Jean-Claude Vannier: L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches Vinyl LP

Limited repress of Finders Keepers' inaugural release to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. This is one of those records that comes with a sticker full of rantings from a bunch of famously "hip" musicians on the outside. Jarvis Cocker says "you really need this record in your life," Jim O'Rourke calls it a "brilliant suite of instrumental concrete madness," and Tim Gane from Stereolab says the album will "leave your mind feeling like it was fried by the anti-sun." Are they exaggerating in the way that us record collector nerdus like to do sometimes? Yes - but just barely. Jean-Claude Vannier was the arranger of Serge Gainsbourg's classic Melody Nelson album, but this rare LP from 1972 is nothing near the Francophone stylings of Mr. SG. Instead, it's a symphonic musique concrete piece - at times proggy, at times funky, but always epic and always seemingly on the verge of implosion. Take "L'enfant au Royaume des Mouches," which shifts pace about 5 times, feeling like a collection of loose ideas scraped from inside Vannier's brain and pasted together especially for the record. (It ends, eventually, with the sound of running water and an overdubbed church choir.) Actually, the more I listen to this, the more I agree with those dudes on the cover. Dang. Check these out, too: "Danse des Mouches Noires Gardes du Roi," "Les Garde Volent au Secours du Roi," "Mort du Roi des Mouches." That shit just sounds pretentious, and I don't even know what it means - But it sure is good. Recommended.

• 10 year anniversary reissue
• limited edition
• gatefold sleeve featuring original poetic liner notes by Serge Gainsbourg
• music label: Finders Keepers Records 2005/ 2015

reviewed by C. L-R 11/2015