Is your bicycle broken? Don't let the joke run along, getting mighty sprightly ahead of you, strong stroke those spokes and become a muse sick wish with this man. The terrain is the map, scraping jiggly-wiggly pedal-metal, this is designed of the wide end of the track with lots of latitude for your longitudinal attitude readjustment frock cemented into the zone relegated for and scored in the free-form stratosphere invisible ink paste gumbo stilt throw. Charts? What charts? Improvisational is where it starts and barring one elegiacally perfected tune room at the 'Rock'n Roll Station,' reaching seekers freaking for a fixated melody embellished plea are left in the lurch sans the search.
Squelching Neanderthal parrot. Charlie parks one lip asleep skip town. Blubbering chiggle-chaggled and you feel the teeth dangle impressionistic sputtering farts, soft squawks, rippling retorts amidst staccato sharps poking the jolly jester in the arse. Feel the breathing become part of the music, flittering mouse patter leads the trail to comforting and familiar, yet obtuse squall and response alliteration saucier and fluffier until pup-puh-puh-pum-pumpum-pumpeh makes smile.
Machinery. Strained kite string lollygag horn trill. Randomly interspersed impromptu comments seeming story in French. Before you know it, your shift at the fantasy avant-garde factory is over and you can go home to the next song.
Making a horse neigh. Staying the course lain. Jacques Berrocal has the power to ensconce with his deft use of independently structured spontaneous creation. These are ideas that may have been toyed around with before, but were not dropped to trollop unsuspecting ear cheers releasing fears that continual beat impressions are necessary for the mind to make connection directions with what seem like obtuse chortles colliding in space, bouncing, and the swerving wending the same path immediately.
The doormat reads 'everything is possible' - you are at the original 'second pirate session of a strange wax:' "Rock'n Roll Station" - Nurse With Wound covered this tune to great effect, naming an entire marvelous album afterwards in nepotistic frenzy alluding to the steady dour retelling in repetition of Vincent Canby accompanied by steady 3-notes-bass thrung-thum-blugneah wheel spinning crank clickety-clack interference bells, whine on rubber, words slightly morphing elongated syllable perplex. 'Jacques bicycle is music to my ears, do you remember?' Final wheel screech click-tap matched for tring-a-ling fades to coughing, and frog, lighter, poured water, laughter, muted bike vamp, utensil plated tangle stop.
'Bric-a-brac' is over 25 minutes and takes the entirety of side two into submission. This is opus direction, outré style. Dining with pleasure, listening to all the sounds around wooing for flickered dispersion. Mounted violin parapet intermittently stroking a straddle, evolving rubato in anomalous supportive crumble. All in chip fin and disquieting escapes the face making master powerful, juiced avant-pounce by the ounce, poured in a splash at a time. Incorporating footfalls, plate wobble, pot lid organic percussion, string struck
precision childlike mercurial atonal pluck, megaphone grunts, metal sheet wobbler, requisite pterodactyl shrills from elephantine monster spills of sonic departure ticket-stamped voucher felling the glacier hearts for the 'out-there' that is easy to feel 'in-here.' Sterile is not to be, cacophony reigns supreme and ropes the corralled scene warm blanket sheen away to cortex inner drum posed leaning to. Not to think of no, periodic shifts to rudimentary follow me simple attention. Getting surprised and being able, on follow stride short sublime, to
then reel from getting trapped in the belly walrus shell again, a piano comping akimbo percussive scatter jagged swagger introduces itself and a winding horn innuendo distend blow. Coiled runs afterwards and the return of the sun melody 3-note upright-chunked stomp from the only verifiably structured tune, now accomplice typewriter in tow, rhythm sectionally lunch lurch unclothed jubilant quasi-musical stenography replete - a new narrator recalls fragmentary discussion of another whole whale of a history tale all together, a French accent giblet freshly mustachioed story: 'interested simultaneously by moving.. and by noises... like music... [...] you know what, I am just waiting for Vince... I mean, Rock'n Roll Station... I'm just waiting for him... always in love, but is not.. here.. anyway, go home, go on.. [...] during a surrealistic demonstration by the Camelots of the king... what a strange thing he is making me doing... what a strange story.. you know I don't know what I am doing there.. you know, really... what a strange story, what a strange thing;' fade the flock out, big hawk lands throned. Swoon baboon new golden dongle spoon soon, put your cap tarts on, staring ague eyes open meden agan agar-agar. Everything is possible and this album just made it probable. 'We can do what we want to do.' Hear here.
~ Cesar Montesano
Posted by derek on October 30, 2005 6:20 PMGreat to see this one here, especially since I'm just about to tour with Jac (btw it's JACQUES not Jaques) - normally by now his second solo album Catalogue should be out now too on Alga Marghen (at last!) - meanwhile, cool review! And GREAT album.
