’s concert (actually, lmost 24 hours), but the last two bands of the day were simply not to my liking at all, but then again, this seemed to be the case for most of us. Probably that AZ being placed further up the calender (third or fourth spot) might have changed drastically my perception.

 

Sunday Sept 20

Alec Redfearn and The Eyesores : Well, I’m not a fan of the accordion (this is Aranis’ major flaw to my ears and Lars Hollmer), and here, we got an earful despite plenty of pedal affects. An acoustic line-up (if you except that he piano was played on a synth), I’ll say that the band is not well-named as the two women in the band (pianist and French horn players) are rather pretty. To be honest, I was still under the AZ effect, so I kind of missed many of the band’s subtleties, and I’ll mostly keep a folk ambiance from the group.

 

Happy Family : the Japanese band was one of the reasons was I considered coming down, but were not enough an attraction by themselves, until AZ ‘s 44 ½ deal. Yes, the quartet that released the near mythical Tossco album was back, with three of four original members still there, so that had quite a drawing power for me. Well, I would’ve been solidly disgusted driving 2000 kms just to see them, because I didn’t enjoy them at all. Apparently they asked to play the smaller hall, but this didn’t help either (for the reasons stated above). I don’t know if this is a Japanese trait, but I’ve yet to see a modern Japanese prog with any stage presence (Koenji and Ruins don’t convince me either), but these guys were cold and listless, despite a certain energy. If you thought their debut album was cold, but Tossco was good (or excellent), their third album (released this year) is again cold-sounding, just like their stageshow was, despite some attempt at humour. I left halfway through, because I didn’t want to break into a sweat and I was bored.

 

Secret Chiefs 3: To be honest, after four concerts in a row I didn’t like much, I was starting to be irritated and considering leaving to enjoy the beautiful weather and Cathar countryside. Actually, I did want to check it out, though I knew next to nothing about the band and its outer/external complexities or its link with Mr. Bungle, FTM. All I’d heard (one or two studio album) did leave me much of an impression, because it was heading in all directions and seemed rather unfocused. But on stage, this band comes alive, and produced the most positive energy of the 11 bands of the festival with UKD. While their 1.5 hour set was about some 20 to 25 mins too long (too much of the sale sonic bombardment), I was definitely reconciled with RIO 2015, and again Michel Besset did a great job of bringing them over

 

The Really Big Experimental Toubifri Orchestra: OK, no-one knew anything from this band, and rumours abounded that there were even kids in the band (which given their closing spot on a Sunday evening seemed to be doubtful).  While I was ready to pack it in early (my GF was waiting for me at the gîtes), I decided to give them a shot… and was I ever right to do so. What a total blast these guys were: 17 member big band with stage costumes (including a monk seemingly straight out of SC3), loads of poetics to boot, funny circus acts and much humour. The musicians interacted twice with the public in what seemed like a film-maker Claude Lellouche choreography and ambiance, even standing/frozen still for what appeared like a minute or two. Musically, while the big band format was very jazzy, if was mostly wild and steaming JR/F with some calmer moments, while the wind instruments solos were often free, but the “experimental” part of their name was not in the music . On the whole, their splendid performance was the second real emotional highlight/apex of the Festival, even approaching Art Zoyd’s emotions, albeit in a very different manner (sine chills for AZ, tears of joy for Toubifri >> read "To Be Free"). I guess this total surprise definitely changed my RIO 2015 rating from “good”, to “one of the best ever”.    Funny thing is that this magical show ending the RIO Fest so wonderfully well was sort of an accident. As soon as I was out of the hall, the first person I encountered was Michel, and he was really surprised that I kissed him thank you for such a wonderful choice…  The mood was so sweet out of that concert and the funny interview that I stayed longest of the three days (actually I cut it short only on Saturday) drinking with the hold-overs until the bar closed, which included a fair bunch of executants/organizers, artistes and photographers.  

 

 

Overall, this 2015 edition is one of the very best ever (as said before, I missed three of them), and if the inner grounds don’t change much, the outer layout was vastly improved: the Moroccan-styled tent is a very good idea (too bad they only proposed coffee and not Moroccan mint tea) and the choice of screening inside it was excellent. This included a different version (and more energy-laden) of Soft Machine’s 7 line-up than the NDR-Bremen broadcast available from Cuneiform – I was told it was Hamburg performance.  One of the food stand actually proposed an extra meal every day (the Aligot+Sausage, or the surprising Chili Con Carne), which means the variety was available for the roughly five meals eaten on-site over the three days.

Weather-wise, if Friday was still feeling the effects of the torrential rains of previous days (there had been major floodings some 150 kms south, and the A75 highway seriously damaged), Saturday was totally dry and majorly sunny, Sunday was full-out sun. All three nights were clear and cool (you could see the Milky Way galaxy cloud in the dark of the parking lot). Most of the RIO I attended  were not nearly as dry as this one – one is never sure to get good weather in those parts of France in the second part of September – so even that part turned out better than I’d first feared

 

Edited by Sean Trane - September 25 2015 at 04:41

Man With Hat wrote: Great reviews guys! No surprise that Art Zoyd was the crown jewel. Sounds like another successful run at the ol' RIO corral. Thanks for making me wish I was there. :P

Hate to tell you, it was f**king awesome

Not that I heard

Raff wrote: Had a listen to the Ukandanz album on Bandcamp (they are on the same label as Chromb!, which I am going to add today or tomorrow), and really liked their music. They would be perfect for ProgDay!

I'd say they're even better live than in studio

There is at leasdt two POiL members in it and the singer is Ethiopian, and according to Steve Feigelbaum (who is "studying" Ethiopia), he adds a real Ethiopian funk dimension to the band





Edited by Sean Trane - September 26 2015 at 12:51