There are two main branches of Avant-Garde music; The pseudo-prog and jazz stylings of masters of the genre like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart… And then there is overly self-indulgent nonsense which has some small sections which pass for music, but it is mostly nonsense.
Le Grand Sbam are a clear case of the second.
With an album LGS claim is inspired by the I Ching, a late 9th Century BC Zhou Dynasty philosophical text from China, and an obscure French Sci-Fi dystopian set novel “La Horde Du Contrevent”, you can start to see where the over indulgence comes in, and that is before listening to the ‘music’ on the album.
It was a tough listen, something I would suggest you do not do yourself unless you wish to be confused and annoyed. Full of nonsensical percussive sections, atonal sequences of piano, samples and strings and vocals which make that Glastonbury performance by Yoko Ono look like the work of competent musicians, it is extremely hard to find any sort of positive on this release.
You could liken the nonsensical vocal sounds to scat. The monosyllabic delivery of childish sounds which, could be mistaken for a toddler on speed or ‘The Knights who say NI!’ from that historically accurate Monty Python film quickly grates on the nerves and the consistently shifting rhythmic attack with atonal and pointless musical twiddling gives it an extremely disorientating feel. It sounds like it was an attempt to compose something whilst you were dosed up on enough LSD to make the imaginary purple elephant in the corner start tripping balls. None of it makes sense and to be honest, I don’t think being on psychoactive substances would help it to make sense.
Unlike Zappa and Beefheart, who are renowned for their ability to take a seemingly aimless sequence and turn it into a quirky musical melody, Le Grand Sbam just makes an aimless mess and tries to pass it off as music.
I rarely rate something so negatively, often trying my best to find something positive in the release… But this… All I can say it, at least you tried, but please stop trying now.
(1/10 Fraggle)
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