Featured Album: Univers Zero - UZED

[Trane]

http://www.progarchives.com/progress...1324102008.jpg

Univers Zero - UZED

uz.jpg

Tracks Listing
1. Présage (9:48)
2. L'Etrange Mixture du Docteur Schwartz (3:52)
3. Célesta (for Chantal) (6:55)
4. Parade (6:37)
5. Emmanations (15:43)

Line-up :
- Jean-Luc Plouvier / electric & acoustic pianos, synthesizer, piano strings, percussion
- Dirk Descheemaeker / soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet
- André Mergen / cello, alto sax, voice
- Christian Genet / bass, balafon, bowed guitar, tapes, whistle
- Daniel Denis / drums, percussion, synthesizer

Here is what John Davie (AKA MELLOTRON STORM) had to say about it on ProArchives

Having started from the beginning with UNIVERS ZERO, the first thing I noticed when listening to this album was how different it sounded from the earlier ones. For me this is their first 5 star album and my second favourite from them after the next one "Heatwave". This one is more electric than the earlier ones and they have traded the harmonium, bassoon, aboe and english horn for the sax, clarinet and synths. I liked the way Sean Trane described the difference, it's like going from the macabre and sinister to the mysterious and sombre. Yes this still has lots of dark passages, but there is actually moments that feel like dusk, as opposed to being always in the night. The cello is used in place of the violin as well, although there is some guest violin and guitar on one track.

"Presage" is my favourite song on here. It opens with some beautiful piano before kicking in before a minute with drums and bass. This contrast continues. The cello before 3 minutes is nice as drums and bass pound away. A scorching cello melody as piano comes back reminding me of the intro. "L'Etrange Mixture Du Docteur Schwartz" features a lot of tempo changes. It slows right down 3 minutes in as piano and cello end it. "Celesta (For Chantal)" is a dark and slow moving song with piano and some guest violin leading the way. Heavy drums after 5 minutes as the guest guitar grinds away. Nice. Synths as well on this one.

"Parade" is lighter and more uptempo. A terrific collage of various sounds including horns, synths, piano, drums and cello as the tempo and mood continues to shift. "Emmanations" is by far the longest track at over 15 minutes. It rivals the first song as my favourite. It opens with lots of atmosphere that is tense and eerie. It starts to brighten a little before 2 minutes. The pace is stepped up a notch 4 minutes in as bass and drums deliver the goods. It becomes dark and ominous 5 1/2 minutes in as the climate continues to change. I like the section after 10 minutes. After 14 minutes we get some spooky and dark sounds to end it.

A nice change for the band, and they will continue on this path for their next record "Heatwave".

[NogbadTheBad]

Fantastic album, personally I prefer the bassoon & oboe on the previous 3. Their first 5 albums are nearly faultless and it's really over analyzing to pick one over the other. Presage is probably the strongest track on this one. A strong 13 for me (now that I'm on Gnosis)

[Progbear]

Fantastic album, personally I prefer the bassoon & oboe on the previous 3.

I get where you’re coming from, but I really dig André Mergenthaler’s cello playing on this. So for me, it evens out.

[TCC]

Fantastic album, personally I prefer the bassoon & oboe on the previous 3. Their first 5 albums are nearly faultless and it's really over analyzing to pick one over the other. Presage is probably the strongest track on this one. A strong 13 for me (now that I'm on Gnosis)

The same here Ian!
A 14 for me!.

Excellent call Trane!.
- G r e a t album!. -

Cheers!.

[Steve F.]

A really great album and my least favorite of the first five. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the hell out of it.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

A really great album and my least favorite of the first five. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the hell out of it.

I would put their debut under this one, but even then it's very close.

I wouldn't want to be without any of these five (or really any of their albums), though.

[Steve F.]

I would put their debut under this one, but even then it's very close.

As I get older, continue to I rediscover the joy I got out of that 'so outta its or any other time' debut when I first heard it in 1978. And I really like the remix of it a lot, which for me didn't lose anything and added much.

It's currently the fave just for the atmosphere and the general 'huh' of that coming out in 1977.

[Scrotum Scissor]

the general 'huh' of that coming out in 1977.

I can only imagine.

