Tuesday 15 July 2008

Réminiscence Quartet - Psycodelico



RÉMINISCENCE QUARTET
Psycodelico
320 CBR LAME mp3
CD rip from Instinct 324



Christophe le Friant (Bob Sinclar, Chris the French Kiss) used the nom de plume "DJ Desmond" on this prescient acid jazz release with heavy brazillian overtones put out in North America through the Instinct imprint in '95. It was a sample-based album a bit more in the Sugarhill or Dr. Dre mode, where musicians recreate the sample (er...interpolate) to avoid clearance hassles and licensing costs. A couple tracks are unfinished and a little noodly more than anything but overall the instrumental and vocal soloists are used to great effect.

This is also the album that propelled veteran singer Salomé De Bahia into international club consciousness. The other vocalist, Nancy Danino, continues to work in the house, broken and downtempo scenes as well. Francis Poulet remains a fixture in house, working mostly as keyboardist with Sinclar, MAW and others A-List names. Flautist and sax player Jallier is still laying down hooks for hip hop in the Paris urban music scene while Mario "Aspirina" Jauregui, a well-respected master of the Cuban Batá, still appears on many recordings spanning genres and also continues to work with le Friant. Cellada looks to be tickling the ivories in small combos but there's not much out there on him. Considering what I''ve heard about the Paris jazz scene, there's probably a lack of info cuz it looks like that's where he's at. Briffaux also goes by the moniker "Brifo" and his creative and funky fingers continue to be all over house, dub and downtempo efforts over the last 15 years.



For some reason this was never reissued by Instinct, likely due to the copyright/publishing/licensing agreement with le Friant's Yellow Productions although that doesn't explain why the Yellow LPs haven't been either. These songs were basically culled from their rare first LP, 1994's Ritmo Brasileiro, with a few that would pop up five years later on More Psycodelico.


DJ Desmond - Scratching, Programming, Producer, Sampling, Beats
Laurent Briffaux - Bass
Claudio Cellada - Fender Rhodes
Sebastien Jallier - Flute, Saxophone
Mario "Aspirina" Jauregui - Percussion
A. Kurt - Guitar
Francis Poulet - Trumpet
Salomé De Bahia - Vocals (Roda Mundo, Onde Anda O Meu Amor)
Nancy Danino - Vocals (Psycodelico, Un Premier Jour Sans Toi)


1 Peace Of Mind
2 Onde Anda O Meu Amor
3 Injury Time
4 Batucada De Carioca Pt 2
5 Un Premier Jour Sans Toi
6 Inspiration
7 Roda Mundo
8 Saudade
9 Psycodelico
10 After Hour


This album flies so far under the radar, the best cover pic I could root out was a whopping 200x200 but I did see a whack of used copies floatin' around the world just waiting to be rediscovered. This under-rated album has aged exceptionally well but remains unheard by most due to its scarcity. We'll gladly pull this if it gets reprinted but until then, Soundological readers can check it out HERE or maybe HERE.

6 comments:

Julian said...

this is a big time classic album for me. totally brings me back in the day when acid jazz was just kicking off. some of the best work from Chris the French Kiss along with his Mighty Bop and early Bob Sinclar stuff.

cheeba said...

yes! it's a huge classic for sure. i know a lot of people heard this stuff back in the day b/c i think all the copies were bought up by dj's!

as much as i love the french touch house stuff, i still think le Friant made some of the best instrumental hip hop/downtempo/triphop ever. i wonder what he would do with that genre these days?

speaking of the era when acid jazz started making waves, you might want to check out that A Person Called Gerald post here, since it's a snaphot of the nascent uk acid jazz scene circa 92.

thanks for taking the time to comment, julian!

J Thyme...kind said...

Psycodelico is yummy. Nice share. Many thanks.

cheeba said...

Glad you like this. I'm sure you recognize a couple of the samples :)

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

I like it!
thank you

Anonymous said...

Thanks heaps for your work, and yes I was one of thoses DJs who grabbed a copy of this when it came out, mainly because it was french and so different to what everyone was listening to. I still occasionally bring out my vinyl copy and always get a few comments! Thanks again, nice to have digital copy. also, great site, some real gems here that I have missed over the years. Awesome!