ROTOMAGUS Eros KILLER heavy punishing prog psych 45

$

160

TREMENDOUS ear-shattering mind-warping heavy prog psych single from early 70’s France by ROTOMAGUS, “Eros” b/w “Madame Wanda” on the CBS label. So much a relentless BEAST of musical chaos that Julian Cope’s website devoted to all things hairy and mind-altering took the time to review it – but more on that later. You can just TELL this thing is going to be a MONSTER by that pic sleeve – first of all, it takes SIX guys to create a sound this HUGE, and not ONE of ‘em has hair that ends anywhere above the shoulders. Not only that, they’re looking DOWN at you, proving that they fancy themselves gods, albeit gods in white turtlenecks and fanny packs. And that LOGO – big fat pulsing letters lined in the finest of weed – at least that’s what it looks like to me – so surely you can’t wait to put this little single on your turntable and wait to be bludgeoned about the head and neck. But wait a sec! This is, after all, a FRENCH band, so the possibility of this flitting about aimlessly on endless washes of Moody Blues synth is at least THERE. But don’t worry, from the moment you put the needle to the vinyl, this creature ATTACKS your senses, first splitting your eardrums with a barrage of high-speed noise, a relentless blast of evil that fits somewhere between progressive rock, psychedelia and music to raise demons by. In fact, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if the lead singer isn’t ALREADY a demon, and not the wimpy karate-kicking kind that Buffy easily dispenses with – he sings in a deep and genuinely sinister voice, while weightless specters of Jon Anderson wail behind him. At this point, you barely notice the song is HURTLING past you at 200 mph with very little regard to meter, or even structure, because there’s no time to react, let along think. It’s like trying to net a butterfly when someone’s hurling fireballs at your head. But just then, out of nowhere, Rotomagus give you some precious breathing room – about 20 seconds of a cool trippy pastoral flute break – the eye of the hurricane, so to speak. Which is just enough time for you to take a deep breath and remember which plane of existence you’re on, before the Vulcan anvil drums and giant hornet fuzz guitars crash in once again and send you and your aching head screaming toward the finale. A big and hairy MAMMOTH of a song, somehow created by guys named Jacky, Pierre and Bruno, and that’s not even bothering to question WHY they’d call this thing “Eros” in the first place. I mean, this is sexy only if you like far more pain with your pleasure, or you’re a Sasquatch. The flipside, “Madame Wanda”, is nearly as good, certainly more structured and favoring psychedelia over prog rock, riding along on a mysterious freakbeat rhythm which gives way to a very trippy break. It’s still heavy and it’s still hairy, the kind of leaden sludge psych rock that David Bowie flirted with in his “Man Who Sold the World” days. Punishing stuff on both sides, by guys who dress like they’re heading to the Rennaissance Faire a couple days early to beat the crowds. Go figure. As you’d expect, the man behind Brain Donor loves this stuff as much as I do, and here’s that very enthusiastic review that’s on Julian Cope’s website: “In Roman times, the city of Rouen was originally called Rotomagus, but why such a barbarian Rock band as Rotomagus would go by that is puzzling: unless it was out of some idiosyncratic pre-Napoleonic civic pride, I dunno. But I do know that both sides of their “Eros” / “Madame Wanda” 45 are entirely sung in French, excellently overwrought in the then-emerging Progressive style and very heavy. In the French Rock mag ‘Rock & Folk’ Jacques Chabiron wrote, ‘Rotomagus create an emotional music, violent, even aggressive, where abruptly moments of backward flow fit... of violent contrasts, abrupt falls of tension in the rhythm. Much work in the vocal parts.’ Make that a LOT of work in the vocal department, for on both sides at least four or five vocals are arranged to weaves and break its moorings as they waft above and all around the tightness and flinging rocks at each in the form of hectic time signatures that emanated from the ruins of the minds of these Rouenese upstarts. “Eros” is hard progressive Rock with multi-part vocal interplaying within an arrangement that seeks to take 10 minutes worth of ideas and compress them all into a 2:15 single side. As heavy drumming keeps everything tightly nailed down, there’s a classical breakdown in the middle and for most of time, vocals call and respond and issue forth in a pre-Queen segment of “Bohemian Rhapsody” with all the dexterity of “Oh, Mama Mia” but replaced with hulking brutes in tutus declaring public death threats and love letters in the town square. So much passes so quickly, it can’t all be taken in the first several spins as it’s such a head rush bearing down towards the finale. The second side opens with an introductory “Voodoo Chile” riff cranky with colic soon steamrolled out of existence with blistering fuzz guitar as “Madame Wanda” unfolds into some tremendously restrained yet once more, bestial progressive Rock territory. Rapid wah-wah guitar like a whinnying, quivering saw combines with slapback echo tambourine (!) of dub snare qualities to dizzying and spectacular extremes. Again a highly complex vocal arrangement comprised of harmony vocals letting loose in the highest registers available to bearded men until a sudden breakdown into a quiet psychedelic calm before the storm...which is where the Rotomagi return to stomp it down, and I mean: WAY down.” Original late 60's/early 70's pressing on the French CBS label. PIc sleeve's in VG+ shape with moderate normal wear, small name written in pen on the back. Vinyl plays solid VG+. Winning bidder pays $4.50 for first class shipping plus tracking in the US, $5 for air mail to Canada, $6 everywhere else. Paypal, Bidpay, cash, checks and money orders accepted. Please check out my other auctions for more vinyl obscurities, and I will combine shipping costs on multiple wins.