TRAITÉ DE MÉCANIQUE POPULAIRE

ZNR and the band CLEARLIGHT both evolved out of the band BARRICADE who were an avant band formed in France in the late sixties. We had Cyrille Verdeaux who would form CLEARLIGHT and release their first album in 1975. And we had the two keyboardists and composers from BARRICADE Joseph Racaille and Hector Zazou forming ZNR, or if you will, Zazou aNd Racaille. They released their debut in 1976. This record I'm reviewing is album number two, their final release from 1978. I really hope that on that historic looking album cover, that it's Zazou and Racaille in the picture above the bed.

ZNR released two very different albums with the debut being more of a keyboard album, especially the synths standing out. While this record I'm reviewing is more acoustic and more like chamber music. It is chamber music! We get a lot of short pieces here with nineteen tracks worth over just 34 minutes. There are many reviewers and the like who know way more about music than I do who rave about this record. I personally don't get it. But then this is quite slow moving and acoustic for the most part and I have little patience for that. Some even call this a beautiful album, but again I am missing the boat when it comes to these opinions. Over my head, or my tastes in music are just that different.

The lineup shown here on the site is not right. They are a six piece and they're showing the lineup from their debut and three of those members aren't on this one including the drummer, as there are no drums on this one. We get the two keyboardists, two horn players, violin and guitar. This album is often quite slow moving with sparse sounds. The violin sounds acoustic and traditional sounding and I'm not into it or this record at all. Apologies to chamber music fans. The cover art on ZNR's debut by the way was done by Captain Beefheart. Who knew?