Lac Placide - Closer


Year of Release: 2006
Label: self-released
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 67:33:00

If you've never seen it, the alligator movie with the similar name is both entertaining and hilarious. While there's little funny in Lac Placide's music, they are a stand up act. If you take Karcius, slow it down a bit and add in an androgynous mix of voices, you'd be somewhere in the ballpark of this dissonant marsh. Yet, their songs never get bogged down. To be frank, the worst part about their compositions is that they're unapologetically counter-melodic; along the lines of Little Atlas or Farpoint's funkier strains. In spite of everything, never do they fly in the face of inaccessible avant-garde as their music is likelier to result in head-banging or undulating limbs. They even incorporate whistles like The Scorpions' "Gorky Park" in "Damned Lover Of Threat." Also, while primarily mellow, they actually take a gander at the heavier end of the spectrum in "Quest For Answers." Then, they get borderline freaky in "The Trials." Before they're through, "Clown De Dieu" and "Illusion.org" post some licks that are out of sight, but do so with user-friendliness and intuit. Overall, the further they go, the more prone they are to grow spores on listeners' psyches.

By the way, the album plays like a single concerto, but it's delivered as quintuplets: Prologue, D?ambulogue, Ventrilogue, and Epilogue account for the four waves, which make up the Closer concept. While frequently jarring, the haphazardness is cohesively arranged. Likewise, each mood swing is neatly creased between the seams. To dismiss this as random acts of nonsense would be a sin. There's something that's both brilliant and audacious in their musicianship, but it's not that easy to put your finger on it. Rather, their complexities touch the subconscious and beg for continuous play.

Even though their sonic attire clashes quite badly, they somehow make it work. Long before they're stuck in the mud, they shift gears and take their atonality down unhindered paths. What made Birdsongs of the Mesozoic extinct to peoples' minds is utterly and unsmilingly avoided here. In the end, their indiscriminate technique is about as analogous to music as French Pointillism is to painted art.


Tracklisting:
Healing (9:16) / Closer: Prologue (0:25) / The Dark Gift Part 1: Damned Lover Of Threat (5:10) / The Dark Gift Part II: QUest For Answer (7:55) / Closer: D?ambulogue (0:18) / Haitise (8:05) / The Trials (8:25) / Closer: Ventrilogue (1:35) / Clown De Dieu (16:00) / Illusion.org (6:18) / Closer: Epilogue (4:06)

Musicians:
S?n?chal Morin - guitar
Le R?deur Renaud - vocals
Sa Majest? Roy - vocals
Le Bourgmestre Ville - keyboards
L'archiviste Demurger - bass
Rebouteux - drums

Discography:
Welcome ... You're Not (ep) (2000)
Away (2003)
Freedom From Their Hands (ep) (2005)
Concert Au Triton (2005)
Closer (2006)
L'Apicultrice (ep) (2008)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin FR

Added: May 6th 2009
Reviewer: Joshua "Prawg Dawg" Turner
Score:
Artist website: www.lacplacide.com
Hits: 4799
Language: english

  

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