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Rhun, France

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Rhun - Ih. 2012 private
Rhun - Fanfare du Chaos. 2013 AltRock (Italy CD); 2016 Soleil Zeuhl (LP)

Rhun are still active as of the summer of 2016.

----Fanfare du Chaos

Like Caillou, Rhun is a new French band that fits squarely into the Zeuhl tradition. While Caillou were looking outward to the jazz side of the medium, Rhun sits very comfortably with the master creator of the genre itself: Magma. There are both jazz and classical references presented on "Fanfare du Chaos", a new CD from AltRock that combines last year's EP (first 3 tracks) with a 2008 unreleased demo (last 3). The music is rough and tumble for the most part, with the expected operatic Kobaian used as the vehicular language. Soft flute and bassoon are often juxtaposed against a blitzkrieg of fuzz bass, electric guitar, pounding drums, and squealing sax. Hard to imagine fans of both "1001 Centigrades" and "Mekanik" era Magma - as well as the great Weidorje - not lapping this one up. It's a straight play for the hearts of traditional Zeuhl fans everywhere, of which I'm one. And they succeed for the most part. Rhun fortunately avoids the excess of modern bands such as early Koenji Hyakkei and second album Scherzoo, though I wouldn't mind if they traded a few of those pure noise improvisational parts (especially some of the atonal sax squonks) for actual songwriting. This is a band with tremendous potential. Let's see where they go next.

Last update: July 24, 2016
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