Ose - Adonia. 1978 France

When I first discovered Ose in a record store in the late 1980s, I thought I'd found gold. With that incredible cover, and the fact that two-thirds of the band were made up of one of my fave groups at the time Heldon (including Richard Pinhas), I was prepared for nothing but greatness. Plopped it on the turntable and... meh. A few years later I moved it out, and didn't give the album much thought again. Until about 15 years ago, another copy wafted under my nose for cheap, and I figured what did I have to lose?

And a good move that was. As you can see from my rating, I've long reconciled with Ose. In fact, I cannot really understand why I didn't like it much in the first place. My best guess is I was looking for something more sinister and heavy given the Heldon background. Ose is not exactly Heldon, but it's not devoid of that sound either. The longer songs here, like 'Approche sur A' and 'L'aube Jumelle', have lengthy guitar driven sections that sound as if lifted straight from Agneta Nilsson and Interface. In addition to that, the sequencer work is thick and wedgy. Never urgent though, which is probably why the impatient ears of my youth didn't comprehend appropriately. So if you can imagine Richard Pinhas' solo albums combined with other French based electronic artists of the day like Francois Breant, Tim Blake, Christian Boule, Bernard Szajner, and Claude Perraudin, then Ose will no doubt be a fine addition to your collection.

Ownership: LP: 1978 Egg. Single sleeve. Online acquisition (2006).

Best I can tell, Ose sold remarkably well in its day, given the style of music employed. The album was pressed in no less than 5 countries originally. As such, it's quite disappointing to note that there has never been a legitimate CD reissue of this title (as of 6/11/24). So bootlegs continue to thrive. A real mystery.

1988; 2006; 7/10/18 (new entry)