The days when it was acceptable to be ignorant of the Gallic mixing-desk adventurer dubbed "the French Joe Meek" are over. With help from Andy Votel's authoritative sleevenotes, this superb 18-track compilation turns the louche legend into an irrefutable sonic fact.
Jean-Pierre Massiera
Midnight Massiera
Finders Keepers
2009
The names of the session performers, mediums for Massiera's musical message – Visitors, Les Maledictus Sound, Human Egg – suggest an all-night B-movie binge at a pre-DVD repertory cinema. And the records they made bring that idea to life in a fetid miasma of sick humour, sound effects and unexpectedly first-rate musicianship.
The rhythm-section of André Ceccarelli and Pierre Demaria could give Sly and Robbie a run for their money. Tunisian-born Jimi Hendrix wannabe Mahmoud Ayari was not to be messed with either. But it's Massiera's ear for the pulp potential in Pierre Henry and Michel Colombier's musique concrete that gets the party started. The Morricone-soundtracking-a-prophesy-of-The-Fast-Show proto-dub of landmark 1967 B-side Ivresse Des Profondeurs is probably the biggest revelation here. But the two-minute Hank-Marvin-meets-Lee-Marvin bloodbath of Les Monegasques' Psychose isn't far behind. And if this romp through Massiera's back pages paves the way for a survey of his later disco deviations, then the fun is just beginning.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/mar/15/jean-pierre-massiera-midnight-review
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