Ose, France

Adonia. 1978 Egg

When I first discovered Ose in a record store in the late 1980s, I thought I'd found gold. With that incredible cover, and the fact that two-thirds of the band were made up of one of my fave groups at the time Heldon (including Richard Pinhas), I was prepared for nothing but greatness. Plopped it on the turntable and... meh.

I've long reconciled with Ose. In fact, I cannot really understand why I didn't like it much in the first place. My best guess is I was looking for something more sinister and heavy given the Heldon background. Ose is not exactly Heldon, but it's not devoid of that sound either. The longer songs here, like 'Approche sur A' and 'L'aube Jumelle', have lengthy guitar driven sections that sound as if lifted straight from Agneta Nilsson and Interface. In addition to that, the sequencer work is thick and wedgy. Never urgent though, which is probably why the impatient ears of my youth didn't comprehend appropriately. So if you can imagine Richard Pinhas' solo albums combined with other French based electronic artists of the day like Francois Breant, Tim Blake, Christian Boule, Bernard Szajner, and Claude Perraudin, then Ose will no doubt be a fine addition to your collection.

Priority: 2

1/29/10