I would of course direct y'all to the interview with Jac at the Paris Transatlantic but the site seems to be down temporarily.. but keep trying y'all
PT site back up
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/berrocal.html
Thanks Dan, my bad. Sorry Cesar, the mislaid “c” is duly reinstated.
Hey, how’s ‘bout posting those tour dates here too?
""Hey, how’s ‘bout posting those tour dates here too?""
I will not complain :-)
Posted by: Jacques Oger at November 1, 2005 1:38 AMOh if you insist! If you're reading this in Tours, Paris, Stockholm, Norrkoping, Geneva or Nice, this is for you
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/warburton/ontheroad.html
I'm just reading this review again for like the sixth time and I just can't get over its poeticality. I highly recommend reading it aloud. I'm also so happy to see someone tackling Berrocal, because he's been a big mystery topic I've wanted to investigate for a while because I know people who consider him a genius and I've also heard many strange stories about this guy. Jason Willett told me Berrocal is "magic". So far the only Berrocal albums I've heard are this one (I just got a copy of it this week because of this review and I hope to make some remarks if I can get my brain around its craziness) and Fatal Encounters (I had mixed feelings about this one). I'm sort of freaked by Berrocal so far. Dan, Cesar, anyone else: what is his best album in your opinion?
Dan, have you ever played with him before this tour? Is it free improv? What's it like? Sounds like a totally wacky combination!
Dan, any chances for recordings (could be live stuff, could be studio) ?
Posted by: thenewone at November 5, 2005 3:34 PM"Dan, Cesar, anyone else: what is his best album in your opinion?"
I think Fatal Encounters is a damn good compilation.. it has extracts from just about everything, including the early Futura release Musiq Musik (reissued on Fractal but I suspect nearly sold out now) and the stuff with Nurse With Wound. So that's a good enough place to start. The Catalogue reissue on Hatology is worth a shot (though I love the hilarious 1/10 review it good at AMG), but avoid the last Catalogue album Insomnie. My own favourites are Paralleles and Catalogue (the ALBUM Catalogue, not the group!! careful), which is also just reissued on Alga Marghen. At last.
"have you ever played with him before this tour? Is it free improv?"
No to the first and yes (partially) to the second.
"Dan, any chances for recordings (could be live stuff, could be studio"
I don't know yet how many if any of the concerts will be recorded, but we're checking out studios and definitely looking towards some sort of release. Also tentatively setting up a few dates in the US / Canada next year, but it's too early to blab about that so I won't.
"Oh if you insist! If you're reading this in Tours, Paris, Stockholm, Norrkoping, Geneva or Nice, this is for you
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/warburton/ontheroad.html"
Hey ! Excellent gig Dan yesterday night !
Never heard you playing the violin like that before. A lot of directions. Contemporary, free jazz, ostinatos...
A good pulse with Aki Onda's cassettes. He was playing the role of drummer indeed.
Berrocal was at his best. Not always the case in other contexts.
A lot of energy. 'Lonely woman' and 'R&R station' were great moments.
It's a group which makes sense and I am sure you could welcome any style of music inside as you probably did with Alexandre Bellenger last week in Tours.
Good tour in Scandinavia !
Thanks for the kind words, Jacques. We had a fun old time in Stockholm - Fylkingen! what a magnificent venue - and Norrköping. I'm seriously thinking about writing up an account of it all for January's magazine. Meanwhile, the fun goes on - so if you're in or near Geneva or Nice.. http://www.paristransatlantic.com/warburton/ontheroad.html
Posted by: Dan Warburton at November 20, 2005 9:52 PMYowsers! Somehow I didn't follow through with my usual "I'll read the whole thing later" wanton inefficiency, and I actually just read the whole darn thing! Got sucked in... I'm talking about Dan's new tour diary from the puzzling trio with Berrocal and Onda... It was a great, entertaining read, Dan, thanks! (Even if it is truly PAINFUL to read double-spaced--heck, that might even be triple-spaced--text...) You three sound like the pilot run of an aborted sitcom from a parallel avant-universe...
From Paris the Legendary trouble maker
Jac Berrocal with PAK
September 20th 2006 - Bowery Poetry Club - 308 Bowery, New York City 10pm $8
In a very rare appearance in the United States, French musician Jac Berrocal and as his band will be PAK (Ron Anderson, Jesse Krakow, Keith Abrams) will perform at the Bowery Poetry Club.
Since the early 70's Jac Berrocal has music has taken many creative paths - jazz trumpeter, punk rock singer, electronic experimentalist, poet, improviser, performance artist, and always the provocateur.
You probably did not have the good fortune to see Jac and PAK's sold out concert in Paris last March, but now is your chance. They'll be playing from Jac's no-wave period with the music of his legendary group Catalogue.
