After
Home Made,
Pierre Vervloesem's high-energy solo debut from 1994, the
X-Legged Sally guitarist maintained some of his experimental tendencies but moved even closer to unadulterated hard rock and metal on his 1996 follow-up,
Fi as co. However, anyone thinking that
Vervloesem was headed toward the mainstream would be startled by the craziness of
Chef-d'Oeuvre; he lets his avant-garde tendencies come fully to the fore on this third release, from 1999. Various musicians participate here and there across the CD's 15 tracks, but some of the most impressive stuff is multi-tracked by
Vervloesem alone on Atari guitar, as well as various presumed non-Atari guitars and bass, with digital editing by
Vincent Debongnie,
Marc Doutrepont, or
Vincent Debast. This is the kind of music -- "dense music" as stated several places on the CD packaging -- that can only be produced through the wonders of modern technology, and can be compared to
Frank Zappa's
Jazz from Hell album,
Zappa's 1986 release recorded on a Synclavier synthesizer. "Nerve 1" is particularly noteworthy in this regard, as the sounds of keyboards, strings, bass, tuned percussion, drums, and assorted clatter combine in an extended episodic chamber symphony filled with
Zappa-esque motifs; yet, it was all performed by
Vervloesem on Atari guitar with
Debast handling the digital editing chores.
Chef-d'Oeuvre makes abrupt jumpcuts all over the musical map, with dub experiments, space rock interludes, electro beats, and freeform squelch and skronk punctuating the proceedings. And
Vervloesem's skewed sense of humor is fully intact, as demonstrated by the hilarious and manic cover of
Stevie Wonder's smash hit "I Wish" and such titles as "The People Under the Floor Tom" and "Hitler's Horrible Ohio Holiday," the latter a multi-sectioned yet concise funk workout combining digital soundscaping and synthetic beats with the real drums of somebody named
Mickey Mouser. On
Home Made and
Fi as co,
Vervloesem was a rocker first and avant-gardist second; those two elements of his musical personality seem reversed here. Any of his albums are worth investigating (although hard to find), but if you're in the mood for sonic adventures and even outrageousness,
Chef-d'Oeuvre is a good place to start. And after reedist/bandleader
Peter Vermeersch, an on-again, off-again collaborator with
Vervloesem since the early days of
X-Legged Sally, was MIA on
Fi as co, it's nice to see him back in the credits again on
Chef-d'Oeuvre. He's right there on the sixth track, "Typical," credited with..."nothing." Well, perhaps his presence was felt.