Rollicking and bounding right out the door comes Bim-Bam with a little bit further down the path engendered on their first album, "Debile Menthol." These blokes sure do know how to lock an *over the top* groove and keep it bouncy and undulating under the trickiest time signatures of any (and they hold their own quite well, I might add).
Next up we get into another hyper-syncopated dervish of a tune with flashing keyboard vamps and stutter-stops led by the drum kit. Add wallops of free blowing and you have as good a chance at keeping up with this as you would in defining all the ingredients of a smorgasbord. Just when you thought you knew what the song was about, they cut it in half, right down the middle, and switch gears wholesale. Effects are drenched in by the liter while male and female vocals drop into the mix all slippery-like with a Gilli Smyth type of space whisper hanging around near the conclusion crescendo happens. Somewhere in this dense mix, Bout de Mou had been morphed into 'A Quoi Pensent-Ils' where the fairest vocals of them all resides.
'Avalanche' tumbles right by your ice fort to recapitulate kind of in the manner that The Residents might if they had chops. Guitar licks akin to the illustrious Fred Frith can be found by the pound later on in this jaunt, solid. The Etron Fou Leloublan and Albert Marcoeur elements are still present on this album if not with a softer edge ala Frank Zappa.
If an accordion could eat mushrooms, it would feel just as schizophrenic and frenetically charged as this track: 'Mieux Vaut d'Ecker'. Drums set a propulsive bed as the dreams of sounding like a violin strike this Kafka-esque concoction of a metamorphosis replete with neighing horse sounds towards the apex on a wigging section that would not be out of place in a mid-period Plastic People of the Universe album
Flip it over and you get more of the same wholesome tomfoolery. 'A Chacun son Accent' warms up the hotplate real easy-like with a catchy riff slapped up against the gate. The melody pours in and one can't help but to fall in love with the marvelous sounds this crew can concoct and aurally conjugate right before our very ears. Again, not far from Etron, but this time with basslines right out of Skeleton Crew and Catherine Jauniaux like exhortations.
'Caduta Massi' takes us on yet another turn for the better advancement of higher vibrational thought patterns draped and masked with fetters made of pure three-ring madness gold. Fine guitar plucking interspersed across a leafy bed bass drum/snare/high-hat lettuce doused generous heaps of violin drizzled right on top as spice. This is the kind of tune that cleanses a palate right up and makes the listener take notice of the sound which matures steadily as the LP progresses.
The title track, 'Battre Campagne,' and the closer, 'Cul De Sac,' continue along in equally new and exciting musical avenues, never a dull moment here ladies and gentlemen!
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