"It was strange how our public changed. Rock promoters invited us and were bemused, and jazz festivals invited us and lived to regret it! (laughs) We played once in Austria, and Cecil Taylor was there and loved it. He told me it was the only thing in the festival that didn't bore him. The journalists hated it, though. They said it was punk rock. " Jac Berrocal speaking of his 70's-80's no-wave group Catalogue.
http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/berrocal.html
Opening band to be announced.
Here's wishing you a great gig Ron. Given the present climate of air travel-related paranoia, I hope Jac doesn't try making the same wisecrack jokes to airline baggage handlers and immigration officials he did on our trip to Sweden last year, haha. You better tell him to watch out for those Gitanes too before they deport him to Guantanamo ;-)
Posted by: Dan Warburton at August 15, 2006 10:54 PMI'd like to point out that Pak is the greatest band in the world circa 2006 (in my opinion) and that anyone around NYC who likes viscerally intense and rhythmically furious music owes it to themself to see them!!! Pak owns several spots in my all-time top ten list of most profound live music experiences EVER.
Sincerely,
Wild-eyed Pak fan
Pak owns several spots in my all-time top ten list of most profound live music experiences EVER.
But there's like 150, 200 total spots to be filled there, Mike, right? ;>}
Er, well, I guess there might be a few "ties"... Can't get anything past ol' Walt...
Nice to see you're still lurking, MAP. Yep, I thought Pak were pretty fucking excellent when they played here a couple of years ago, despite Ron suffering from a veeery heavy cold. Hope you can go along to the gig in NYC and see Jac. (BTW Ron's still looking for a band to open this evening - if you have any ideas..)
On an unrelated subject, was delighted to see the two Sprout releases got reviewed in that necessary evil rag we all love to hate, The Wire. Keep up the good work.
Hey Dan, glad you saw Pak! Yeah, I saw them once last year when Ron was way under the weather and they still destroyed! In the history of music there's a very short list of groups that have achieved the kind of supernatural chemistry of those three guys.
-----------------------
(Warning: on-topic content below!)
This is uncanny timing given that it's almost a year old, but I just glanced at the review at the top of the page and realized that there's something that should've been posted to this Paralleles entry just a few weeks ago! Back when Cesar Montesano wrote this text--itself a stunning work of art that I personally get more mileage from than Berrocal's album, which I'm mostly positive about--we talked about how well suited it was to being read aloud, something which I tried on my own to much pleasure. So finally just like a week or two ago he made a short video of himself reciting it! The link is here. I'd much much rather listen to this than that awful Vince Taylor spoken word wank on the album! (Cesar will disagree with me probably.) Cesar's knack for upgrading "reviews" to the realm of sublime poetry is simply astonishing to me.
I'm glad this thread wound up popping up when it did so we get a bona fide relevant extra bit of content for the original article!
Aww, ya don't like Rock'n'Roll Station! Never mind! It certainly is unlike just about anything else I know, and I can't tell you how many times we were heckled to play it by audience members on the tour with Jac and Aki. (I ended up reciting the text myself at the Paris concert because Berro claimed he had momentarily forgotten it.. a likely story that)
I love the video (dig the hat): tell Cesar to go along to the Pak gig and say hi to Jac, if he doesn't know him (that's if you're not reading this yourself Cesar).
Meanwhile I think my favourite track on Paralleles is PostCard, the one recorded in the pig farm. If you take the TGV train from Paris south you pass quite close to the village of Jouancy in Burgundy where it was recorded. They should declare the place a World Heritage Site.
To me "Rock 'n Roll Station" sounds like something a relatively unmotivated freshman in a second-rate art school would do as a quick and sloppy assignment for a class and get a generous grade of B- on. Utterly pointless and disposable, not to mention just plain annoying with the English pronunciation errors. Thousands of teenagers in bedrooms across the world have made recordings vastly more rewarding. The rest of the album, however, is a fresh and quaint alternative to the improv paradigms of the time, even if I'd still much rather hear SME.
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at August 17, 2006 11:25 AMhehehe, the MAPman is back! one extreme or the other, baby! best music ever made or worst music ever made, NO MIDDLE GROUND!
Posted by: jon abbey at August 17, 2006 11:32 AMNah, Jon, there is a middle ground. I'm really on the fence about some of Joni Mitchell's stuff I've been checking out lately.
I'm way into the grey.
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at August 17, 2006 12:50 PM
"plain annoying with the English pronunciation errors."
WHICH pronunciation errors? Vince Taylor was from bloody London, fer Chrissakes!
"Thousands of teenagers in bedrooms across the world have made recordings vastly more rewarding."
Sure, no doubt. And one of them ended up becoming Nurse With Wound and it's thanks to HIM that R&R Station is considered a cult item. Berrocal's the first to admit that being on the Nurse List did him no harm at all.
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