ATLANTIDE

More a studio project comprised essentially of session players for French producer and musical engineer Jean-Pierre Massiera than a full-fledged band, Atlantide released a reliable self-titled symphonic-prog album in 1976, but unfortunately, for all the skill offered by the musicians involved, the album holds a somewhat negative reputation for being a frequently blatant Yes imitation, something instantly noticeable right from the first play. Careful listening reveals some teasing little original ideas of dreamy interludes, warm male/female vocals, hard-rocking intensity and psychedelic spacey passages a world away from the more well-known prog band, but they are frustratingly fleeting compared to the hero-worship on display throughout the majority of the disc.

Running a lean 32 minutes and sung in French, the album opens with the title-track `Atlantide' that instantly calls to mind Yes from the very first second, a blistering bass and guitar line that almost completely rips off their classic opening attack from `Heart of the Sunrise'. Thankfully vocalist Patrick Attali's voice has its own distinct charm, and there's also some delicate middle-eastern percussive flavours and restrained sitar droning woven to the first half as well. Despite a melody that drifts a little close to the verses of `I've Seen All Good People', `Le Regard Des Dieux' is a lovely ballad with gentle male/female voices singing in unison, it's just a tragedy that the piece stops dead at just before the three minute mark when it could have done with an additional verse or even a closing solo. `Images', a solo acoustic piece, ends the first side, serving exactly the same purpose as those charming Steve Howe performed interludes do on so many Yes albums, and despite sounding alarmingly like `Mood for a Day' in a few spots, it's still a skilfully performed track.

The twelve minute `Soleil Noir' opens the second side and is the showcase piece of the album. Look past the opening stolen `Relayer' moments and chiming guitars playing the melody of a section of `Yours is No Disgrace' and listen out for the dramatic thrashing drumming, murky murmuring bass and a melancholic yet romantic lead vocal. But best of all, and it's absolutely the best part of the album, an instrumental break in the middle unleashes a battery of pummelling mucky guitars that wouldn't have been out of place on the dirtier RPI albums, leading to a splintering spacey passage that sounds like a cross between the more jagged King Crimson moments and the classic albums of fellow French band Pulsar. The reverberating opening of `Reverie' that will make every single listener straight away think of Yes' `Roundabout' introduction proves to be a distraction from an eerily shimmering acoustic acid folk lament, which thankfully ends the album on a more original note (with an echoing fragility not unlike Pulsar again), but it's also tragically brief and seems incomplete.

Some Seventies groups like Blakulla and Chameleon had undeniable traces of Yes-like sounds, while more blatant bands such as Starcastle are often instantly dismissed as being an outright clone of the defining symphonic band. With Atlantide, we have another of the latter kind, a band you'll have to decide whether you can simply enjoy, influences and all, or whether you think they might not be worth the time. There's undeniable talent involved in the album, but it's a little disappointing that the hints of original ideas and styles are mostly pushed to the background in favour of Yes-like sounds, making it something of a missed opportunity. Still, it's convincingly performed, well composed and easy to enjoy with lovely vocals, so maybe that's enough?

Three stars.

The French band Atlantide was a one-off project, with this singular gem being their only material. Honestly, it's a pretty solid record seeing how it came out at the drop-off of progressive rock. I don't speak French, but from what I read online and with the help of some translations, I'm pretty sure it was a concept album about, how the name implies, Atlantis. It has an aggressive feel in the more electric periods while also taking mellow folk into the mix to even things out, and the result is a great album and a band that would've had tons of potential in the progressive rock sphere. At a short run time of thirty-two minutes (not counting the bonus tracks on the CD reissue), the band squeezes all its worth into the playing of this album and creates these rapidly evolving structures that dissolve into lush acoustic arrangements just as fast. Another quick note for this band was that Jean-Pierre Massiera had something to do with this band, and apart from being listed as a backing vocalist on the progarchives, I couldn't find much other than that in my research.'

The album's opening eight-minute-long monster of a title track demonstrates the more vicious and eclectic forms this band takes. It's very easy to get lost in the fast and very loose instrumentation of all the members. And yet the traditional folk arrangements still flow perfectly with this track through its middle sections. The next song, Le Regard Des Dieux, is the shortest song on the album at around two minutes long. This one draws a lot of similarities to the opening I've Seen All Good People by Yes, so if you like pastoral vocals and catchy but progressive acoustic tunes, you'll enjoy this song. The last song on side one is entirely a folk song; there is basically nothing else whatsoever. This is where I consider the band begins to drop off. Sure, it's still a good track that sounds pretty, but in comparison to how the album started, it began to get a bit boring and old.'

Side two opens with a twelve-minute-long suite titled Soleil Noir, and it's a combination of all the best aspects of this album into one grand composition. The playing on this track is tight and complex and has the perfect dynamics between the mellow folk music found on the last two songs and the screeching heavy progressive arrangements of the title track. All while being balanced by the harmonic vocals. This is probably the strongest and most progressive song on the album, and you can hear how well-structured the band made it to be in its many different phases. Some of the middle parts feel magical in their atmosphere, with twinges of mystery adding to the overall concept of the album. The last song, R'verie, leans more strongly on the atmospheric, spacey points rather than the heavy and folk elements. It's quite haunting in its nature and simplicity, but powerful at the same time. The track feels poetic in its vocal tone, and quiet percussion and acoustic guitar in the background make a nice conclusion for this hidden gem of an album.'

In conclusion, though I really liked this album, the highest I could give it is a 4/5. Sure, the overall musical directions are unique, pastoral, aggressive, and just all-around great, but when weighing in the fact that the production isn't as good as I would've liked and how some of the areas in certain songs play out a little too long (for example, the third track, Images), I rest my case on that level. It might even possibly be a 3.5/5, but I will round it up to 4/5 because, as I've mentioned before, the music by itself is incredible.