Plastique Chappo

The singer with the wildcat voice, once a front man for Family and Streetwalkers, breaks out here with his first solo effort. With band politics out of the way, Chapman garners all the spotlight for himself while backed by an ensemble of friends. Although he keeps rock guitar close to him, Chapman abandons Streetwalkers' hard rock sound for a more varied style, including multiple keyboards and female backing vocals, and it's probably more a sign of producer David Courtney's influence (having previously worked with Leo Sayer). Singing cry-in-yer-ale ballads and tight rock songs, Chapman lays out the stylistic blueprint to which he keeps returning, even 20 years later. While Chapman's music was more embellished than before, most fans found that "the voice" still spoke to them.

French chanson trio, singing the songs of 1930s and 40s Paris in their original language, and playing in the style of Django Reinhardt and jazz manouche. Music from the greats - Piaf, Gainbourg, Ulmer, Montand and Trenet, and fiery gypsy melodies. La Mauvaise Réputation - based in Melbourne, Australia - are the premier exponents of Hot Swing and Chanson in the region. They perform the songs of Piaf, Ulmer, Gainsbourg and the like, in the style of legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, and all sung in their original French…

A studio album by Roger Chapman is always an event. Since '66, when the British singer-songwriter emerged as the voice of his generation with the seminal Family band, through every twist of his four-decade solo career, Chappo's output has defied music industry protocol, challenged genre, and held up a mirror to the times. "I've never stopped writing," he reflects, "and with Life In The Pond, I felt the need to hear what I'd put down in music."

Roger Chapman is best known for his barbed-wire voice, used to front British '70s rock acts Family and Streetwalkers. He began a long-awaited solo career in 1978 that led to over a dozen full-length releases. Never heard of them? It's not surprising: album-wise, he camped out in Germany for 20 years. His first album and tour got high praise in his British homeland, but critics cut into him soon after. When the hassle-free German market beckoned, Chapman began to focus his subsequent work there, where he had become a musical hero, "the working-class artist." Chapman split with his longtime writing partner, Charlie Whitney, after the breakup of Streetwalkers in 1977.

The reduced to a trio band still plays a melodic, American, modern prog, but rocking heaviness is more in the foreground, even if the music is already pretty playful proggig. Right on the opening track "Cigarette Burns", the Americans make one on "Punk Floyd." The closeness to the rock dinosaurs is not only evident in this piece, but also in the electric guitar solo, while the alternative rock scene lulls it The Prog of Zip Tang sometimes comes closer to the late King Crimson, while the harmony vocals can evoke associations with CSN ("Knowing"). Here and there are some beautiful crimsoid bumpy riffs and some psychedelic palpable ("Maniacal Calliope" Sometimes it rocks more straightforward ("Phantasmagoric Haze"), sometimes alternative-proggiger ("Plastique Hey-Zeus"), but these are just influences that enrich the bands already quite unique sound-cosmos…

The French equivalent of prog-rock bands Yes and Genesis, Atoll recorded four albums in the mid- to late '70s with a lineup that stabilized by the time of the group's second album. L'Araignee Mal (1975) included vocalist/percussionist André Balzer, guitarist Christian Beya, bassist Jean-Luc Thillot, keyboard player Michel Taillet, and drummer Alain Gozzo. Gradually commercializing its sound beginning with third album Tertio, Atoll released only one more studio album (plus a compilation) before breaking up. In the late '80s, however, a new, pop-oriented version appeared. Including only Beya from the previous lineup, the band released L'Ocean and the live album Tokyo C'est Fini (both 1989).

The French equivalent of prog-rock bands Yes and Genesis, Atoll recorded four albums in the mid- to late '70s with a lineup that stabilized by the time of the group's second album. L'Araignee Mal (1975) included vocalist/percussionist André Balzer, guitarist Christian Beya, bassist Jean-Luc Thillot, keyboard player Michel Taillet, and drummer Alain Gozzo. Gradually commercializing its sound beginning with third album Tertio, Atoll released only one more studio album (plus a compilation) before breaking up. In the late '80s, however, a new, pop-oriented version appeared. Including only Beya from the previous lineup, the band released L'Ocean and the live album Tokyo C'est Fini (both 1989).