Year of Release: 2007(rerelease)/1972Label: Finders Keepers
Genre: Psychedelic Classical Funk / Experimental / Avant-GardeMusic: 2.5
Sound: 4Format Reviewed:LP (Reissue)
Extraordinary talent? Check. Association with legendary musicians? Check. High in demand, low in supply? Check. Cover with naked man on a beach staring into the boundless sea? Check. Rave reviews from modern day musicians? Check - All the elements for a lost classic are present.
This album has the honor of holding catalog number FKR001CD/LP on Andy Votel's Finders Keepers record label, a crate digging collective that is:
"introducing fans of psychedelic / jazz / folk / funk / avant-garde and whacked-out movie musak to a lost world of undiscovered vinyl artifacts from the annals of alternative pop history."I picked up this album based on Vannier's work on Serge Gainsbourg's - Histoire De Melody Nelson, and even if I wasn't aware of this, a large promient sticker that adorns a third of the album cover informs me of the album's associations and credentials.
Following the 28 minute Histoire De Melody Nelson, the world was left hungering for more of this brilliance and unfortunately for music lovers, hip-hop vinyl heads, collectors and me, this void has been largely left unfilled.
Until now (apparently). Finders Keepers is one of those outfits that I love, who dedicate themselves to the search of wonderful and obscure music - both elements that appeal to the purist in me. This record here, which translates to, "The Child Assassin of the Flies" is in the same pysche-rock-opera-soundtrack vein as Histoire and is as strange the title might imlpy.
A cacophony of strange bleats, footsteps, gunshots, whacked-out choirs, guitars heavy on the wah-wah, exotic eastern instruments and sweeping strings movements, makes this experimental album interesting listening. Like a soundtrack to a movie (which it actually is), I'm listening and not watching and am I'm left puzzled to what is the nature of the strange story that is being played out to equally strange music - I'm thinking elements of William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" but can't say for sure.
I own two other Finders Keeps releases both of which have been similarly packaged as this record - elaborate thick cardboard gateway foldout, brilliant artwork and a large sticker giving me info on what is a lost classic, as well brief take-out comments from respected and renowned musicians and media sources. Warning bells should have gone off but they didn't - I thought I'd found that needle in the haystack, that gem in the rough.
As with both those albums, I find L'Enfant Assasin Des Mouches ultimately disapointing. Certainly, this is an avant-garde album, at the cutting edge then and even now but I find myself thinking when I would want to listen to this record; it makes for a challenging and not neccesarily rewarding listen, sure there are interesting and beautiful elements but it is not something I where I feel irrevocably changed for the experience or actually enjoy.
The union of Gainsbourg and Vannier, without a doubt was the period in which Gainsbourg produced his finest albums. Sometimes the synergy of such a pairing cannot be matched by the artist that stands alone. Think Garfunkel without Simon, or McCartney without Lennon.
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| Jean Claude Vannier... |
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| without Serge Gainsbourg |
"This kind of record could not be made today: who would pay for this brilliant suite of instrumental concrete madness?"Who indeed? Me apparently. But in my humble opinion, this is something strictly for the collector, the curator of musical history seeking out those rare and strange curiosities.
You can listen to some samples here, but be wary of a 30 second clip taken from a 7 minute track.
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