Richard Pinhas & John Livengood - Cyborg Sally (Tangram 852 015, 1994, CD)
It's been quite a while since Pinhas has offered up some new material. This time around he has teamed up with John Livengood who injects some complementary synths/guitars/programming for this varied tour through ambient soundscapes as well as pseudo-industrial grooves. The opener, "Intro: Hyperion", is a dull, droning ambient piece comprised of two alternating chords which foreshadows what is to come (or rather, not to come) in the longer tribute to ex-Heldon alum Gilles Deleuze entitled "Beyond Hyperion". Apart from the mildly interesting electronic effects used to flesh the tone poem out, these portions of the album are far too shallow to sustain much interest beyond the first listen. More interesting are the driving title track (with it's predictable cyborg vocoder and digital bells) and "Rock Machine: Red Ripe Anarchy", which showcase the famous mind-searing Pinhas guitar tones, but consistently fall short of anything he did with Heldon because here the programmed percussion is cold, mechanical, and virtually nothing more than a simple dance track.
Although much of "Cyborg Sally" has potential, or more accurately, vision, it is the sub-par delivery which disappoints -- particularly those fans who know and love prior Pinhas/Heldon efforts. The chemistry with Livengood just doesn't feel right, as evidenced by the strangely out-of-place cheesy digital synth patches layered with Pinhas' guitars. Furthermore, each track seems to go on endlessly, and thus so does the album when taken as a whole. Quite a buzz was generated by this release, and while hopes were high, it's hard to feel more than let down by "Cyborg Sally".
(Originally appeared in
Expose issue 7, edited for Gnosis 7/15/01).
Richard Pinhas - "Rhizosphere / Live Paris 1982" (Cuneiform Rune 61, 1977/1994)
Rhizosphere is Pinhas' first and certainly most purely electronic album recorded under his own name. It also marks a time when this was the distinction between Pinhas' solo material and that of the more aggressive guitar oriented work of his alter-ego Heldon, a distinction that in later years became blurred, although that didn't hurt the music of either. Here Pinhas plays all synthesizers (Arp 2600 and Moog 55) and no guitars and with the exception of the title track, which is enhanced by Francois Auger's drums, this is entirely a solo album in the true sense. Rhythmic pulsating electronic frames with bubbling effects over the top, repetitive yet constantly evolving, very compelling and hypnotic.
Now on to the second half of the disc - five tracks recorded live at Bobino, Paris in 1982, with an impressive lineup featuring Clement Bailly on drums, Bernard Paganotti on bass and Patrick Gauthier on minimoog, with Pinhas on guitars, synths and electronics. As one might expect from this lineup, the sound at times approaches a cross between Heldon and Weidorje, especially on "Toward Belfast" and "Last Coda from the Western Wail", where Paganotti's bottom riffing nearly steals the show. There's plenty of Pinhas' trademark guitar here as well. The complete version of this Bobino show has been circulating as a bootleg for many years, so it's good to finally hear some of the best tracks here without the hiss, audience chatter and dropouts; this is a much better recording than I had suspected, and in short is worth the price of the CD by itself. (Originally published in Exposé #3, p.16, Edited for Gnosis 3/24/01)