LE PETIT VIOLON DE MR. GRÉGOIRE

Third album from this quintet from the heart of France (Orleans), a difficult birth, delayed by offshoot projects and defections. Grimages had been well-received by the press, and the group also played a special project, providing the live music to the spoken text of Johnathan The Seagull for a couple of performances and a few more theatre plays, the group also toured with Pulsart, Ange, Carpe Diem, Atoll, Tangerine and even Magma (!) for two nights. During the rehearsal and writing of Violon in the winter of 76, the group separated after an argument, only to reform later that spring, but with a different guitarist Pascal Jardon. The album finally came out late 76 with a typical fantasy artwork and is regarded by fans as their crowning achievement. LeGuennec is often seen with an old man masque (a bit like P Gabriel's did back in 72) and also plays the flute (like peter did). Did anyone say "derivative" or "clone"?

Opening on a short Chants Des Glaces, an instrumental that features the band's overall musicianship, somewhere between Genesis and Ange, something that can be said for the closing Solaris as well. Both evolved out of the Johnathan Livingstone project. Following up is Enfants, an enthralling piece starting on gentle vocals, but once the group kicks in, we have a solid riff-laden rock, before the middle section changing things again, before returning to the heavy riffy rock already developed. Publiphobe is probably the most out of place track of this album, as it cites many brand-names in their lyrics to prove their phobia of advertisements: a fun idea, but one that doesn't really hold up repeated listenings without a bit of irritation.

The sidelong suite filling the flipside is obviously the cornerstone on which the album was built, but this proghead is not really impressed as ML pulls a second-league Ange. Two of the three movements were written a while ago, and all three sounds just glued together with sound effects. This suite is just too close to Fils De Mandrin or Emile Jacotey for comfort, IMHO. The instrumental finale is rather weak, as well.

If you're into theatrical music, ML might even be more so than Ange, often attracting unfavourable comparisons, probably due to their cheesy spoken parts and sometimes laughably trying too hard to fit the mould. Definitely not my cup of tea.

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