PLACEBO

The third album is rather disappointing in its goal to achieve what the previous album had promised, even if it came out on the "progressive" label Harvest, was probably the album showing that Marc Moulin was getting too restricted in the formula he had set himself.

The lenghty Stomp is a little too repetitive, but still a great moment, but it does have an end-of-era feel, while N W, also rather lenghty is a real reflective moment, the brassy funky Dag Madam is great change of pace, the closing S U S is again delving in Moulin's search for new electronic sounds (here almost a sonar), Plotselling being the main attraction the first side of the vinyl with its lenghty Rhodes lines (a little Ratledge- sounding here) while the winds induce a great added tension even if a drum solo comes in to ruin it a bit. Bosso is a Novo (I know;-) so typical of years to come.

Although Placebo will only disband at the end of 76, this will be their last album, and by giving an attentive ear to it (they do seem a little short of ideas), it seems that they stopped before making one more album, that would've been "l'album de trop". Luckily they did not!! However , before their eventual demise , Marc Moulin had put out a "solo group" effort called SAM SUFFY which is quite astounding, adventurous, eclectic and the perfect expression of what he wanted to do: expand from an octet to a trio: Grandiose!!!

He then will go on for an extensive and then extended career including a political and very satirical press-writing twist, an acid-jazz career, production of Cos and Philip Catherine albums and fronting electro-pop outfit Telex (ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons's preferred band) etc..

PLACEBO were a Jazz/ Rock band out of Belgium led by keyboardist Marc Moulin. This is their third studio album released in 1974 and Marc was certainly an experienced musician at this point being in his early thirties and being in the music business for some time already. He would later join AKSAK MABOUL playing on their debut. The other name I recognize is guitarist Philip Catherine who had already played on that incredible SUNBIRDS debut and he would also join with fellow guitarist Larry Coryell for some albums. Prog Archives shows a 12 piece lineup here with a lot of horn players and even some accordion. As Hugues mentions in his excellent bio of this band there is a MILES DAVIS and NUCLEUS vibe at times, usually when the trumpet is in play.

"N.W." opens with bass, a beat, cymbals and electric piano before the horns kick in. All these sounds come and go here and it's quite laid back and relaxed. I really like this. Tasteful is the word with the bass and drums being the constant throughout as other instruments come and go.

"Plotselling" opens with electric piano and cymbals followed by guitar and a beat. Flute before a minute. Horns start blasting around 1 1/2 minutes. Some nice guitar work after 2 minutes, very fluid. I love this stuff! It almost stops 4 minutes in as a drum solo kicks in and lasts until after 5 minutes when the electric piano, bass, guitar and more join in. Horns follow and they will get dissonant before 7 minutes.

"Bosso" opens with electric piano, drums, bass and guitar as a horn comes in over top. This is fairly uptempo and jazzy. The guitar replaces the horn after a minute with some fast paced playing. The flute joins the guitar a minute later. Catchy suff.

"Dag Madam Merci" starts out with bass, electric piano and a beat before the horns come in blasting followed by some jazzy guitar. Man that sounds like clavinet before 1 1/2 minutes. "Hop Hop" again opens with bass, drums, electric piano and more before the horns arrive blasting after 1 1/2 minutes. Some interesting intricate guitar melodies in this one. Why could they not have named this "Hip Hop"?

"Tanga" opens with the drums and electric piano sort of playing together as horns come in briefly then synths before the horns return. Accordion after a minute as it is contrasted with synths until 2 1/2 minutes in when the horns return.

"Stomp" must be a code name for funky? Yes this is funky and we get some trumpet after 2 minutes then the horns blast before 2 1/2 minutes as the funk continues. Synths to the fore then it's the horns again before 5 minutes followed by a manipulated horn. Electric piano then starts to lead late.

"S.U.S."opens with sounds that echo as cymbals can be heard and sparse percussion. Bass and drums join in just before a minute then a horn. So cool. Trumpet just before 2 minutes. Melancholic synths replace the trumpet after 2 1/2 minutes until horns arrive again at 3 1/2 minutes.

If your into that early Jazz/ Rock sound similar at times to NUCLEUS and Miles you should at least have a listen. A solid 4 stars.

Marc Moulin's third rendering of his compositions using the jazz-rock Placebo support crew--many of whom have remained with him since they started working for him in 1970 (Fissette, Rousselet, Scorier, and Weyer, in particular). New to the crew are virtuoso guitarist Philip Catherine, drummer Garcia Morales, and bass player Yvan de Souter.

1. "N. W." (6:38) a real bass player! Disco-lite drums. And some more dimensional and dynamic horn arrangements and playing. The problem here is that the band feels stuck in (trapped, confined, sentenced to) a warp of "Papa Was a Rolling Stone"-like intro--for the entire six-and-a-half minutes! And the explorations up top are quite minimal. What is Marc thinking with this one? Was this intended for a soundtrack to a Black Exploitation film? (17/20)

2. "Plotselling" (7:37) more music that sounds more appropriate to a soundtrack to a film--a section of coastal driving in which the protagonist detective has to work out some issues in his head--which, of course, would be narrated over the montage and soundtrack music. The usual repetitive left-hand electric piano chords drive this one ad nauseum, but then the muted trumpet, and tout seul drums get some solo time that feels incongruous with "background" soundtrack music. When the rest of the band re-emerges in the sixth minute it is with a different motif: guitars, bass, and horn section accents providing the minimalistic mathematical backdrop to trumpet, and then, synthesizer solos. (13.125/15)

3. "Bosso" (3:20) fast, driving, and dynamic despite still feeling constrained to the production of one very monotonous form. (8.75/10)

4. "Dag Madam Merci" (3:10) now we're gettin closer to the kind of music Marc produced that became so popular among the samplers in the Acid Jazz and Hip Hop world of the 1990s (the sounds that made French electronic band AIR so successful). And there's enough expansion of variety to start feeling like some of Herbie Hancock's early fusion work. (8.875/10)

5. "Hop Hop" (4:32) more two-chord music that benefits from having a Herbie Hancock pop-jazz feel and some nice performances from the collaborators (that are well-recorded, too). Marc's age-mate Philip Catherine's acoustic guitar soloing is not to my tastes but the music has some nice pep to it. (8.75/10)

6. "Tanga" (3:33) the presence of an uncredited accordion is a bit mystifying but I love me some accordion! Marc employs several new, odd synth sounds for his solo injections between the accordion and horn arrangements. Cute but inconsequential. (8.66667/10)

7. "Stomp" (7:35) monotonous bass synth riff with syncopated though-monotonous drumming and very monotonous rhythm guitar chord play, and B,S & T/Chicago-like horn section accents all peppered with annoying synth and trumpet solo riffing leads up to a section with more extended synth soloing (is that a Casiotone?) from Marc. And absolutely no variation or deviation from the main rhythm track from start to finish! Nauseating! (13/15)

8. "S. U. S." (4:22) though still built around a rather stiff, mechanical rhythm track, the light and flighty flute and horn work and flanged rhythm guitar and Latin-funky drum and percussion work make this song probably the most enjoyable of the album! (9/10)

Total Time: 42:37

C+/3.5 stars; an improvement over the two previous Placebo albums--including supported by much better sound engineering and production--there is still something quite stultifying about Marc's compositions that make me feel sorry for the restraints imposed upon his collaborators. I'm rating this up to four stars because of the greatly improved sound quality and slight increase in latitude offered Marc's musicians.