The debut was the first UZ I got, on vinyl back in 1994 from Swedish retailer Record Heaven's "used rarities" bin. It's a bit hissy and wornout on the rills, so I usually spin the CD - yet when I do play the vinyl it's a feast going on. This was always my fave of theirs, and still today one of the most amazing and bizarre records I ever owned with any possible connection whatsoever to the estranged and fluctuating medium of rock music. Was/is it even rock music? Well yes, in the wake of the endeavour of progressive rock developments - entailing artists as stylistically outlandish as Third Ear Band, Tangerine Dream, Mike Oldfield, Gryphon, Flairck or Penguin Café Orchestra - it certainly was. And the post-rock generation took to new angles of acknowledgement with acts like Rachel's or Main or LaBradford.

I might have listened more to Heresie or Dehors, but the debut remains unique for all the different reasons - IMHO.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

As I get older, continue to I rediscover the joy I got out of that 'so outta its or any other time' debut when I first heard it in 1978. And I really like the remix of it a lot, which for me didn't lose anything and added much.

It's currently the fave just for the atmosphere and the general 'huh' of that coming out in 1977.

I actually used to like the debut more years ago when I first discovered UZ...or perhaps it would be accurate to say I've raised my opinion on the others (especially Uzed & CDD) in the past three years or so.

Thinking about it more, I would also put the expanded Crawling Wind in my top 5, which is probably cheating, but oops.

[Rarebird]

An album with one familiar name.
I have Dirk Descheemaeker on 12 Wim Mertens CD's and his daugther on 1.

[Zeuhlmate]

Love it.
One of their albums that's hardly fits the description 'Chamberrock'.

[Trane]

Love it.
One of their albums that's hardly fits the description 'Chamberrock'.

the review isn't mine, BTW.

However, I'm one to think that UZED is the first of the second phase of the band, the more "melodic" (all things being relative in UZ) era and the blueprint for a few albums to come. Only Implosion would not sound like a Uzed rehash (pardon the semi-pun)

[nosebone]

Love it!

Emanations is my favorite UZ tune

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Arguably their most overtly zeuhlish album, and a damn fine one. I always thought that this work -should- have been a general reference-point for 80s progressive rock as such. While I prefer the first three for points of sheer interest and listening enjoyment, UZED hears the mighty UZ become if not exactly accessible than at least "diplomatic" in approach - while still retaining their edge, attack and refinement.

Completely excellent.

[Kcrimso]

My favourite Univers Zero album alongside with Ceux du Dehors.

[nosebone]

My favourite Univers Zero album alongside with Ceux du Dehors.

After all these years, that's where I stand also.

[Steve F.]

start at 4:40 with lizard stomping music......

[Rarebird]

Listened to Emanations, interesting stuff.

[Zappathustra]

Probably my favorite U Zed. It has a rockier approach, and somehow feels more connected to the music that was happening at the time, and hence - culturally - more relevant, more a product of our times. But what strikes me the most is its sense of transparent clarity. There is nothing that could be deemed ambivalent or dubious or in any case redundant here: the compositions are like pieces of marble extracted as ready-made sculptures from a rock. Nothing to be added or subtracted - whether one likes them or not.

I would say with my limited knowledge that there is a lot more of the early 20th centuries French and Russian composers in here than plain Bartok gloom as in Heresie. The creative emanations were not just those of darkness and terror. So this one appeals more to my psyche than other fantastic U Zed works.

A masterpiece for sure.

[smcfee]

My favorite UZ.

[Poisoned Youth]

My favorite UZ.

Always been mine as well.

[flytomars]

start at 4:40 with lizard stomping music......

That was very cool! I love these Amoeba WIMB clips, and did I read correctly? Josh Pollock is the host??

[Progbear]

My first taste of this band, and I never looked back. I sort of flip back and forth between Ceux du dehors and this as my favorite. I think the use of electronics was a new and interesting development, one which fully blossomed on the underrated follow-up Heatwave (marking Andy Kirk’s return to the band). “Emmanations” is a wild ride, but I love the whole album.

[thedunno]

Great album! Probably my second favorite of theirs after Ceux du Dehors but the first 5 are all great.

Presage and Emmanations are great tracks but my favorite is probably the dark and slow Célesta.

[Zeuhlmate]

Dont forget the album in between Ceux and Uzed



I am not sure I have a favorite, the albums are quite different - I spin The Hard Quest and Rhythmix occasionally and even though they are quite different from both the first 2 (chamber), next 3 (more dynamic), and the more last 4 complex , I like them a lot.