TOSCCO

The opening three minutes long opening track The Great Man gives the listener a forewarning of what to come. Then Happy Family fasten the grip and never let's go until the end of this album....... and long after the last tone has rung out.

Coming in somewhere in the Present landscape, me too slightly wonders about this band's inclusion in the Zeuhl genre. But I also understand why they are included. A song like Overdrive Locomotive is leaning very strongly towards Magma. As a conclusion, I would say Happy Family have one foot in Zeuhl and the other one in Avant-Garde/RIO. A great combination in my view.

The tempo varies between frantic and pretty lyrical and gloomy at times. Happy Family also owes a great deal to the likes of John Coltrane too. The music is also epic most of the time. Dare I say symphonic ? Happy Family and this album is surely the subject of lively debates for decades to come.

I do not the quality of the songs are up for debate though. The songs here never becomes uninteresting. There is always something going on. A jazzy snare drum, a rampaging bass, some funky guitars, some gloomy melody lines........ I can go on forever. There is a great deal of variations throughout the album. That makes this album a truly great album and one of the better RIO/Zeuhl albums I have ever heard. Excellent stuff.

4 stars