Atoll - Rock Puzzle (1979) [Reissue 1993]

Posted By: hill0

Date: July 21, 2015

Atoll is one of the most renowned bands that came from France and is also the only French band that had an English vocalist in its lineup (see above). Atoll released five studio albums in all, and "Rock Puzzle" is their fourth. As far as I can remember, this is their only album that features a symphonic orchestra.

The music on the first two tracks on "Rock Puzzle": L'Age d'Or and L'Ultime Rock makes a very mixed impression on me. It is about quite a strange combination of Pop Rock and Classic Symphonic Art-Rock. To say more precisely, all the vocally instrumental parts here are built by a simple couplet-refrain 'scheme', while the arrangements in purely instrumental parts fully correspond to the unwritten laws of Classic Art-Rock. Female backing vocals, romantically optimistic moods, and elements of light Classical Music - these are the other notable aspects of the songs standing at the head of the album's track list. Surprisingly, the next piece: Kaelka (3) turned out to be a real gem of Classical Music. For the most part, it consists of diverse and beautiful, and what's central, constantly developing interplay between passages of piano, those of a few violins, and solos of oboe. Kaelka should have certainly been placed on track 4, because on Smarta Kitschy (4), Atoll are unexpectedly back to the 'Classic Symphonic Pop Rock' they started with, though the vocal parts here are more diverse than those on the first two tracks on the album. Beginning with the fifth track, the band quite radically changes a musical direction as if having remembered that they're a classic Art-Rock band, after all. A true, diverse and intriguing, by all means excellent Symphonic Art-Rock with pronounced elements of real Classical Music is presented on Eau, La Maison de Men-Taa, and Puzzle (5, 7, & 8). Although Garces de Femmes (6) is more accessible than these three, unlike all the songs located in the first half of the album, it conforms to the concept of Classic Art-Rock in its entirety. Among the three bonus tracks: Here Comes the Feeling, No Reply, and Eye to Eye, the first was written by Wetton and is most likely the worst song ever recorded in Atoll's history. It is clearly of 'pre-Asian' origin, is very poppy, and doesn't contain separate instrumental parts at all. The other two bonus tracks, written by the Atoll musicians, are on the whole on par with the first two songs on "Rock Puzzle", though stylistically, they're about a progressive Hard Rock.
www.progressor.net

Discogs
Progarchives

Tracklist:

01. L'age D'or (dans 8000 ans) (6:01)
02. L'ultime rock (4:09)
03. Kaelka (2:56)
04. Smarto Kitschy (7:53)
05. Eau (H20) (5:51)
06. Garces De Femmes (4:08)
07. La Maison De Men - Taa (4:12)
08. Puzzle (8:05)
09. L'ultime rock (studio Z version) (3:46)
10. Puzzle (studio Z version) (7:41)
11. Atari, That's A Game ! (Smarto Kitschy - American Mix) (8:03)
12. Here Comes The Feeling (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya) (4:41)
13. No reply (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya) (4:10)
14. Eye to eye (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya) (5:26)

EAC log

EAC extraction logfile from 3. November 2009, 20:21 for CD
Atoll / Rock Puzzle
Used drive : HP DVD Writer 1135r Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Used output format : C:\Users\Pollux\Downloads\Syrup098b7\Syrup.exe (User Defined Encoder)
320 kBit/s
Additional command line options : REACT %o %s %d "%a" "%g" "%t" "%n" "%x" "%y" "%m" "%e" "%f" "%b" %r
Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Track 1
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 01 - L'age D'or (dans 8000 ans).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 74.7 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 174F61CD
Copy CRC 174F61CD
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 02 - L'ultime rock.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.25
Peak level 75.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EBE50F59
Copy CRC EBE50F59
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 03 - Kaelka.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.45
Peak level 68.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC BADE656D
Copy CRC BADE656D
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 04 - Smarto Kitschy.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.40
Peak level 93.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E0E78E64
Copy CRC E0E78E64
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 05 - Eau (H20).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.25
Peak level 80.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CA21CDE8
Copy CRC CA21CDE8
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 06 - Garces De Femmes.wav
Peak level 92.5 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 77532C0F
Copy CRC 77532C0F
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 07 - La Maison De Men - Taa.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.30
Peak level 61.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 552090F5
Copy CRC 552090F5
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 08 - Puzzle.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.22
Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 27313C65
Copy CRC 27313C65
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 09 - L'ultime rock (studio Z version).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.63
Peak level 88.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0CEC4562
Copy CRC 0CEC4562
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 10 - Puzzle (studio Z version).wav
Peak level 90.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 319035B3
Copy CRC 319035B3
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 11 - Atari, That's A Game ! (Smarto Kitschy - American Mix).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.43
Peak level 86.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 28D31380
Copy CRC 28D31380
Copy OK
Track 12
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 12 - Here Comes The Feeling (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.62
Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A73B9D0E
Copy CRC A73B9D0E
Copy OK
Track 13
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 13 - No reply (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.17
Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5C83F9AD
Copy CRC 5C83F9AD
Copy OK
Track 14
Filename D:\Pollux\Atoll - Rock Puzzle - 14 - Eye to eye (with John Wetton, without Christian Beya).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:00.55
Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 59DE5205
Copy CRC 59DE5205
Copy OK
No errors occured
End of status report

Personnel

Michel Taillet - acoustic piano & synthesizers
Alain Gonzo - drums & percussion
Jean-Luc Thillot - bass & acoustic guitars
Christian Beya - electric & acoustic guitars
Andre Balzer - vocals
With:
Stella Vander & Lisa Deluxe - backing vocals
& Symphonic Orchestra (violins, oboes, etc)
Jean-Jacques Flety - guitars
John Wetton - basses; vocals

All thanks to Pollux