EXTRABALLE [12]
Drums: Mathieu Gazeau & Olivier Hurt
Bass: David Giacobetti, Zox et Maxime B*
Guitars: Tim Beckham & Simon Favier
Synths: Maxime B*
Guitars , electro & Vocals : Jay Jay
additional piano & harmonica: Jean François Leroux
Sound Engineers: Christian Gence, Didier Lemarchand, Dave Pemberton
Mixed by Dave Pemberton
All songs by Jean R Jovenet
except Lyrics by Evan H Dvorsek for the Wreckage of Time
Copyright Ascap / Sacem :2010/2011
‘The Most Secret Man’
a most welcome purification
The music of Jean Jovenet (Jay Jay) and Extraballe constitutes something of a musical purification in these times of rampant egomania and celebrity. For Jean Jovenet is a man who is interested in getting back to the essence of what music is about and the heart of the creative process.
‘The Most Secret Man’ is an album that simultaneously reveals and conceals the man that is Jean Jovenet. A mystique has surrounded this artist and this album plays out with the ephemerality of an Autumn day, one you wished didn’t have to end, yet there is a timeless quality to Jovenet’s musical brushstrokes. This album is the mystery of time itself; it is infused with the sadness of time passing and suffused with the memory and tempo of musical eras before the pollution of the art.
Is Jean Jovenet a time traveller? This album firmly begs the question. To me it’s as if Jovenet had a musical time machine to transport and immerse himself in musical eras past and seemingly buried, only to return to us and bring them gloriously back to life. There remains an enlightened few who continue to carry the torch from those great eras of the past and Jean Jovenet is one of its custodians today.
This is music of such force and purity that it hoses away the pollution of other so-called rock acts and renews our hope in the genre. Jovenet’s purist approach shines through in the integrity of his music and his writing has gained him justified comparisons to some of the greats such as David Bowie and Jim Morrison. ‘The Most Secret Man’ brings back something of the spirit of Jim Morrison but Jean Jovenet lights his own fire in a time when unique artists are exceedingly hard to come by.
In interviews, Jean Jovenet has expressed his fascination with the creative process and he a man who works at the very coalface of music. ‘The Most Secret Man’ is a complex tapestry of musical influences and colourings but the inescapable impression is of a singular and revolutionary artist who stands uniquely on his own in the postmodern music arena and strips off many of the trappings laid upon it.
I am always intrigued by how some artists seem to be born out of time and it could be said that Jean Jovenet would belong more in the 70s or the 80s, in the eras or Jim Morrison or David Bowie. But then, isn’t it great to have him in the postmodern era to challenge and uplift a music world that is often in desperate needs of transformation?
Jovenet writes with a Joycean pen and plays with the panache of a Rolling Stone. The riffs here are infectious, the melodies are insistent. There is just no shaking the experience of listening to this album. A remix by top Producer/Engineer, Dave Pemberton, at famed London studio Strongroom, has resulted in a crisp and finely honed production of Jovenet’s masterful tunes. When Jean Jovenet gets inside your head, he is there to stay. There is now a musical bounty upon Jovenet’s head. As the song suggests “The most secret man” could very soon be “the most wanted man in the world”.
“Who’s the man behind the man, who’s the man behind the man?”
It’s a perennial question and one insistently asked throughout this album.
With the release of ‘The Most Secret Man’ Jean Jovenet may be a little less of a secret man, but there remains something unknowable and mysterious about this impenetrable artist. But what a revelation this album is and what a purification.
Rock may have to rewrite its definitions after this one. (Marty McCool Music Reviews, March 2010)
Extraballe – Extraballe (Castle Strange Records)
Comme c’est bon de le retrouver.
Extraballe, un des rares groupes français capables d’être signés par Elektra à l’aube des eighties, et qui avait disséminé sur une poignée d’albums et de 45 tours une certaine idée de l’élégance rock et des mélodies tout en raffinement, nous avait laissé en carafe depuis quelques années.
Que devenait Jean Jovenet, chanteur/guitariste, compositeur principal du groupe ? On l’avait retrouvé en 2004 avec Fuzz Townshend pour le projet Interfaith, au croisement du Velvet Underground et des sonorités électroniques.
Jean Jovenet avait encore plusieurs cartes dans sa manche, et non des moindres. Revenu de tout, sauf de lui-même, il assène sur cet album de la renaissance une pop aux influences lettrées.
Des morceaux où l’ombre de Keith Richards se pose sur des mélodies irrésistibles à la Flamin’ Groovies de la grande époque (« Meteor Crater », « Liquid Gold »). Le ton est grave, les mélodies mid-tempo font largement mouche : « The Bardo States », « The Wrekrage of Time » sont des perles diablement bien ciselées, où le jeu de guitare est particulièrement éblouissant.
L’album baigne dans un climat lourd et fascinant, peu éloigné de l’univers merveilleusement décadent des Only Ones.
Si l’attente fut longue, elle est valait la peine : le nouvel Extraballe poursuit cette recherche d’un pont entre tradition rock’n’rollienne et modernité.
« Cool Junkie » reste à mon sens le pinacle de cet album, une mélodie velvetienne et lumineuse, un clavier éthéré et une douce lumière qui ressort de cette musique.
Et la force de « Tightness of The Heart », petit bijou pop surgissant des enceintes sans prévenir, enfonce la clou et assène cette vérité : Extraballe est de retour, et les hostilités reprennent.
Nous voici revenus dans la Grosse Pomme, enfin.
Frédéric Antona
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