Session 10 – Present & Rovo
Our prog concert
video series this Weds night will feature pieces by the "doomish" Belgian
neoclassical chamber rock band "Present", followed by concert footage
from the Japanese trance/jazz/spacerock band "Rovo". We plan to
begin around 7:30, as usual at the E14 third floor video wall. Details
follow.
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Belgium has
produced a handful of significant bands playing under the broad rubric of
progrock. Going back a bit, I immediately think of Cos, an ensemble
playing fun, complex and quirky music in something of an RIO or Canterbury
style from the mid 70s through early 80's. Cos featured two very
significant players (Marc Hollander and Daniel Schell) who went on to make more
great music - Schell in a series of wonderful recordings with his band Karo,
and Hollander in the Honeymoon Killers and Aksak Maboul (Hollander also formed
Crammed Discs in the mid 80's, which became a major underground record label). Before
Cos, there was Pazop - their 1972 LP "Psychillis Of A Lunatic Genius"
is a jazz/prog/psych classic. And more recently, Quantum Fantay come to mind, a
young Belgian band playing in the spacerock style of the Ozric Tentacles or
Hawkwind.
But to most
progheads, Belgium brings to mind the particularly complex, dark & gloomy
chamber music style of rock pioneered by Univers Zero. Yes, in the late
70's, well before the establishment of what we know know as Goth, these depths
were dredged by Daniel Denis (who began as the second drummer in an early
version of Magma) and Roger Trigaux in Univers Zero's first two albums. Nothing
like these records had been heard in the world of rock back then - richly
dynamic, with long despairing drones punctuated by extremely complex and agile
phrases, these recordings featured cello, bassoon, violin, piano, and harmonium
on the same footing as drums with electric guitar and bass. Univers Zero
went on to produce a dozen albums and are still active
today - their music has remained complex, deep, dark and addictive, and their
shows are riveting. Unfortunately, no legitimate concert video by Univers
Zero has been thus far released, although there are a few YouTube clips that
aren't bad which we may preview on Wednesday.
But Belgium
produced a few other bands doing such chamber rock - for example, Julverne and
Cro Magnon play in a lighter style than Univers Zero. But Present is
perhaps even gloomier. Formed circa 1980 by Roger Trigaux after leaving
Univers Zero , they've released about 10 albums and
are still active. Their music is very complex and, for lack of a better
word, creepy - but the players are so good that we don't mind being dragged
through this strange Belgian Halloween nightmare... We'll see an excerpt
from their performance at the RIO Festival in France from 2007 that features
David Kerman (from the 5UUs) on drums.
Not wanting to
leave the evening at such apocalyptic prog-goth depths, I plan to finish with
some concert video from the Japanese band Rovo. Formed in the late 90's
by Seiichi Yamamoto (guitarist for the Boredoms) with Yuji Katsui
(violinist for Bondage Fruit), the band features 2 strong drummers (incl. Yasuhiro
Yoshigaki from Altered States), plus synthesizers/keyboards and bass. Starting
with a spacerock edge, Rovo evolved their own style, which they aptly term
"Man Drive Trance". Their music has a trendy, airy
contemporary feel to it - a bit like background electronica you might hear over
breakfast in a very hip urban hotel - but the musicians are too good to stay
there, so they always spiral off to interesting places, often rooted in
psychedelia or jazz. The two drummers provide a very compelling rhythmic
backbone - in concert (I've seen them in both Tokyo and the US) this really
propels them to some extreme heights, which also comes across fairly well in
the video. I hope to have time to show excerpts from two Rovo DVDs shot
during outdoor concerts at Hibiya Yaon in Tokyo. Rovo's music has
its pensive moments, but is generally lighthearted and joyful - the perfect
antidote to the Belgium doom we'll have explored earlier...
So join us Weds
for a voyage from the inferno to the sublime - there'll definitely be something
interesting to absorb at every stop enroute...
Find Present info
here: http://www.rocktime.org/present/index.html
Find Rovo Info
here: http://www.rovo.jp/
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Joe Paradiso (Spring 2011)