понедельник, 21 апреля 2014 г.

Shampoo - Volume One 1971

Drummer Cel De Bauwer and singer/keyboardist Luc Smets had achieved some international recognition as members of the band Pebbles. When Pebbles called it quits in 1971 they decided to form Shampoo recruiting the talents of Mad Curry sax player Giorgio Chitschenko, lead guitarist Yves De Vriendt, sax player Francois Maes and bassist Rudy Pinlйe. The band's efforts didn't do a great deal in their native Belgium, but they found a supporter in the form of Francis Dreyfus who signed them to his French Motors label, releasing their sole album in 1972. Produced by guitarist De Vriendt, the optimistically titled "Volume One" took a little bit of effort to get warmed up to, and while it wasn't a classic album by any stretch of the imagination, it had enough interesting segments to warrant the investment of time. Whereas Pebbles had been a pop-oriented band, Shampoo shared more in common with Mad Curry's jazz-rock leanings. That said, these guys clearly had an affection for quality pop music. All tracks on the Shampoo album were composed by Mets, Chitschenko and Cel De Cauwer. The album has some historical interest due to its unusual mixture of harmony pop (a la The Beatles and the first Argent album) and brassy jazz-rock (similar to Chicago and Colosseum). Interestingly, some very short fragments of the album predated the chamber rock of Univers Zero, indicating that their unique vision still had some roots in the general Belgian rock scene of the time. Shampoo's curious mixture fits in well in the jigsaw of Belgian rock between Wallace Collection, Waterloo, Placebo, Arkham and Pazop. Some years later this scene developed into great bands such as Abraxis, Cos and, most importantly, Univers Zero.

Line-up / Musicians

Luk Smets/keyboards,vocals
Cel De Cauwer/drums
Giorgio Chitschenko/saxophone
Francois Maes/saxophone
Rudi Pince/bass

Discography

Volume One 1971