SPEED LIMIT

Speed Limit were a short-lived French Jazz-Rock band, based in Paris and led by Hungarian drummer George Jinda and featuring an all star-line-up,including Magma fellows Joel Dugrenot (bass) and Yochk'o Seffer (wind instruments) along with Gerard Curbillon on guitars and Jean-Louis Bucchi (electric piano).This quintet recorded and released the band's eponymous debut in 1975 on Le Chant du Monde.

''Speed limit'' is the definition of improvisational Jazz-Rock with no other particular aim than the abstract interplays and the long solos by the band members.And while the album contains some nice grooves and big breaks with dominant instrumentation,they all fall soon into a soloing labyrinth with endless minutes of free virtuosity.The individual performances are expected to be good,regarding the musicians participating and so it is: Melodic sax lines by Seffer,deep bass work by Dugrenot and atmospheric electric piano parts by Bucchi.But when it all comes to a compositional term,the album is really muddy with very long solos,which get the listener tired along the way, and a work far from being coherent and tight.

''Speed limit'' ends up to be a rather boring effort and definitely not represantative at all of these musicians' talent.I can only recommend this album to die-hard fans of Free Jazz music,who dont mind the countless minutes of improvisation in an album.