The early 1980s were a heyday for the Zeuhl style of bands. Not that anyone knew it then of course, except those crawling around the clubs in and around Paris, Nice and Marseilles. Bands like Eider Stellaire, Eskaton, Super Freego, Uppsala, Honeyelk, Jean-Paul Prat, Xaal, Xalph, Shub Niggurath and Dun were all making the rounds back then. Now we can add Pseu to the pack. They never did get around to releasing their music on album, so this 2004 Musea reissue is quite a revelation. It takes a bit to get going, and unfortunately this isn't a typical Musea reissue with great liner notes in English, so it's hard to know if it's the earlier or later material that's suffering (recordings are from both 1981 and 1982). But by track 5, Pseu is firing on all cylinders and continues through to the end (and this section covers about 35 minutes and is the bulk of the disc). And, like Eider Stellaire, the guitar is featured far more than on most Zeuhl albums. The vocals are pretty much all chanted using only phonetics rather than actual lyrics or even made up languages. Naturally the bass playing is superb and the drumming here is also better than Eider Stellaire. A wonderful discovery for any Zeuhl fan.
Ownership: CD: 2004 Musea. Jewel case.
9/18/07 (review); 5/6/17 (new entry)
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