U RIGIRU

One of the true progressive rock rarities of the 70s came from the Corsican band RIALZU ( means "revival" in Corsican language ) when the band released its single album U RIGIRU in 1978 and then disappeared never to be heard from again at least until the Soleil Zeuhl released a long awaited remastered CD with bonus tracks in 2008. The original album was only released on the tiny French island of Corsica which alone dictated a very small number of albums ever having been pressed and therefore the original vinyl copies have become some of the most sought after collectibles for vinyl addicts. Copies in mint condition easily reach over the 1000$USD mark but luckily the CDs are much easier to track down complete with extra tracks that give extra life to the truncated original playing time of barely over 30 minutes.

The album is somewhat of an oddity as is the island of Corsica itself. Being situated roughly equidistant between the French and Italian coasts, the island is a province of France yet has historical ties closer to Italian history more specifically the former Republic of Genoa. The band's early years actually originated on the mainland in Avignon, France where four members Christophe Mac Daniel (organ, Fender piano, synths, vocals), Gilles Renne (guitars) and brothers Francois Bataille (drums) and Patrick Bataille (bass) met at a Jesuit school in the early 70s. Eventually Olivier Renne (brother of Gilles) would take over on drums and new members were added to the lineup including Dominique Gallet (violin, vocals) and backing vocalists Jean-Philippe Gallet and Francoise Augé.

Being tuned into the progressive music scene of the era, the band found inspiration in the bigwigs of the day including Genesis, Yes, King Crimson and most of all the zeuhl rhythms of Magma however the band as heard by the passionate operatic vocals sung in Corsican, a close relative of Italian, sounded much more like the symphonic prog bands PFM, Banco and the other classically infused prog rock bands of Italy. Some comparisons have even been made to the strong vocal style of Demetrio Stratos of Area. The result of this oddball combo effect is one that wasn't really explored elsewhere as it has a classical symphonic prog facade that is structured by the Magma-esque zeuhl rhythmic drive. The album contains two long tracks one one relatively short closer.

The opening title track opens much like Magma's "Köhntarkösz" thematically but then exhibits a lot of wild guitar soloing which takes on a more Italian feel after the opening frenzy dies down and it basically evolves into a more romantic vocal led symphonic prog track that also added the sounds of native Corsican folk music. Once the violin and what sounds like a synthesized theremin enter the scene, the album becomes a spookier experience and probably most resembles the haunting zeuhl style as imagined by another obscure French artist, namely Archaïa but never heads too far in that direction as the folk melodies and the warmth of the vocals keep it from heading down too far into planet mondo bizarro. Between baritone dramatic lead vocals and the onomatopoeic choir, the track begins to sound like an Italian opera streamlined by the zeuhl compositional limitations. The title track originally swallowed up the entire A side of the vinyl with a run of almost 16 minutes.

"I Lagramanti" while similarly styled is the more haunting of the two longer pieces where the choir takes on more of the haunting Archaïa qualities but also sounds like a choir that was invited from the Jesuit academy as it sounds a lot like Christian liturgical chanting. The atmosphere sweeps and swishes in the background like an ocean breeze while the track slowly ratchets up the intensity and then turns into a heavier rocker with guitar solos drenched with an accompanying organ presence and then back to the RPI vocals but as quickly as the opera begins it reverts back to spaced out organ runs, a fidgety bass and then it all alternates, both spaced out psycho zeuhl mixes with a night at the opera. Very strange. The track transmogrifies once more as the ending exhibits a stellar drum solo performance.

The last track "A Mubba" was an afterthought and sounds completely different. It takes on the persona of jazz-fusion with a feisty bass groove and jazzy chord progressions along with the proper drums rolls however the haunting choral vocals stay on for the ride at least to welcome the new stylistic approach and make a reprise or two. The track remains a rather Brand X style of jazz-fusion a la "Unorthodox Behavior" but the Archaïa zeuhl rhythms and haunting eeriness continue but just as the track feels like it's ready to take off into even more intense psychedelic realms, it suddenly cuts off and abruptly ends the original run of the album making everyone wonder why in the world this was so. The bonus tracks of "U sterpamondu" and "A man di Diu" were recorded live, the former in 1977 and the other in 1976. They both exhibit a similar style to the longer tracks with alternating zeuhl / RPI weirdness. I RIGIRU is an utterly unique album and a very well performed one as well that deserves to be resurrected from the most obscure troughs of the world of progressive rock.