LES MALEDICTUS SOUND

Jean-PIerre Massiera was one of the earliest explorative musicians who introduced his native France to the world of experimental recording techniques and progressive rock in the late 1960s. Best known for his bizarre novelty acts such as Horrific Child, Herman's Rocket and Visitors, Massiera's earliest plunge into the world of strange musical sounds dates back to 1968 with his first project LES MALEDICTUS SOUND which showcased the results of what happens when you mix disparate musical genres such as 50s space pop, psychedelic rock, lounge, brass rock, jazz, classical and even Vaudville tunes. Basically one of those collage albums of sounds and styles, MALEDICTUS SOUND was amongst the first of these types of novelties that would become quite popular as time went on.

Through a series of 17 tracks, most of which rarely exceed the three minute mark, Massiera crafted the album MALEDICTUS SOUND after setting up his own recording studio in 1967 Nice, France when he began to assemble an army of instrumentalists and vocalists to construct the strange novelty group that would become LES MALEDICTUS SOUND. The album features over 15 different musicians credited and features commercial jingle grade little ditties all of which are completely instrumental except for the strange vocal wordless utterances and the occasional spoken word interpolations.

The album it self is as confusing as the music contained on it. In 1968 alone it was released in various countries on five different labels (AZ, Canusa, Grand Prix, Révolution. SEM) and also sported four different album titles! (Maledictus Sound, Attention, Jim-Clark, L'Expérience) It has also been reissued several times over the decade as Masseira's novelty albums under various pseudonyms have captivated all the weirdo music lovers making his albums underground cult sensations. On the album's Bandcamp page it claims that LES MALEDICTUS SOUND are to instrumental rock what Frankenstein was to science, a laboratory monster. And that's not a bad way to explain this bizarre mishmash of psychedelic pop, traditional ballads, muzak and pure kitsch.

Sometimes sounding like a theme song to a TV game show, other times sounding like drunken bar musicians letting off steam and then just a cheesy soundtrack to a French soap opera or what have ya, MALEDICTUS SOUND was certainly the oddball for its day and was surely instrumental in ushering France into the brave new world of experimental and progressive rock that would soon sweep the 1970s. While this album is many things, essentially it's an easy listening album that took some extreme unorthodox liberties for the year 1968 and is claimed to be inspired by post-modernism. On top of the kitschy catchy pop hooks delivered by organs, guitars or whatever, there are a lot of sound effects and screaming! Yeah vocal utterances protrude from the strangest place making this sound like a Halloween soundtrack at times especially on the track "Monster Cocktail" which would prognostic the Horrific Child one off a few years down the road.

This is definitely an interesting slice of 60s psychedelia run amok and much bolder and more daring than many were cranking out at the time. While interesting and well worth checking out, the main problem with MALEDICTUS SOUND is that is sort of adopts a musical template and then doesn't really deviate from it throughout the entire album's run. It's basically a series of catchy pop hooks with varying instrumentation and musical styles along with sound effects and various vocalizations. The album's flow is fairly uniform from beginning to end. This is made all the more clear when you experience the near 9-minute groovy Afro-psych bonus track "L'étrange Monsieur Whinster" which offers a completely different approach (as well as the title for the future Horrific Child release) and is actually better than any of the music on the album proper with more competent guitar riffs and more finely tuned compositional fortitude. Overall a pleasant novelty for 1968 but not something i find extremely essential either.

Sounds like German electronic pioneer Harmonia meet a Japanese funk commune Inomata Takeshi & Sound L.T.D. It's surprising and beyond expression such an experimental creation has been released in 1968, just before 'rock spirit was gone'. Without any suspicion the spirit of experiments was sincerely alive upon this album created mainly by Paul BAILE and Jean-Pierre MASSIERA in collaboration with lots of session musicians. Their phantasmagoric funk soundscape, blended with jazz, electronic, psychedelic, or avantgarde, could be attached via a French multi- instrumentalist and composer Jean Guerin, I guess. And of course crazy amazing they introduced melodic pop and anti-pop into their madness. Every single track is 2 or 3 minute long but simultaneously has impressive construction of sound / noise / melody line / rhythmic background.

This innovative sound collective can be heard through the first track "Kriminal Theme", one of their masterpieces. Mystic psychedelia filled with electronic footprints and jazzy percussive drum procession is followed by loud funky saxophone explosions plus downtempo melodic hollowness. Infernal shouting via their deep throat sounds exaggerating rather than serious. "The Whistler" is kinda acceptable funk song with dramatic piano phrases and kinky synthesizer tones. Hotchpotch sound mixture drives you into another dimension. In "Inside My Brain" fuzzy heavy guitar growling dominates melody lines all around. Texture like "Love's Theme" seasoned with irony brass launch is definitely in "Concerto Genocide". Contrary to examples above all, "Heathcliff Y Cry Your Name" is a dramatic tragedy flooded with psychedelic organ sounds and weird mourning.

Basically their musical attitude sounds more of pop than purely avantgarde or psychedelic. But do not be deceived, not so simple really. Colourful atmospheric variation via the whole album can notify you of their sound diversity and eclectic intelligence of music. Again let me say, it's quite incredible this album was released in 1968 just before rock dies.