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La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux — Expériences de Survie
(Prikosnovénie PRIK025, 1999, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2000-10-01

Expériences de Survie Cover art

A full throttle sonic assault on the ears, this is (I believe) the second full length release by STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux), a French sextet of drums  /percussion, bass, guitars, contrabass, sax / synths, and vocals, operating in the post-RIO vein, perhaps in the shadows of Etron Fou Leloublan, but ratcheted up a few notches on the energy scale (recalling bands like Kraldjursanstalten). To hear this guitarist crash and burn into a screeching mass of howling feedback might have you running for the Excedrin, but wait... much of the material here fits into a more aggressive “chamber” sort of style, albeit brutalized and massacred, and is for the most part a very original stylistic twist on the classic French RIO sound — and one definitely worthy of attention. The vocals (did I say shouting?) are mostly in French, although the two opening tracks use English and one other... who knows, almost sounds like Kobaïan; much of the material is accompanied with spoken texts. The pace of the music speeds up and slows down almost schizophrenically, with periodic outbursts of madness when one least expects them. Use of mallet and metal percussion (whether sampled, synthesized or played, or all of the above) on a few tracks is a definite highlight, as well as one totally acapella track. A big step up from their earlier album, this is some pretty wacky stuff; anything can happen at any time. Excellent, but probably not for everyone.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 20, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux (La STPO)

 

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