Customer Reviews

L'Eau Rouge

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This is a crucial album in the development of rock n'roll, a masterpiece that should have spawned a horde of imitators. However, no other band has even come close to taking up the Young Gods' challenge to combine sampling technology and electrifying passion.With a crushing live drummer and a singer who reincarnates all the best aspects of Jim Morrrison and Iggy Pop,the Young Gods reanimate a centuries' worth of dead recorded noise, from Hendrix and Guns n' Roses to French accordion pop and avante-garde classical.Their producer, Roli Mosimann, displays the greatest studio-as -instrument savvy since Brian Wilson and Lee Perry, with radical stereo manipulations that sometimes make you feel as if you've been sealed up inside a hypercube and sent over Niagra Falls.The standout track is Lounge Route, a love song to a comet with what sounds like a hair-raisingly headlong Motorhead riff trapped in a time-space topological manifold,charging ahead with damn-the -torpedos fury and then cycling through some unseen eleventh dimension to end up where it started.This song alone should provide a manifesto to all musicians who want to use samplers to create vital music.GET THIS ALBUM and play it loud as hell. It makes you feel like you are driving down the autobahn through the Swiss Alps,top down at 200 kilometres per hour.In a thunderstorm.With Frederick Nietzsche in the passenger seat.Best ever use of the sampler.

Words are insufficient in describing the immense power of an album which I believe is one of the greatest of our time. "L'Eau Rouge" is simply unlike anything else that's out there. Franz Treichler's mighty voice, the sampled rhythms, noises, classical riffs, the guitar loops...they all combine to form an incredible, indelible listening experience - a fusion of metal, industrial, vaudeville, classical and searing operatics. The result is unforgettable : a highly futuristic and apocalyptic musical nether-world.

"L'Eau Rouge" is in my view the best release by The Young Gods -- and, in my view, one of the best albums of all time. A true work of art. The styles incorporated are many: metal, classical, Gothic, and punk are a few that come to mind. However you would describe their music, you could say it is very European if nothing else. The drumming by Use stands out as being absolutely phenomenal, both in its originality and technique. While I unfortunately cannot understand much French, the singing nevertheless sounds great with his powerful gravelly baritone (although it may take some getting used to). On the traditional-sounding ballad "Charlotte", his voice (and music) sounds a lot like (a Swiss) Tom Waits. Swans fans will recognize the name of legendary drummer Roli Mosimann as the album's producer and co-writer. For fans of bands like Swans, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, or Laibach, this classic is a definite must-have.

The Young Gods are Swiss experimental-rockers who formed in Geneva during 1985. The Young Gods use classical sampling, noise rhythms, guitar riffs, and drum machines to manufacture an indelible listening experience. An experimental sound influenced by classical compositions and visceral power-punk. Overdriven guitar chords are heavily sampled in "Rue Des Tempétes" with vocalist Franz Treichler providing the lyrical content. Listen for the Parisian beauty of "Charlotte" and "La Fille De La Mort". "L'Eau Rouge" is a critical album with abrasive and assaultive sound structures.