I am a huge fan of the Forgas phenomena so I was duly excited to receive the rerelease of the first album of drummer Patrick Forgas from 1977, supplemented with no less than thirteen bonus tracks. The music on Cocktail can be characterized as Magma with audible and understandable vocals, at least if you are proficient in the French language. We also hear violinist Jean-Luc Ponty in his early acoustic period as a prominent player, although in reality the violinist’s name is Patrick Tilleman. Another prominent instrument is the bass, which quite often sounds like Magma’s Bernard Paganotti going wild, but in this instance, it turns out to be Zao’s bass player Gérard Prévost. Cocktail is deeply rooted in fusion of the seventies: up-tempo, funky and with lots of tempo breaks. Already noticeable is Forgas’ tendency for writing tunes that flow easy and therefore are very nice to listen to. The rather short tracks cumulate in the monster eighteen minute epic My Trip which, to be quite honest, describes fully … my trip! ***+ André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
