PRAT, JEAN-PAUL
599169
CD
MASAL (GREAT INSTRUMENTAL MAGMA-ESQUE FUSION)
STYLE/LINK:MAGMA‘Masal’ is a re-issue of a solo album, and it is a masterpiece that is surely an essential purchase for all Magma fans, or indeed, anyone into the finest brand of fusion music around, of which this variation is really quite unique. It avoids any clichés and is one of the top 5 albums ever in its genre. There are quite a number of great musicians contributing to this album playing electric guitar and bass, synthesizers, keyboards, piano, flute, sax and other brass, with Jean-Paul on drums. For the CD release, there’s a change to the track structure of the original LP, in that the original two-part title track is now linked up as one giant forty-minute epic, and it’s now a sensationally powerful, explosive, dynamic, scorching, high-flying and expansive piece. Not only that, there’s an extra thirty minutes of previously unreleased stuff on the CD, making for well over seventy minutes of awesome French fusion.
I had forgotten just what a brilliantly powerful and dynamic work the title track was on this album was. It opens with a thunderous Magma-style electric bass line, followed by massed ranks of saxes and more, creating an absolutely huge soundscape built on a staggeringly solid backbone of drums. It all soars higher and higher before breaking down to just piano, percussion and flute, then the piece begins to build and intensify once more, this time slower, but no less powerful, with the incredible electric bass and enormous drum passages driving it all on in steamroller fashion. With synths and Saxes acting as extra textural colours on top, the soundscape climbs ever higher as the drums and bass hammer out an absolutely monumental foundation. Then, out of nowhere, comes a red-hot electric guitar, and it’s really on fire as it solos to furnace heat intensity as the power builds. With the listener now totally in awe of and absolutely flattened by the ensuing intensity, suddenly, it all drops, then accelerates again as the musicians all join the throng and forge ahead once more with sheer intent. This time, all the main players are firing on all cylinders over a choppy, but no less powerful rhythm structure... all that, and we're only ten minutes into that one track! With a line-up numbering 14 musicians in all, including 3 electric guitarists, 3 keyboard players, 2 sax players, a brass section trio, plus flute and thunderous electric bass, the whole show is propelled and held together by Jean-Paul Prat himself on drums. Of the 4 unreleased tracks, the fifteen-minute track 2 features just Saxes, 2 electric guitarists, drums, keyboards, bass and trumpet, and is an utter gem. The rich, multi-layered sax work soars over and alongside the stinging and swirling electric guitars, all driven by an amalgam of piano, bass and drums, with a fantastic melodic presence throughout. The nine-minute track 3 is similar, only more relaxed, subtly powerful, but still in a definite Magma vein and beautifully played. The five-minute track 4 is just keyboards, sax, guitar & bass, and it’s a serene and relaxed piece that flows smoothly and hangs in the air, but it’s still dynamic and powerful. Finally the three-minute 5th track features the albums only vocal section, and it’s a sort of wordless Magma-style chant that rolls over the commanding instrumental textures. Overall, for a French contemporary fusion album, this cannot be faulted, and you can't say much better than that, can you?
Weight: 150.00 g
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