ENCORE + GRANDE-TOTAL BLISS, LP, 1987, NETHERLANDS/FRANCE

Following my post of Nine Tobs' Gruffy Splurge LP, here's a closely related multinational unit pursuing a similar range of cracked and frenzied R.I.O. stratagems. Total Bliss brings together both saxophonist/clarinetist Raymund Van Santen and blustery babbling nutcase vocalist Hans Buhrs from the Nine Tobs (the Dutch half of this musical equation) alongside Frenchmen Guigou Chenevier (the legendarily idiosyncratic drum genius of Etron Fou Leloublan) and guitarist Guy Sapin, a frequent collaborator of Guigou's, working beside him on his A L'abri des Micro-climats and Le Diapason Du Pere Ubu albums. As was the case with the Tobs album I posted, Buhrs' aggressive and uncouth spewing is either a charmingly maladroit presence or a deal breaker (depending on your disposition) as his bombastic mouthiness is front and center in Encore + Grande's capricious constructs, which tumble and joust at right angles in a way that ought to make anyone enamored of Guigou's work in Etron Fou immediately prick up their ears.

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