Mörglbl - Grötesk


Year of Release: 2007
Label: Free Electric Sound
Catalog Number: FES-4006
Format: CD
Total Time: 61:57:00

You know how an album comes along and you think "hot damn, this shit is good!" or "Yowzaa!" (my personal favorite)? Well, this here's the one. I mean, like, I've been playing it A LOT (off and on) since late June, but sitting down to finally share with you what I think today, to put into words that elation at finding something that just... fuck yeah! Yeah, it's that good. It makes hyperbole seem like mild enthusiasm.

While the album title Grötesk might imply an ugly thing, the music jazz-fusion-rock to be found on the platter itself is anything but. The French trio of Mörglbl -- Christophe Godin (guitar), Ivan Rougny (bass) and Jean Pierre Frelezeau (drums) -- play an high energy hybrid of jazz, fusion and rock, and, as Godin commented at their June NEARfest appearance - jazz metal. You know, eclectic. Just the thing for Laser's Edge's imprint Free Electric Sound.

At NEARfest, by the way, the band just killed, excellent. The band kills here, too. I mean, if you like funky-jazz-metal-rock, then you need to find some money somewhere and get this CD. I mean, nothing is worth forgoing needed medications, but this CD might come darn close. This trio is, to use a cliché (and not for the first or last time), a well-oiled machine. They are so very much in sync here, the album just motors along.

So, I've been playing this off and on since mid-June, as mentioned, and in the time from then and now, this disc became the perfect accompaniment to my drive home from work on a Friday - a Friday freak-out as it were - although that would be as "freakish" as I would get... so to speak. There is such a freewheeling and happy party spirit most of the grooves on this disc. Freewheeling doesn't mean meandering, mind, there's definitely direction in these pieces. From the moment I start the disk, from the moment "Tapas Nocturne" starts playing, I'm energized. Ah, who needs a high priced energy drink when there's this?

How to put this in words without going all technical - which I couldn't do anyway... how does it feel? What does it look like? Okay, I don't like doing the song by song rundown, but you know... I gots somethin' to say about each of 'em, so...

"Tapas Nocturne" is - cliché alert - a rollercoaster ride. And how ironic, given the meaning of nocturne (a moody instrumental), as this piece is like hurtling yourself down a mountain slope ... and there's no snow to cushion your bounces off rock outcroppings, or help you slip past trees without sideswiping them with your unprotected head. Like the bonus track (more later), this has a bit of a Latin feel, but here it is mostly from the cries of "caramba." And at the end of this track, listen for the conversation between bass and guitar - truly; in fact, the guitar laughs (while in the background there are real voices).

"L'ami Deglingo" throbs and bounces like a child on a hopper ball ... a hyperactive child on a hopper ball - guitar sings, bass hums and drums snick and crash... and so does our child, actually, who drifts off into some hazy world of half-consciousness (a dreamy atmospheric section with what seems like a layers of guitar, the main guitar soloing over broad strums) only to come back to consciousness in a buzz of confusion. As children do, s/he recovers quickly to go bouncing dizzily all over the front yard. A Deglingo, near as I can tell, is a toy sold in France made from recycled materials that looks like it was... patched together from recycled materials... Well then, substitute hopper ball with child racing about yard clutching her/his favorite toy...

"Buffet Froid" is a relaxed and gentle noodly jazz piece. We get a bit of a breather here. Well, except when it stomps about as a jazz-metal piece. That is, it sooths, it tickles lovingly, it kicks you in the ribs, and then goes back to tickling you ... your feet, driving you slowly mad ... roughs you up a bit more and then starts whispering in your ear. Glissandos create that effect... There is a 1979 French film of that title, about which the occasionally reliable Wikipedia says "is a crime thriller but displays a high degree of black humour as contemporary urban life is depicted as alienating and having a dehumanizing effect on city dwellers." I've not seen the film... and so as far as I know, there's no foot-tickling torture scene.

"Le Project Pied De Biche" which follows is a funky, cheerful number with a chirpy, loosey-goosey jazz guitar singing contentedly. Okay, I really don't want to tell you this, because you'll groan mightily but, it's stuck in my head ... there's a certain phrase that, if the guitar were actually emitting words, I'd swear it would be quoting a lyric from Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" ("It was always burning / Since the world's been turning"). That's it, no other reference before, after or elsewhere, just that single sequence of notes. Here Rougny gets some spotlight as takes over with a meaty bass solo, aided and abetted by Frelezeau on drums.

