17/07/2025
🇫🇷 Première chronique en anglais, sous la plume de Thomas à PROG ROGUE pour l'album de Pretty Soily Company😎
"𝙐𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙡𝙪𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚́𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙦𝙪𝙞 𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡’𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙧. " ✨
(Vous savez où commander l'album 😊🤘)
🇬🇧 First review in English for Pretty Soily Company album, courtesy of Thomas at PROG ROGUE 🤩
"𝘼 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙟𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚." 🙃
(You know where you can purchase the album 😁😉)
PRETTY SOILED COMPANY (FRANCE) same
This début album comes from veteran French Henri Vaugrand , whose crossover prog project Grandval yielded 3 releases that featured fellow multi-instrumentalist Olivier Bonneau , as well as members of the now retired Nemo band. The Covid period arguably reset many artistic guidelines, for better or worse, providing the necessary steps to re-imagine new directions. Pretty Soiled Company is a duo composed of Henri and Olivier, presumably a path that should continue on in the future, if one is to listen to the music proposed here. I got a sneak preview of the piece “Tribal Crimes”, courtesy of Lazland’s Prozilla Radio show, that got me all bothered enough to send out a message to Henri seeking permission for a review.
An amiable bass gets “We Reverse” on the tracks , moving in a hassle-free gear, a rather whimsical track with an ‘English flavour in our song’, a modern French take on the Canterbury style, presumably with the intent to be as unpretentious as possible. A Caravan-ish synthesizer solo salts ‘the strange sensation in the air’. Well, ‘the song may remain the same’ on “Upside Down”, though the acoustic quirkiness remains fully intact, a fragrant folky feel proves to be not at all cumbersome, as the intensity electrifies the arrangement into outright space rock realms. “Tribal Crimes” shifts into mistier territory, laying down a compact groove, what with the percussive punctuations and the sweeping synthesized glory that highlight the exalted soporific vocals, a slithering psychedelic axe solo just for maintaining the course. Echoing e-piano provides just the correct amount of mystery.
Leave the urban sprawl behind (a look at the cover art may be a clue) and “Get Out of Here”, finding a new place out in the countryside, where one can reenergize and revitalize the creative juices that have been forced into confinement, by decree. A breezy frill, with plenty of aahs chorus, a swirling organ insinuation and acoustic guitar outro. Sombre shadows and mechanical beats crown “In the Shades” with a gloomier glow, attention clearly on the vocal delivery and the lyrics, ‘looking at the mirror’, sitting ‘in the shades of darkness’, surrounded by hushed despondence and melancholic remembrance.
Here comes the deluge, a nearly 23-minute epic that vaults this recording to a completely altered realm, “A Scent of Ohelo Berry” delivers a furtive cosmic glance into the ever-expanding universe, where bubbly synthesizers vie with percussive ornamentation for sonic dominance. A certain sense of insouciance permeates the entire opus, unafraid to venture into reflective ponds of electronic thought, the ideal preparation to settle into acoustic reverie, psychedelic lights glowing on the midnight ground, before leaping headfirst into colliding and collapsing syncopations that define the schizophrenic aloofness, as if locked in a heavily bricked wall erected by remnants of Mr. Waters’ long vanquished marching fascist foes, though still desperately searching for a liberating escape. The central instrumental section is noteworthy for some dazzling playing, especially the up-front Vaugrand bass whilst maintaining that sense of imbalance that pervades the entire 9-part opus.
A most interesting debut project that bodes well for the future.
4 Dirty firms
