ET APRÈS

I really had never heard of this obscure french band until recently, when I read a review here on P.A, and decided to look for it. And I was quite surprised. Unlike so many little known 70´s bands this one did release a second album and was active until around 1981. Et Aprés was their first release and at first I was delighted for what I heard: the first track, Je Ne San Plus, a brilliant prog rock tune with great twin lead guitar attack, beautiful, dreamy keyboards and a very strong rhythm section. Melodic, powerful, delivered with fiercely emotional vocals. At 8 minutes, it is full of tempo and mood changes. I was completely blown by this one and I was sure I found one of those rare prog gems you happen to stumble upon sometimes. However, the remaining 3 tracks are way too different from the opener, making you think if you´re listening to another band entirely by the time the second song is on.

No, the other tow long tunes and the short final instrumental piece are not bad: in fact, they are quite good if you like a mix of jazz/rock fusion, psychedelic/space rock and even some avant guard bits like Ange (you know, those dramatic spoken parts and the girls backing voices). The music makes a dramatic turnaround and never goes back to the electrifying beginning. Again the results are far from weak, but not my cup of tea either. It is clear that the band had fine musicians and they were capable of delivering strong melodies when they wanted to. They also were skilled enough and bold enough to try getting into more experimental realms without sounding too pretentious, nor too far out. In fact, Et Aprés seems to be a kind of promising album from a very good band not very sure what direction to follow.

If you like those aforementioned styles, you should try to check this out. Giving the slightly lower rating of their second album, I guess they did not find the right direction, but I intent to listen to it and find out by myself as soon as I can. Although I was slightly disappointed by the style adopted by the second part of the record, Memoriance´s debut is a very amusing work and did it made me curious about their follow up.

Rating: something between 3.5 and 4 stars. I´ll round up to four stars.