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 TRACK LIST: 1. Incipit tragaedia 16:39 2. Cabine 67 6:16 3. Yog sothoth 13:07 4. La ballade de Lenoire 9:30 5. Delcar prius 4:12 6. Harpies 4:17 All tracks: by Shub Niggurath. LINE-UP: Jan-Luc Herve - piano, organ, & harmonium Franck W. Promy - electric guitar Alain Ballard - electric bass Veronique Verdier - trombone Ann Stewart - vocals Franck Coulaud - drums With: Michel Kervenio - drums & percussion (on 5 & 6)
Prolusion.
"Les Morts Vont Vite" is the second album by Shub-Niggurath - the French band
that, unlike >Hellebore,
became a cult band for the current generation of Earthly Prog-lovers.
Synopsis. Unlike >"Testament", the 'lost' Shub-Niggurath album reviewed by me last week, "Les Morts Vont Vite" is the representative of Classic RIO, the roots of which can be found in the early creation of Henry Cow, Univers Zero, and Magma. As for the latter band though, I've mentioned it just because, the amazing operatic vocals of Ann Stewart remind me a bit of those of Stella Vander, while any other parallels between the music of Shub-Niggurath and that of Magma can't be drawn. Another one of the most influential RIO bands that is often mentioned in the reviews of Shub-Niggurath is Art Zoyd. In my view however, any comparisons between these bands are just groundless. Art-Zoyd's music has a very strong classical feel to it and is light rather than dark, harmonious rather than dissonant, etc. Quite the contrary, the creation of Shub-Niggurath is inspired by Avant-garde Academic Music and has no common ground with Classical Academic Music. Back to the hero of this review, all six of the compositions on "Les Morts Vont Vite" are about Classic RIO with pronounced elements of Avant-garde (12-tone) Academic Music and Zeuhl, though the structures of one of them: Cabine 67 (2) contains also quite a large quantity of heavy elements. Of course, all the arrangements on the album are in the state of constant development and, thus, are completely unpredictable. Ann Stewart's vocals and vocalizes are dramatic in character and are very charming. They're present on all of the tracks on the album but the aforementioned Cabine 67. By the way, this is also the only composition here, all the arrangements on which are exclusively fast and intensive. Conclusion. "Les Morts Vont Vite" is certainly the most coherent and intelligible album by Shub-Niggurath in particular and, along with "C'etaient de Tres Grands Vents" (1991), is one of the band's best albums ever. This is a complete masterpiece, though I am sure that all of the true connoisseurs of RIO are in the know of that. VM: June 19, 2003 Related Links:
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