LES EXPLOSITIONNISTES

Not an album proper, Les Explositionnistes is a rework of their early works from the 92-93 era and might even be the evolution of Le Combat Occulté. Tracing a proper line-up from one session to another is a difficult task, because the group evolved from a quartet to an octet overnight and back down to a quintet the next gig. Just as their line-up and discography seem rather extremely complicated, their theatrical post punk laced with chamber music and RIO makes this band sound completely out of the humanly feasible, and description particularly difficult. A strange mix from GonG, Univers Zero, Etronfou, News From Babel, Art Bears and Faust are just a few elements that can help you start understanding where these guys were aiming at, you might even pick some Crimson (LTIA) or This Heat along the way.

This "reissue/rework" is the product of Nantes' very own (and very weird) Prikosnovénie label (as opposed to the American Beta- Lactam-Ring label who had released other early works) and gets a superbly illustrated booklet with artworks from which are inspired 2/3 of the tracks, the rest of them being more of a revolutionary spirit as can be heard from Le Parc Des Avant-Tués (fore-killed park). The lyrics are at least in four different languages (and possibly in Kobaian as well, but there is no Magma) plus the odd Slavic or Armenian lyrics for the genocide-denouncing track of Sarajevo-Stepanakert massacres of the 90's. The instruments they use vary greatly from the Viole De Gambe and the contrabass for the strings, from the tubaga to the clarinet for the winds and from the balafon to the drums in terms of percussion.

Easily the album's highlight, the longest and closing BarfuBerkirche In Erfurt might just be the most accessible too, partly because the usual RIO gets a touch of space rock that seems to emanate from the Planet GonG's Radio Gnome Invisible. Whether to recommend this weird but awesome record or not is your guess, but this is the kind of album that's best not put into everybody's hands, but might also serve as a possible cure for cretin warmonger like W.