LIVE IN PARIS 1976

In 2006 a live album called Live Electronik Guerilla Paris 1975-1976 was released, it combined 2 live shows in Paris and included 7 tracks. In 2015 those 7 tracks were released again but separately, 5 tracks as live in Paris 75 and the other 2 tracks as live in Paris 76. This is the 1976 show and it's a nice little EP, it appears under a live album which is true but it include only 2 songs clocking at 20 minutes so it's kind of an EP. This is a nice thing to have since both tracks does not appear on any album. The lineup include Richard Pinhas on guitars and Moog, Patrick Gauthier on keys and François Auger on drums.

The first track 1984 Apres Cosmic C'Etait is a simple stripped down 10 minutes jam attempt, there are no synth loops only guitar bass and drums, sounds like something they can let loose and improvise on. Gauthier plays the moog as a bass, Pinhas goes crazy on his Frippian guitar solos and Auger conducts the whole thing with his busy drumming. It starts slowly with Pinhas electric guitar until the rhythm picks up after three and half minutes, this is really good as it rocks hard, you can definitely air guitar on this baby. The second track Distribution Deterritorialisation is another typical Heldon piece, in fact it sounds to me like an early version of the second part of Bolero which is a 20 minute piece found in their 1979 album Stand By. It's based on a moog loop sequence and Pinhas electric guitar jaming on top, half way through Pinhas drops the guitar and adds a synth solo then goes back to another guitar solo until the end. It's definitely good and the playing is great but it's nothing we haven't heard before from these guys.

So this is a nice thing to get a hold of if you're already a fan. The other live album that I've mentioned Live In Paris 75' include only guitar and synths no drums, those experimentations are interesting on their own only the problem is the sound quality which is really rough. If that wasn't changed in the reissue and stayed the same as the album released in 2006 then it's a shame. 3 stars.