54 minutes, 43 seconds

Gaë Bolg and the Church of Fand
Tintagel

You might know Gaë Bolg alter ego Eric Roger from his fine trumpet work on several Sol Invictus recordings. This is his main project, however, and it's radically different. In fact, it's radically different from almost anything else you've ever heard. I don't even really know what to call it. Folk-medieval-martial? Neoclassical-militaristic-operatic? Drunken French marching music?

In spirit, the closest band I can think of is Corvus Corax, but even that analogy is wildly off the mark. GaëBolg may also plunder the traditional early-music songbook, they may at times evoke the kind of down-and-dirty medieval minstrelsy of Corvus Corax, and they certainly share a sense of humor and a tongue-firmly-in-cheek approach to their music. But Corvus Corax, for all its shaggy pretense, doesn't begin to approach the Python-esque faux grandiosity of Gaë Bolg's music.

Pounding drums and blasting horns underpin incredibly pompous French or Latin vocals, often sung in a strange half-falsetto. It's exhilarating, inspiring, and hilarious. It can be chaotic (like Corvus Corax) or a bit somber (more like their countrymen Dernière Volonté, perhaps), but even when the music turns somewhat sad or muted you know you can't take it too seriously.

Also today:

54:43 Trauma, Construct
54:36 Arbre Noir & Polygon, Traveller
54:36 La Floa Maldita, The Concealed Spell
54:36 Ginormous, Our Ancestors' Intense Love Affair
54:36 Nebula-H, H2O
54:36 Synta[xe]rror, Abyad
54:36 Tumor, Zombienation
54:34 Gjallarhorn, Grimborg
54:33 Cephalgy, Feinde Deinen Dämon
54:33 The Pain Machinery, The Venom Is Going Global
54:32 Gaë Bolg, Requiem
54:31 Raison d'Être, Prospectus I