Through a delicious haze of delayed guitars, Pierre Bujeau’s Megabasse lures into deeply hypnagogic states of mind in the mode of his ace tapes for All Night Flight, adding to marvels of Melbourne’s Efficient Space.
In one satisfyingly extended piece and a pair of shorter parts Megabasse’s ‘Flamenca’ plucks out a slow motion petal-fall cascade of notes that linger on the senses like perfume and slot beautifully well into meridian of sounds found on Efficient Space’s prized folk and zoner country compilations ‘Sky Girl’ and ‘Ghost Riders’. The side-long ‘L’Último Sacrifacio’ yields a mesmerising 23’ ribbon of lissom rhythmelody enchanted by its own beauty and lodged somewhere in the outer realms of kosmiche and country folk music with Rafael Toral, Jules Reidy and Jim O’Rourke, for example, whilst ‘Marcia, Baila, Suogna’ comes down to earth gently with 9’ of chamber-posed minimalism elegant in its waltzing figure that sashays to a gorgeous, hushed vignette ’Suogna Piazzata’.
Jack Rollo is clearly really feeling it, as he expounds: “Pierre Bujeau is an expert at creating temporary escape zones - musical structures to evade the everyday. Sometimes he works collectively as part of the mysterious French groups Omertà and Tanz Mein Herz. But it’s when he’s on his own, performing as Megabasse, that he offers the most complete break from reality.
His kit is simple: a few bottles of cheap lager, twin Fender amps, and his double-necked guitar. An instrument like this normally signals maximum rockist excess - think Jimmy Page, Geddy Lee, or that dude from the Eagles. In Pierre’s hands, it becomes more like a zither or a dulcimer, producing soft chiming patterns that build against themselves until the sound of the room, passed back and forth between his two amps, starts to blur everything, and we are away in another world. Wait, though - let down your yoga bun and don’t light the palo santo yet. The new space he creates has nothing to do with smug wellness. It’s a rough, do-it-yourself psychedelia, scuffed but hopeful. Not a perfect blank space to be your best self in, but instead a communal dreaming, an uncanny place where all are welcome.
Until now, without catching him live, the Megabasse experience has been difficult to find: CD-Rs, short-run tapes, and one blink-and-you-missed-it LP. Thankfully, this record on Efficient Space, a reissue of some pieces that were previously only available on a small cassette edition, will put that right. Here are two long, intricate pieces, and something new - a shorter track that hints at a move toward beautiful, burnt-out guitar soli.
Unless you are very lucky, wise, or rich, life imposes its structures on you. Maybe a record of shimmering, tranced guitar is all you need to get out from underneath?”
