Marcel Donne Sidologie Play: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi   Download: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Nemesis')

Top marks for the cover, a crazy derivation of Jarre's 'Equinox' and huge fun. Marcel stares out of the back sleeve, hands poised on a Yamaha CS80. The track titles look to be suggestive of computer games, which ties in with the Commodore 64 grasped in Marcel's hand on the cover. The C64 attained cult status back in the 80's for its powerful sound capabilities, for the time anyway.

From the opening moments you know this is going to be a feast of Jarre soundbites as 'Sidologie Intro' constantly teases the mind to remember which section or sound palate the music is homage to. The intro develops into a slow purposeful almost anthemic outing, power synth music indeed. 'Rambo Loader' continues and oh, the memories which are conjured up as the 'Equinox' style refrains toy with the ear, but then an unmistakable Vangelis style lead is thrown into the mix - picked out on the seminal CS80 no doubt. A great track.

'Lightforce' follows, quickly presenting an uptempo sequence it develops into a pleasing collage of rhythmics with a vocoder main theme which is strengthened by expansive synth lines as the piece builds and builds. This sounds more like Marcel's own style with few Jarre references. That cannot be said of 'Bombo' which has 'Oxygene' stamped all over it. Initially the main theme sounds a little crude and simplistic but it does grow on you, my only complaint is that it is a little forward in the mix. You can only marvel at the expertise with which the backing sequences are constructed.

More delicious CS80 refrains are the feature of 'Cobra', the melody is heartfelt and didn't ring any bells with me so is again demonstrative that Marcel is capable of far more than mere mimicry - though the V man's shadow looms large, and our Greek hero could be guesting on the next track - the superbly titled 'Yie Ar Kung Fu II'. A bit of 'Chariots' her, 'China' there - all put together in "the best possible taste". The unlikely sounding 'Knucklebusters' is the longest cut on the album, weighing in at over 18 minutes. It takes a while to get going but the theme which burst through at around 4 minutes does enough to convince that it's a piece worth sticking with. The same theme is worked on until eventually at around 9 mins we hit meltdown - temporarily anyway because it all starts up again and builds to a complete frenzy, and an apocalyptic ending. 'Wizball High Score' does a take on "squeezebox in the rain", quite well too. The Jarre/Vangelis refrains continue on 'Miami Vice Ingame' and again it's tough not to be impressed - if the two ever did get together I for one wouldn't be disappointed if this was the outcome. Perhaps the highlight of the album so far.

This album is finishing very strongly because 'Nemesis' is a corker, with a brilliant theme and great sequencing. I love the way the sequence complements the melody, too often the melodic potential of sequencing is not fully utilised - it's tracks like this which really show what we're missing. This usurps the previous track as my favourite! Finally we have 'Rambo High Score' and again it's a beautifully crafted piece of 'Oxygene' refrains, aptly developing upon the themes presented at the summation of that album.