Godin practically blew all the other guitarists off the "guitar hero" pedestal at NEARfest. Just listen to the metal track "Lieutenant Colombin" and the sharply defined, crisp and stellar guitar solo contained within. You'll ask yourself (you metal folks at least): "[insert your metal guitar god of choice here] who?" Whew! But this isn't all overpowering, as there is a very nice, shimmery guitar solo at the 3:44 mark, just guitar and snickering percussion. And you know how I love those shimmery guitar solos. Yeh, Steve Vai, Satriani come to mind - in very general way. But then we're tearing it up again, shredding things to tatters. Rougny's bass is particularly throaty and grumbly, and Frelezeau makes very good use of all parts of his kits - crashes, splashes, booms...

You want moody jazz? That's "Les Petits Nous." Gentle, soft, lyrical (well, it's all lyrical, but here especially so). It's a piece that almost sounds as if there's a Roland in there somewhere, but there isn't (at least not credited). Nope, just the three of them. And no samplers listed either, so it's just one of the many tones from the guitar. Lovely mellow, moody jazz piece. A respite before...

The grinding, marching "The Toy Maker" -- nutcrackers on acid? Toy soldiers in black leather and studs? It's happy metal... Some familiar strains, what are they? Something classic... something sorta western ... Ah, it's elusive. Anyway, this is part waltz, part polka, part metal, part symphonic prog... think it, it's probably there (well, no rap). Not quite dizzying, but almost there and yes, it is at times.

Rougny and Frelezeau get more moments to take the lead again in the dark funk of "Haute Voltige En Haute-Volta." This piece has a definite, palpable throb to it... and that makes it really the Rougny spotlight... how to describe those loose and fat tones besides loose and fat? Sometimes almost flatulent, but without the odor. Godin's guitar is tight and trim in comparison, sharp and pointed.

"Fevrier Afghan" is goofy, the only song truly with vocals (there's voices in "Tapas Nocturne") which consist of a voice singing "la la la la" for the most part (and later something else). But then the music buzzes and drives like classic, heavy Rush, but I don't think Alex Lifeson does quite this much shredding. Oddly enough, it begins and ends also like something out of a 50s TV orchestra... um, like... I Love Lucy maybe, though it's not that theme music. Actually, erm ... when I think of oddball French entertainment, this is what I think of. I don't mean this particular piece, mind, but just the wild eccentricity (And we all have our eccentricities, not just certain countries).

The album "proper" - whatever that means - ends with "Totale Bricole" and jazz-fusiony work out. You know by the end of the album you should be able to shed that beer gut... (ah, if only it were true*). Another solid tune from the band, and a nice way to end the album. Only there's more!

Bonus tracks include a re-recording of "Il Bello Di Note," which originally appeared on Ze Mörglbl Trio!!. This is a Latin-esque piece, hot and spicy ... a particularly passionate tango, as it were. And there's the eccentric "Studio Délirium" with it's slow down/speed up-stop/start-go oddball arrangement. The final bonus is a video track of "Tapas Nocturne" which illustrates exactly what is heard on the album - this trio is having fun.

Listen to Mörglbl at their MySpace site.

*well, mine's not from beer, but ... mmm, might try to do aerobics to this album. What catatonic state would it send fitness "guru" Richard Simmons into, I wonder?
Tracklisting:
Tapas Nocture (4:52) / L'Ami Deglingo (5:19) / Buffet Froid (6:49) / Le Project Pied De Biche (6:33) / Lieutentant Colombin (6:39) / Les Petits Nous (4:34) / The Toy Maker (4:31) / Haute Voltige En Haute-Volta (4:28) / Février Afghan (5:17) / Totale Bricole (6:03) / Bonus: Il Bello Di Note (5:36) / Studio Délirium (1:11)

Musicians:
Christophe Godin - guitar, vocals
Ivan Rougny - bass
Jean Pierre Frelezeau - drums

Discography:
Ze Mörglbl Trio!! (1998/2007)
Bienvenue À Mörglbl Land (1999/2007)
Grötesk (2007)
Toon Tunes From The Past (2008)
Jäzz For The Deaf (2009)
Brutal Römance (2012)
Tea Time For Punks (2015)
The Story Of Scott Rötti (2019)

Genre: Fusion-Jazz Fusion

Origin FR

Added: December 30th 2008
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.morglblmusic.com
Hits: 2918
Language: english

  

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