SCIENCE & VIOLENCE

Rare Prog album with a strong political background, issued in Italy.Singer/lyricist Olivier Carre and multi-instrumentalist Jack Marchal were both attached to the right-wing parties of France and they always had the idea of writing down some music, as they had known each other for quite some time.They asked the help of Janus's drummer Mario Ladich, working for a band with clear right-wing tendencies.Ladich had also his own rehearsing studio and the album was recorded in just two days during September 79' in Rome, released independently by the trio.

Even if this one was issued in Italy, ''Science & violence'' is totally sung in French by Carre and recalls the early roots of PINK FLOYD as well as some of the best French Prog bands of the 70's.The material is pretty original, combining the psychedelic influences with theatrical lyrics, rockin' grooves and some soaring keyboards in a charming package.Some of its parts resemble to PULSAR with spacey synthesizers, crying guitars and French narration, others are more raw and outdated with scratching electric riffs meeting lyrical acoustic textures.But there are also some evident ANGE hints in the album, the material of the flipside sounds like if pre-72' ANGE existed, characterized by soft electric moves and over-the-top singing lines, surrounded by mellow keyboard themes, building a slight psychedelic atmosphere, which will eventually explode into lovely, melodic soloing with a discreet symphonic base.There are also sporadic, harder runs with the guitars in evidence and an electrified atmosphere.

Marchal apparently prepared himself for a sophomore release, which was never issued, but a couple of tracks made it to the album's 97' reissue on Cosmorecord with irritating titles like ''Les Nazis font des betises''.The style has nothing to do with the sound on ''Science & violence'', this is Synth/New Wave music with synthetic beats and colorless vocals, extremerly monotonous and boring.

Ladich continued his career as a member of Janus, but Carre died prematurely in a motorcycle accident in 1994, in which Marchal was also involved.

Genuine Progressive Rock, mainly composed by the talented man named Jack Marchal.Quite close to a more energetic PULSAR with strong psychedelic and light symphonic underlines.Pretty rare yet warmly recommended stuff.