FULMINES REGULARIS

While the 80s sallied forth with the commercial music industry cranking out simpler music art forms that eschewed the psychedelic and progressive tendencies of the previous decades, the prog underground was busy keeping the art form alive and well. While the UK was resuscitating prog's popularity in the form of the catchier neo-prog expressions brought forth by Marillion and others, France on the other hand primarily set its gaze upon its own homegrown heroes from Magma who had single-handedly put France on the map with its distinct style of crazy jazz-infused progressive rock that spawned an entirely new subsection of the prog universe called zeuhl.

MUSIQUE NOISE was just one of many 80s second wavers who were smitten with the crazy Kobaian art form that was structured with bubbly repetitive grooves, stentorian choirs and crafty crescendoes. This band started in Paris in 1986 and featured Denis Levasseur (piano, synthesizers, percussion),Jean-Philippe Gallet (vocals, saxophone) and Philippe Zarka (drums, vocals) from Eskaton as well as members from another band Autopsie that never released anything. The band enjoyed live gigs in the Paris club scene and featured two keyboard players, a bassist, drummer and of course, a female choir. Unique to the band's sound was a trumpet and saxophone which evoked the earliest jazz fusion efforts of Magma.

Engaging in a style that could be considered zeuhl-light at times, MUSIQUE NOISE evoked the world of soulful vocal jazz with less reliance on Magma's dark Teutonic musical processions and rather on more colorful arrangements that delivered a more standard form of progressive rock decorated with zeuhl motifs. The band's debut FULMINES REGULARIS ("Regular Lighting" in Latin) was originally released in 1989 with only six tracks and then reissued in 2014 with an extra four which were some demos and unreleased material. The music is a much more cheerful expression of zeuhl and if comparisons to any Magma release could be made, perhaps the the spiritual jazz nature of "Félicité Thösz" would be the closest thing to what MUSIQUE NOISE delivers on its sole offering of the era.

While the album starts out in a rather tame almost zeuhl meets gospel type of vibe with "Pas Encore," the album slowly but surely ratchets up the progressive tendencies and delivers energetic performances, playful arrangements and three-part vocal arrangements that offer just as many male vocal contributes as female which often deliver a call and response delivery system. The band also breaks into more straight forward smooth jazz moments with only the steadfast bass groove anchoring the band's sound to the world of zeuhl. The solo vocal performances often deliver moments of skat however for the most part the zeuhl characteristics dominate the musical flow on FULMINES REGULARIS. With a lineup of eight performers, the instrumental and vocal interplay are robust and the team really knows how to deliver the zeuhl in its own idiosyncratic way.

I honestly don't like how this album starts out. It almost seems like it's going to deliver a watered down version of zeuhl with more focus on soul pop and R&B flavors but as the album proceeds it gets more and more wild and culminates in the speed-induced "Pzkr!" (on the bonus track version) which showcases the fastest vocal harmony action i'ver ever heard. Given the original vinyl is probably hard to find, most will experience the 10 track version of this album. I highly recommend doing so because the last four tracks are some of the most experimental. The first couple of songs make me not want to like this band but then it magically and mysteriously earns my respect through a never-ending series of innovative approaches that make MUSIQUE NOISE's approach to zeuhl all their own. The band found little success in 1989 when this was released (imagine that) and after this album was released the members started to jump ship until the band was no more although in 2016 a second album was finally released. Not sure if it was archival or a regrouping.