CELUI OÙ Y'A JOSEPH

3.5 stars really!!!

Fourth album recorded almost 5 years after A&C, but Albert keeps almost the same team, even if he lost François Ovide (guitars), replaced by Jacques Garret; and by now Herouville was a little passé so he changed studios, but it wasn't enough to change much to Albert's musical adventures. Again there are a bunch of shorter tracks, but the would-be title track is well over 8 minutes-long. And the original artwork has been changed apparently

Opening on two almost instrumental tracks, the first being about waking-up in the late morning and the music is fittingly relatively simple (by Marcoeur standards) as is the following Téléphone Privé. The album-long Joseph takes a different and repetitive beat and a harmonium and its dronal sonorities slowly bring new sinister moods that were not yet part of his vocabulary. The impressive Con Que J'étais dives into the breach and develops the new grounds and most likely Albert has heard Univers Zero and Present by now. And that track is easily the best track on the album. Ballade A Jean however returns to previous ambiances, as most of the rest of the album. The end of the album is less interesting with Bonne Entente and Comme Avant (like before) that nail the debate shut and ends like previous albums. Just another worthy album in Marcoeur musical endeavours, one that still hovers between Zappa, Samla, Area, Stormy Six and more of the same, even (and that's new) Univers Zero, but it's good to see that the RIO people kept a strong stance throughout the 80's and never allowed themselves to use that decade's dreadful studios techniques and samplings.

3.5 stars. This is album number four for Albert released in 1984. A complete change with the cover art and I'm not getting it. The music too is different at times, drifting into darker places with the bassoon which was introduced on his previous album "Armes & Cycles" but we also get harmonium here. Both are used to great affect on the song "Con Que J'etais" where UNIVERS ZERO comes to mind. But still there's lots of humour on this record, created by the vocals but with them being in french I'm missing out.

The music is fairly serious though and yes Zappa is constantly brought up when talking about Marcoeur. You know? Funny lyrics and vocals over some serious, well played music. That's Zappa. Again Albert is adding samples to the music which I like, and he brought his two brothers back. Again! Both are playing drums and percussion this time. I like this one and the previous record "Armes & Cycles" the best when it comes to Albert's music. This is Albert's music, not my music.