Rinocerose – Installation Sonore

By Russell Baillie

Rinocerose – Installation Sonore
(V2)
* * *

On their debut album Installation Sonore, Gopher's countrymen and labelmates Rinocerose - the duo of Jean-Phillipe Freu and Patrice Carrie - offer an intriguing approach: guitar-fired instrumental house music. So, lots of hydraulic hit-hat-sizzling beats, loping basslines and undulating electronics come coated with much just-so twanging. As well there are whammy bar squeals, fuzztones, wah-wah, pedal-steels, acoustic six-strings and a guitar talk-box (as last used by Peter Frampton).

Despite all that armament it does suffer from a repetitiveness among the more uptempo of the 10 tracks, which come with titles like La Guitaristic House Organisation and 323 Secondes De Musique Repetitive Avec Guitare Espagnole.

But the slow-fused Popular Mechanics and the blues-bent I Love Ma Guitare get out from under the mirrorball long enough to show Rinocerose's clever idea actually has some depth to it.