Pryapisme


(Copyright © 2018 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of Use )
Rococo Holocaust (2010), 5/10
Hyperblast Super Collider (2013), 6/10
Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium (2017), 7/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

French quintet Pryapisme (Benjamin Bardiaux on electronic keyboards, Nicolas Senac on guitar, Alex Peronny on bass and cello, Aymeric Thomas on percussion) crafted the instrumental protean prog-rock of Rococo Holocaust (2010) in the tradition of Art Zoyd and Univers Zero. The synth-heavy Suppozitorium Granifujnikoi? is a space-rock jam reminiscent of both Hawkwind and Gong. The frenzied organ-driven Le Doryphore de Kafka sounds like a cabaret version of Yes with a madcap Caribbean dance, reggae steps and a jazzy piano instead of Yes' neoclassical attitude. The piano-driven Quenelle Quenelle Fourrure is a nostalgic tribute to gypsy and polka motifs, rudely interrupted by a baroque allegro for harpsichord and violin. En ce qui Concerne le Sinistrose de Cette fin de Siecle is another postcard from the past, with circus music and pianola ragtime, until machine-gun thrash-metal guitars detonate it.
The seven-minute Sanglie par un Cornid tries a bit too hard to differentiate, spanning the range from neoclassical elegance to punk-rock fits. Ditto for the eight-minute Copaing le Fuligule Miloin, that oscillates between heroic symphonic surges and a-cappella choirs. Take the Farfisa bands of the 1960s and play their hits at ten times the original speed and you get the manic organ and guitar attack of Darkness Lobotomy Insurrection bordering on grindcore. Everything is brilliantly executed but it sounds a bit antiquated, prog-rock that has been around since the 1970s.

Hyperblast Super Collider (Apathia, 2013), with Antony Miranda replacing Alex Peronny on bass, is, if possible, even more unstable, while maintaining a smooth, organic surface. Un Druide Est Giboyeux Lorsqu'il Se Prend Pour Un Neutrino shows how explosive blast-beats can coexist with lounge music and cartoon music. The eight-minute fantasia La Notion De Chiralite De Spin Et D'oscillation De Saveur Des Particules Supersymetriques takes off with a propulsive horn-driven fanfare that surges in a clownish manner, a very Frank Zappa-esque creation with detours in extraterrestrial electronica and torrential drumming. No less delightful are the cabarettish ditties: a comically syncopated Boudin Blanc Et Blanc Boudin, a grotesquely hysterical Lesbian Bordello, a whirling sax-heavy Cochenille, Membrane Et Volcanologie. However, there are places where confusion stops being an attraction and becomes just a distraction, for example in Random Jean Vigo and in the seven-minute J'ai Envie De Te Claquer. The album ends with a nine-minute version of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain .

The band also scored the soundtrack for the film Tournoi des Legendes (2013), released as a mini-album. They also produced 8-bit remixes of six songs from their two albums on the cassette Blastbit Rococollider (2014), i.e. covers of their own songs that sound like music played on vintage personal computers. Two more mini-albums surfaced in the next few years: Futurologie (2015), which contains a "Small Treaty of Futurology on Homo Cretinus Trampolinis" in eleven movements, and the five-song mini-album Repump The Pectine (2016), a remix of their first demo album which includes the eight-minute Les Formes Syncopales Des Blocs Auriculo-ventriculaires de la Myocardite Rhumatismale.

The album Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium (Apathia, 2017), adding second guitarist Nils Cheville, boasts a sleeker and more cohesive sound. Somehow the new lineup manages to better channel their musical thoughts. Thus the verve of La Boetie Stochastic Process, especially when Adrien Daguzon's sax breaks through a general uncontrolled gallop; the madcap metamorphoses of À La Zheuleuleu (Bach, videogame music, polka delirium, Yes-like circular motifs, heavy-metal attacks, synth-pop, and a sarcastic imitation of arena-rock guitar solos); and the galloping videogame music of Carambolage Fillette Contre Individu Dragon Non-Decortique'. Daguzon's sax pens the jazzy melody that opens the eight-minute fantasia Tau Ceti Central before it is ripped apart by horror guitar riffs over a martial rhythm and symphonic drones, and then the sax rescues it with another melody, this time a celestial tune over a lively techno beat, before the crowning symphonic tornado. C++ is the comic Frank Zappa tribute du jour. However, a lot of bombast cannot redeem the seven-minute mess of Un Max De Croco. The 13-minute Totipotence D'Un Erg is a diligent manifesto of their enthusiastic lightning-speed sequencing of styles, from black metal to Giorgio Moroder-ian disco-music, from Indian raga to baroque concerto, from bagpipe folk dance to reggae, and so on, a mash-up of imaginary world hits. Nobody can accuse them of not being eclectic.

Pryapisme also recorded the soundtrack for the videogame Epic Loon (2018). The sprawling 78-minute 29-song double-disc opera narrates the adventures of four aliens who are awakened from a videotape of the 1980s and invade cult movies.

(Copyright © 2016 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )