Kolkhoze Printanium – “Kolkhoznitsa ” – [D'Autres Cordes]

Not an easy CD to describe musically, but that???s no surprise as forward-thinking musical hybrids are D???Autres Cordes??? stock in trade. For the sake of a rough reference point we???ll go with that old standby jazz-rock; in this case, however, we get a complex modern version of it en Fran??ais. Keyboardist Paul Brousseau composed everything here and appears to be the leader of this quintet, an ensemble perfectly suited to his material; first-rate musicians playing compositions that are anything but predictable. We hear exploratory world-jazz that recalls Weather Report, angular Zu-style thrash, free jazz blowing over pulsing electronics, a dash of prog-rock drama??? a little bit of everything, basically. Weird samples and voices spice things up even further. I like it all, but I???m especially fond of the passages where the band gets to tearing things up. The drummer and bassist in particular bring a hard, brutal edge to the band when they get going. Overall, this CD is quite an adventure and well worth checking out, if you hadn???t already guessed that.