Hey, it’s not all doom and gloom round here and this one has an overriding feel of joie de vivre about it. We are off to SW France and Gascony where this side project of Boisson Divine dwell. Don’t expect them to greet you in English or even French, they sing in the old Gascon dialect and the vocals hit the rafters here as do the guitars making this debut album a jubilant sounding tour-de-force. Darkagnan is the prime innovator along with drummer Philippe Etcheblast and boy does he keep us on our toes with plenty of traditional instruments thrown into the mix such as bouzouki, boha (Gasconian Bagpipes), couserans oboe, tin whistle, lap steel guitar, alto saxophone, keyboards. Not only this, there are guest troubadours on hand too adding trumpet, accordion, tin-whistle, hunting horn and hurdy-gurdy. If that doesn’t make you intrigued to hear this, I guess nothing will.
The amount of styles utilised by this collective is enough to make you dizzy as well. ‘La sèrp d’Isavit’ starts off with folky twists and turns with plenty of metallic guitar licks, black metal blasts from the drums and then trollish raspy vocals joining the melee. Once the clean sweeping croons hit, you will be attempting to sing along and whipped off your feet by the harmony whilst no doubt wondering what on earth is going on. After heavy metal histrionics and power metal styled vocals there’s a passage of pipes that just make it all the more delirious. Styles wrap around and flirt with each other and it is certainly a unique sounding marriage of ideas. With drums bashing away and snarly vocals it is not a huge surprise to learn Darkagnan is also involved in the live line-up of Himinbjorg but wait till you hit the chorus and the ceiling via the clean vocals of ‘Sus l’arròda,’ the two styles work so well together to describe it as surprising would be a complete understatement. One second the players are kicking up a frantic storm, the next enchanting with traditional folk passages. Nothing stands still for a second and at full flight one can only imagine what this would be like live (if they do play?) Press shots seem to show Darkagnan more at home in a field smiling next to his tractor.
The stories here do not actually remain a mystery as the music came with translations and explanation to the tracks which makes a welcome change. Tales from the region, historical characters and indeed a smattering of agriculture and tractor reference are all included. When you are buoyed by the triumphant choruses and frantically air-guitaring along to tracks like ‘L’òmi xens passat’ though you are too busy smiling to care. With brass parping away and militaristic march one does get a feel of la revolution on the title track. We even have a march to the guillotine by the sound of it at the half way mark along with a chorus line to mark the journey. Contextually, this song is actually based on a humorous story of revolt set in the future with farmers setting fire to Paris in disgust at new rules being imposed on them. There are a couple of short tracks thrown in, one of which A.C.A.B. might not quite stand for what you expect and is actually Armanhaqués Anti-Borgeist Command. Despite this it does add another style to the bands already impressive array and is simply put 1m:21s of rabble rousing punk mania before we are whipped off into the cheeky neo-classical romp of the final track, swaggering all the way to the end.
If you fancy a tonic to the ills of the world complete with burgeoning extremity do yourself a favour and give this a play. Not only should it have your jaw hitting the floor it should also leave you happy as a cochon dans la merde. Full album at the Bandcamp link below.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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