Vers Presse Tahiti coco

http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Reviews_November08.htm AQUASERGE – TAHITI COCO (LP from Manimal Vinyl Records http://www.manimalvinyl.com ) I’m not often lost for words, but this three song 12” EP from the south of France’s groovy progressive psychedelic jazz popsters Aquaserge has me verging on le stumped. Few bands today are genuinely original, but what Aquaserge (the name apparently is a French play on words meaning both “What am I for?” and “Aquatic surge” – and if you are none the wiser for knowing that, then you can come join me on my half of the drainpipe) – what Aquaserge strive for, and for the most part successfully achieve, is something quite unique. Where to begin? Formed in 2005 by three former members of the French pop group Hyperclean, at least one of them - Julien Gasc – also plays in Stereolab, who Aquaserge have toured with in the past, while drummer extraordinaire Julien Barbagallo is from a band called Lecube. Together they also serve as a backing band for avant-garde crooner Bertrand Burgalat. ‘Un’ opens the account. It’s eight minutes long, and starts out sounding like distinctly French psychedelic sounding pop, with hushed vocals and skewed vintage keyboards. Part way through it launches into a blistering guitar solo from Benjamin Glibert, who along with bassist Audrey Ginestet are from Ueh – so there’s some Acid Mothers Temple connections there as well (Ueh often serve as AMT’s support in France, and their 2002 album was released in Japan on AMT’s label). It then builds up to a riff that owes more than a nod to the Magic Band, which in turn dissolves into a melee of psychedelic psounds generated by some energetic keyboard knob-twiddling. ‘Deux’ is a further five minutes long and is driven along by a riff which is an almost direct lift from King Crimson’s ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Part Two’ – which is no bad thing in itself. In fact, if pressed I’d probably argue that King Crimson were the band who Aquaserge have most in common with, although their label would have it that Faust, Neu! And Soft Machine are their points of reference. The thirteen-minute long ‘Trois’ which takes up all of Side 2 certainly underlines that, and features some guitar / keyboard interplay of which even the great Mr. Fripp would be justifiably proud. Apparently there’s a storyline running through the album, that of the underwater mythology of shipwreck survivor Serge, who wanders the abyss in his cigar shaped submarine looking for whistling parrots. I could be making that up, however. There is also alleged to be two more albums’ worth of material already recorded which is still to be released. I for one am really, really looking forward to hearing that. Great sleeve, too! (Phil McMullen)